Weichert Realtors Press Release
Weichert Delivers Quick, Personal Service to Online Homebuyers Nationwide
8/4/2008
MORRIS PLAINS, N.J. – Whether it’s grabbing a bite to
eat, shopping at a department store or even picking up clothes at the
drycleaners, in today’s fast-paced society, people are constantly looking to
get the things they need as quickly as possible. When it comes to real estate, Weichert,
Realtors®, one of the nation’s largest privately-held real estate companies,
has the solution to satisfy today’s on-demand customers.
Weichert
brings a new level of convenience to the home buying process at the company’s
Web site, weichert.com. With the
Weichert Lead Network, a state-of-the-art customer contact system, prospective
buyers interested in learning more about listings on weichert.com can call
1-800-USA-SOLD where a Contact
Center employee will
connect them in real time with a local Weichert sales associate. While some real estate companies use an
automated system to track and respond to listing inquires, the Weichert Lead Network
ensures that every prospective buyer receives instant personal service and
never has to leave a voicemail.
“With the
numerous steps it takes to find the home of your dreams, the last thing any
prospective buyer needs is to have to wait for information on a home of
interest,” said Mike Montsko, president of Weichert Lead Network. “Unique to
the industry, the Weichert Lead Network simplifies the home-searching process
by facilitating both instant and personal service to our customers.”
Once
contacted, the Contact
Center’s service
professionals ask prospective buyers a short series of questions to pair them
with a Weichert associate. If a buyer
has a special need, such as preferring a Spanish-speaking associate or one who
is a condominium or luxury-home specialist, the Contact Center’s
service professionals will strive to make that match. The service professional can then transfer
customers directly to the cell phone of a Weichert associate who is a
neighborhood specialist in the appropriate geographic area. The local sales
associate will be able to answer any questions and even arrange an appointment
to show the home in person.
Weichert.com
browsers can also elect to request information on listings via email. A ‘Contact Me’ button is prominently displayed
on all property Web sites and brings potential buyers to an easy-to-fill-out
web form. Once the form is submitted, a Contact Center employee will respond to the
inquiry within minutes – often while the potential buyer is still on the Web
site - rather than hours that is often typical with other real estate
companies.
Despite the
National Association of Realtors® (NAR) report in which 92 percent of buyers
listed a quick initial response to home inquiries as a high priority, only
Weichert has developed this unique process that connects customers to a sales
professional directly in such a short time frame.
Home
sellers also benefit from Weichert’s innovative Web strategy. The company invests millions of dollars in
marketing each year to make their listings stand out in the competitive
marketplace. A large portion of this
money finances the purchase of more than a million real estate-related search
terms to make weichert.com appear as a primary search result on top search
engines such as Google and Yahoo!, driving a wealth of traffic to the property
listings found on the company’s Web site.
In 2007, weichert.com had over 35 million visitors.
As traffic
is driven to Weichert listings, interested buyers only have to call
1-800-USA-SOLD or fill out a simple online form to obtain information about a
home. This process ensures that
prospective buyers are able to see the homes of Weichert sellers immediately,
minimizing the possibility of losing a potential buyer to another
property. In a market that is extremely
competitive for sellers, this is critical.
Additionally,
through Weichert’s strategic partnership with many of the most popular real
estate sites, company listings can be found on Realtor.com, Homes.com,
Nytimes.com and numerous other national and regional online newspapers.
“Weichert’s
on-line presence brings a tremendous advantage to our customers,” said Mike
Montsko, president of Weichert Lead Network.
“The Internet continues to play an increasingly important role in real
estate and it is our goal to efficiently utilize the Web to drive as much
traffic as possible to the property listings of Weichert clients.”
Weichert
has nearly 18,000 sales associates in more than 500 company-owned and
franchised sales offices in key markets throughout the U.S. A family of full-service real estate and
financial services companies, Weichert helps customers buy and sell both
residential and commercial real estate, and streamlines the delivery of
mortgages and home and title insurance.
For more information, Weichert's customer service center can be reached
at 1-800-USA-SOLD or at Weichert's Web site, www.weichert.com. Each Weichert franchised office is
independently owned and operated.
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