Our long national nightmare is over. After all the debates, The D.A.N.G.E.R. Report, and industry hand wringing over how to raise the level of professionalism of REALTORS across the country, Zillow just went ahead a did it.
From Inman News:
‘Best of Zillow’ Premier Agent platform to unlock new consumer data
“Customers will be asked to rate interactions based on responsiveness, communication style, knowledge and expertise, customer priority, trust and customer needs.
Premier Agent customers will receive customer experience reports based on the aggregated data and tools to gauge their performance with consumers. Zillow will be providing training for agents focused on the behaviors that drive customer satisfaction as well as suggestions to help them improve.
“We’re counting on you to be as obsessed with superior customer experiences as we are,” Schwartz wrote in a blog post introducing the changes. “In return, we promise you this: we’re going to give you the greatest platform to make it happen. And we’ll keep pushing to get it right so you can deliver exceptional experiences.”
No details on how this will work. My guess is just like when I finish a ride on Uber, I have to rate my driver before I can do anything else.
And it looks like Zillow is putting their money where their mouth is, Here’s Greg Schwartz, president of media and marketplaces at Zillow Group, again…
“For agents who aren’t performing up to customers standards — Zillow will no longer be interested in taking their money. The company wants to be able to tell every consumer who comes to the site that the agent they select will deliver a high-quality experience.”
Read that quote again. “Zillow will no longer be interested in taking their money”.
Can you imagine NAR, Realogy, KW, RE/MAX or any independent brokerage making the same statement?
I also love this quote from a blog announcing the changes titled “Why Customer Happiness Holds the Key to Your Future – and Ours”
Buying and selling a home remains one of life’s most stressful transactions. Great agents supply great customer experiences. Demand for great customer experiences is growing.”
“Demand for great customer experiences is growing.”
This is exactly right, and what a lot of people are missing about the recent iBuyer trend. Call it the “convenience economy” or whatever, people want great service and they want it now.
Act accordingly.
I think that the one key difference here is that Zillow has always had the consumer as the customer. They’re able to pivot based on consumer-desired points. It’s how the Zestimate was born, information (accurate or not) that was previously difficult for the consumer to access was now available at a click of a button.
Brokerages are driven by the licensed professional as the customer, not so much the consumer. This customer has a historical preference of data protectionism (which precipitated the success of Zillow Group). Change takes time, but I have a few brokerages in mind that I could see adopting something similar.
I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out.
Wonder how Zillow “rates” with consumers for the accuracy of their Zestimate?? Since the consumer is not “paying” they have little reason to care.
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