Now when your buyers log into BookAShowing.com, they can see each showing request on a map (provided by Google). This will be especially useful when you schedule multiple showing appointments for your buyer. Now they will be able to quickly see where each showing appointment is. They can also zoom in on that spot or click the marker and access more showing details, including a picture of the listing.
Today we updated the login interface for your buyers and sellers to make it more user friendly and fit the style of our website better.
Didn't know your buyers and sellers could login to BookAShowing.com? Well if you provide their email address in BAS, we automatically create an account for them, generate a username (their email address) and a password, and send them a welcome email with instructions on how to login to BookAShowing.com.
Already added your buyers and sellers but didn't put in their email address? That's ok, you can go back in at anytime and add their email and we'll create their account and send them the welcome email. Just click on Clients, then the edit icon.
You may notice the "Withheld" option has been removed when setting up an appointment now in BookAShowing.com. While this request originated from the Board office, we think its a valuable move to make the system more useful. You now need to add your client's information in order to setup any appointments.
Why is this a good idea (and very safe)?
1. Procurring cause. Setting up your client and setting up appointments for them proves you've worked with them, what you've shown them, etc.
2. We never show ANY contact information about your clients to the listing agent. Just their name is displayed.
3. Your clients can get a copy of the email notification to let them know when showings are setup, updated, etc. They can also login to BookAShowing.com (if you provide their email address) and see their showing activity anytime they'd like.
4. Have a client that has looked at many houses? Well if you enter their info into BookAShowing.com when you setup showings, you can print out a detailed report for that client at anytime.
5. Most importantly, its the sellers right to know who is entering their property and when.
You only have to add a client one time and after that, they'll always be available to select from a dropdown menu. Take the time to add your clients (if you haven't already) into BookAShowing.com and make the system that much more valuable for everyone!
We've made some big changes to BookAShowing.com recently. We've given the system a minor face lift as well as made a number of enhancements.
Some of those enhancements include:
1. An agent dashboard to quickly see all of your upcoming appointment statuses (and quickly see if you have any scheduled showings that were cancelled...)
2. A more functional home page for agents and office staff including icons/links to shortcuts like edit showing, cancel showing, write feedback, etc
3. We've improved the date/time conflict checking when making an appointment to make it easier and faster to setup appointments.
4. We've added calendars for a week and for a specific day in addition to the month calendar view we've always had - and we added shortcut icons to the top of every page to make it very easy to get to your calendar anytime.
5. The clients page was changed slightly to show the number of showings and listings for each client at a glance - which of course link to detailed reports for each.
6. You can add notes to a client now, as well as viewing all your inactive (deleted) clients in case you ever need to go back and look up some previous history.
7. The settings page was improved to add some explanations, make it more visually appealing, and group specific settings together. All to make it easier to understand.
8. We have improved form validation on every form (like when adding a showing) to not let you submit anything that shouldn't be in there. If the fields wants a date, it will tell you. No more submitting, going back to fix, resubmitting, etc. Much easier now!
9. Some drop down menu's were added to make access to certain features quicker, like adding a new client. Hover over "Clients" and choose "Add New" for example.
10. When editing a listing (to add showing instructions or a buyer for example) we've improved the page to save all the information about the client and listing at the same time. No more need to popup a separate window to add the client, and then save the listing. Happens all together now.
11. We've made it easier to find the web address to login. Now everyone can login directly from our website at http://bookashowing.com (or http://www.bookashowing.com too)
12. We've improved the website showing leads to be more intuitive for prospective buyers. Not using the showing leads on your website? Try it for yourself or contact us and we'll help you get started.
13. You'll notice the "wrench" icon is gone from the listings page, now replaced with different colored "checkmark" icons. It does the same thing as always (add showing instructions, auto approve a listing's appointments, add/edit a seller, etc) but now you'll see 3 different colors:
Green: Listing has a seller "attached" to it with a valid email address
Orange: Listing has a seller "attached" but does not have a valid email address
Red: This means the listing has no seller information yet
14. The agent search field has been improved to make it easier to use. Also, we've added a "Non-MLS" member feature for Office Staff to use. The goal is to try and capture contact information for any Non-MLS members so you can contact them with any questions, comments, or problems.
15. If you edit a client now that didn't previously have an email address, it will now send them a welcome email with their username and password.
This isn't everything we've added to BookAShowing.com recently but does cover some of the more major changes. If you have any other ideas for us or questions about the new changes, feel free to contact us!
