Ahead of a new year that promises to see additional time- and cost-saving innovations, ShowingTime offers this recap of its biggest announcements from 2019.
Expanding Access
In May, thousands of Right at Home Realty (RAH) agents gained access to the ShowingTime Appointment Center and ShowingTime Live Connect following the launch of service for Canadian-based RAH, the country’s largest independently owned and operated real estate brokerage.
“We were using multiple vendors to help us schedule showings, deliver messages and communicate with our agent teams across our 10 offices in Ontario until we partnered with ShowingTime,” said Right at Home President John Lusink. “ShowingTime appointment specialists are available 24/7/365 to serve our agents and their sellers, which aligns perfectly with our focus on being the leading agent-centric brokerage in Canada.”
In September, ShowingTime announced it was acquiring Centralize Showing Service (CSS), enabling tens of thousands of agents to begin enjoying the benefits of using the best features of the two blended systems.
“Our executive leadership team is confident that this acquisition will enable us to leverage our two platforms to best serve the needs of clients now and in the future,” said ShowingTime Founder and CEO Scott Woodard. “We’ll continue investing in research and development to provide innovative, streamlined products and solutions to the residential real estate industry.”
New Technology
Agents looking to remove the burden of managing calls related to their business 24/7 found the solution they were looking for in May, with the release of ShowingTime Live Connect.
With ShowingTime Live Connect, those who use the ShowingTime Appointment Center or ShowingTime Appointment Center Plus can now have all their calls handled by ShowingTime staff, day and night, on weekends and on holidays, with messages logged and delivered immediately. This cost-saving add-on builds on the same time-saving principles that have made the ShowingTime Appointment Center an essential tool for real estate professionals around the country.
2019 also saw the release of a companion experience for home buyers and sellers. Home by ShowingTime, which gives agents using ShowingTime an app to share with clients that helps them more easily navigate the buying and selling process, in turn strengthening the agent-client relationship.
Home by ShowingTime is available at no cost to consumers for all devices and as a downloadable app for iOS and Android via an invitation from their agent. Based on the agent’s preferences, Home by ShowingTime gives clients key information about their home, including showings and feedback, a listing summary, photos, alerts to sellers when showings are complete and more.
Since its introduction, Home by ShowingTime has been adopted by thousands of users, while earning a rare five-star rating among iOS users and a 4.5 satisfaction rating from Android users.
ShowingTime’s new Secure Access® enhancement gained further adoption in 2019. Using Bluetooth technology, Secure Access leverages information from confirmed appointments to keep home access secure while also making it easy for agents to access homes during their scheduled appointment time. The functionality is available within ShowingTime’s existing scheduling services, allowing lockbox users the ability to access properties using their smartphone via the ShowingTime mobile app.
“We’re thrilled to bring this innovation to our clients who schedule showings and other appointments through ShowingTime,” ShowingTime President Michael Lane said. “Using Bluetooth technology makes perfect sense in our continued effort to streamline the showing process and create greater conveniences for agents so they can focus on high-value activities.”
Secure Access also provides enhanced security for properties, as lockbox access is granted based on ShowingTime’s real-time appointment data. Agents are only able to open the lockbox within a limited time window on the date and time of their confirmed appointment.
A Key Milestone
In July, ShowingTime announced a milestone: it topped 300 million home showings managed through its software since the company’s inception. Evona Cholewa of RE/MAX Executive in Charlotte, N.C., earned the distinction of scheduling the 300 millionth showing, with a showing she scheduled on July 4, 2019 at 6:51 a.m. EST.
“ShowingTime has helped my business tremendously,” said Cholewa. “The ShowingTime appointment specialists who schedule a showing for me save me so much time because they allow me to schedule them on the spot. The Appointment Center is so easy to use too, whether I’m accessing it from the app or from within my MLS.”
From showing management to message taking, recruiting to market statistics, ShowingTime solutions save time and effort which can be better spent serving clients. Learn how ShowingTime solutions free up time to enable you to focus on other tasks to grow your business.
