The market is turning. Uncertainty abounds. Strategic plans driven by facts, benchmarks and the changing needs of your subscribers and their clients are going to be critical as we move forward into 2023 to ensure your MLS is focused on the issues that really matter. You will need to think about new types of collaborations and partnerships never before considered. Politics will have to take a back seat to the legitimate business needs of your subscribers and participants. It’s time to operate MLSs as a customer-centric, technology services companies they need to be.
There is a saying that goes “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” From a repair perspective that is a good rule to follow, but far too often organizations MLSs let the “squeaky wheel” drive important strategic decisions that affect the future direction of the MLS or association. I have seen this happen firsthand way too many times, while facilitating the hundreds of strategic plans over the years and as an advisor for the Louisiana’s Brokerage and Association-owned MLS, Greater Southern MLS.
While customer feedback and interviews play an important role in understanding your challenges, as leaders on the board of directors, or in the executive offices, it is crucial that you temper what you hear with real numbers and statistically relevant feedback. WAV Group’s Customer Experience Index (CXI) is the first industry wide standard collecting and comparing numbers for MLSs across markets.
Here are three especially powerful metrics every MLS leader needs to know to run an effective business:
- Technology Adoption and Engagement
You need quantitative measurement of awareness, adoption, engagement, and satisfaction of the technology offered to subscribers. This will give you a much better read on how much of your MLS services that your customers are really taking advantage of and how your MLS is REALLY performing. The Customer Experience Index can be used to measure this – Regular reports from each of your tech providers combined with this proprietary WAV Group solution will give you a handle on how well your subscribers understand and leverage the tools you offer them.
- Perceived Data Quality
High quality MLS data is the core of what MLSs curate on behalf of their subscribers. A proactive, customer-centric approach to managing the quality of data is a key driver of customer satisfaction. The Customer Experience Index is a great way to measure the perception of your organization’s balance between data quality and enforcement. The CXI combined with reports from Data Quality Control software, or the compliance team, can give you the transparency to make sure you are maximizing the quality of your data while deepening customer relationships.
- Training Effectiveness
In a recent article we published, we showed how the Customer Experience Index has proven a positive correlation between MLS training participation and overall MLS satisfaction. Training is the way to help each of your subscribers get the most out of their MLS subscription. The more engaged, the more loyal each subscriber will become. It’s critical that every MLS think about ways to deliver training that supports every segment of their audience – new agents, brokers, managers, appraisers, top producers, and teams. One size fits all training does not work any longer. The best MLSs deliver digestible training in a variety of formats, locations, and times of day.
If you are preparing to set organizational goals for 2023, now is the time to arm yourself with the numbers you need to oil the right wheels and not just the loudest.
As our first Customer Experience Index participant Josh McFall from ValleyMLS pointed out in his webinar earlier this year.
“We fielded our annual Customer Experience Index survey before we build our business plan. Now, the survey data is directly reinforcing the work we are doing in our business plan to continue to improve subscriber satisfaction.”
Signup for the WAV Group Customer Experience Index.
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