We've added a waterfront search option to the new MLS reports available to all agents in BookAShowing.com. The options are "Y" to search only waterfront properties, "N" to search all properties that aren't on the water, and "All" which includes both (and is the default option).
We've put together some instructions for anyone having trouble with BAS emails being treated as spam or other email delivery problems. If you've tried what we've outlined in the PDF file and are still having email problems, call or e-mail us and we'll try to help you.
Also, we're still having occasional trouble with Cellular One and their text messaging system. If you using Cellular One then you may not receive your BAS text messages.
Did you know you can capture showing leads from potential (and current) buyers from your own website with BookAShowing.com? This feature is currently being used by several agencies around Eau Claire with great success. All we have to do is give you some HTML code for your website that your website developers insert into your existing website. Then you can start capturing leads directly into BookAShowing.com!
A couple nice features:
1. Convert to showing button - save having to enter your clients info, date, time, etc
2. Buyers enter their own contact information
3. Buyers can login and see what they've requested, what's been setup, get maps to showings, and more
To find out how you can get this for your own website, call 800-826-7155 or email us!
We've made a small change to the clients page to make it more user friendly to see your clients information, edit your clients details (email, phone, password, etc), and delete a client (although you never need to delete). Think about procuring cause in this case too, if you delete a client - you lose the ability to see/prove what you've shown them!
Here's a quick screenshot of the new changes that we made including the new view/edit/delete links on the Clients page in BookAShowing.com:
We've also added the ability to search for a client by first or last name and we've set it up so if you edit your clients information, it won't close on you.
If you do accidentially delete a client, just let us know and we'll magically make them reappear. Call or email us and we'll help.
Coming Soon for Clients: Text message showing notifications!
We've been having some issues over the last few weeks with sending text messages to Cellular one customers (and only Cellular One). We have contacted Cellular One and their e-mail provider for help and we don't get very fast responses from them. The network engineers at our computer datacenter have assured me it is a problem beyond our control. We apologize for the inconvenience and we're working on getting this resolved as soon as possible.
Adding your buyers and sellers into BookAShowing.com can help both you and them. For example, you can:
1. Notify sellers via email for every showing appointment (automically) - and they can approve them online!
2. Sellers can get a copy of every feedback request that is sent back to you via BAS - in real time.
3. Buyers can get notified via email for their upcoming showing appts complete with a map link (via Google) to each property
4. Procuring cause - you have a permanent record of what you showed to who and when.
5. Buyers and sellers have their own login accounts (auto created for them when you add them) to see their showings and feedback and they can run their own listing reports
There's a host of other features for buyers and sellers that is included with BookAShowing.com. If you are a buyer and seller and your agent/office is not using BAS - ask them too!
The team at BookAShowing.com recommends the Firefox browser for all around better Internet surfing. Its a direct replacement for Internet Explorer (IE) but its so much better.
We've added the ability for Agents and Staff to track the advertising for your listings! Simply go through the steps of setting up an appt. on a listing at the time the advertising is to occur and select "Advertising" from the drop down list next to SHOWING TYPE. Add the details of the advertising into the "Agent notes" text box. Click Save!
To see the advertising activity, just run a listing report for any particular listing. You can even filter your search to just see Ad info too.
Even your sellers can see their activity anytime they want. When adding your Seller and their email into BAS, you can attach them to a property by clicking the LISTINGS tab and then using the edit icon (the wrench). This allows your seller the ability to log in to their own account and check any activity on their listing... including showings, feedback, and now advertising.
Over the weekend we also added some big features to the staff areas of BAS and today we made some minor tweaks including:
1. Modified listing reports to include the new advertising appt. types
2. Auto expanding text boxes - now you're able to see everything you're typing in the notes
3. Enhanced the client login areas (did you know ALL your clients can login and see their activity if you want them too?)
Questions about this or any other features of BAS? Let us know!
We've decided to utilize this blog for any changes made to the BookAShowing.com application. Such things as bug fixes, improvements, new features, etc will be a part of this blog from now on. Check back often if you really like to know whats latest and greatest with BAS!
Welcome to the journey of BookAShowing.com, the revolutionary new way for real estate agents to book all their showings online. Eliminate the hassle of all that calling and take back the control of your showings. Create up to 10 showings at one time and have the requests send to the listing office and agent automatically! Manage all your showings in one spot, see current showing schedule for a MLS number, keep track of your home buyers and all their showings, and more.
Once you use this new method of booking showings online, you'll never want to go back
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