PropertyPro Newsletter XXX – February 2011

Kung Hei Fat Choy!

Now that February is here it seems more appropriate to wish you all a Happy New Year Chinese-style.

If you didn't already know, this is the year of the Rabbit and starts on Thursday 3rd February. The rabbit is considered one of the most fortunate of the 12 animal signs in Chinese astrology, and if you were born in a Rabbit year (1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999) you are said to be articulate, talented, admired and with good taste.

I bet there are just a small handful of you smiling just now. And for those celebrating Chinese New Year, enjoy!



In the last newsletter we highlighted the PropertyPro diary with the intention of starting the 2011 calendar as you mean to go on. So how about ensuring all appointments are created through PropertyPro so that you can see all viewings at the press of a button.

Just think how much time you will save - viewing history at your finger tips, no more illegible manual diary entries, automatic SMS confirmation if you choose to, and if an appointment is rearranged you will be prompted to notify relevant parties with quick access to contact details.

When an offer has been accepted on a property you will be given an automatic notification of any pending viewings for both the property and the buyer, which will give you quick access to manage these appointments without running the risk of missing one.

And that's just for starters!

Booking an appointment

Whether you create the appointment from the Customer record or the Property record, the procedure is exactly the same. The only difference is that if you start from the Customer screen, that customer is pulled through automatically and you only have to specify the property - if you start from the Property screen, you only have to specify the customer

This appointment has been created from the Customer screen and so the details will automatically pull through in the appointment screen. All you have to do now is:

When the property has been selected, the viewing arrangements pull through (these come from the property’s checklist)

Viewing the Diary

At this point you can switch to the Diary (at the bottom of the screen) and check availability.

Always remember to MINIMISE your diary so that it remains running and switches you back to PropertyPro and the appointment screen.

Confirming the appointment

Whilst in the appointment screen you can use the links to view the Customer's and/or Vendor details to view their contact details:

Once the appointment has been confirmed with the Vendor, use the tick boxes to show the appointment as a confirmed viewing.

Note:

Still create the appointment even if you haven't confirmed the viewing. Unconfirmed viewings are easily identified in all diaries with black text instead of blue text.

You can also report on and edit all viewings and filter unconfirmed, confirmed, and completed appointments. To view the report, from the front screen select Reports, Management Reports, List of Viewings.

SMS Confirmation

If you are using SMS, when you hit OK on the appointment screen the SMS message screen pops up giving you the option to text confirmation to the applicant, vendor, (and member of staff if it is an accompanied viewing).

In the example above, the mobile number of the member of staff has been entered in the 'Telephone2' field of the staff table. Both vendor and applicant have valid mobile numbers and the 'allow SMS' ticked.

Conflicts

At the point of making the appointment, if there is a conflict you will get a warning box:

You then have the option of changing the appointment or continuing. If you continue, the conflict will be shown in the diary in red.

Where can you view these appointments?

The obvious place is of course the diary. You can view your own appointments in your own diary or the office diary. The same appointments will also appear in the customer's diary and the property's diary - remember they are the same viewings, just displaying in different places. But then you probably already knew this!

There are however other places where the viewings are grouped - for instance all viewings created for one customer, or all viewings created for one property - or of course the Viewings report that shows all viewings for all members of staff, where you can follow up viewings from one screen.

Customer Notes

Each customer who has a scheduled viewing will have an Appointments tab in Customer Notes. This view is useful to see at a glance all viewings this customer has had within a date range (together with feedback comments if added).

Please note that you cannot edit these viewings in this screen, for instance to add feedback.

Marketing History

All viewings for one property are listed in its Marketing History screen.

This is an invaluable screen as it not only shows all viewings that have taken place, but also allows you to open the appointment and do everything necessary to complete the viewing.

So useful - particularly if the property has had a number of viewings over a weekend for instance, or you may be speaking to the vendor and have this screen up in front of you.

• From the Property record, select View, Marketing History - or click the history button :
  

The first screen tab is the Viewings history. All viewings within the specified date range will be listed.

• Double click a viewing to open its appointment screen. Here you can edit it, confirm the appointment, add feedback, and of course complete the viewing.
  
  
• Select a viewing and use the links above to create a customer note (create note) or open the applicant's record (open customer), open the vendor's record (open vendor), produce a report (edit) listing these viewings and their comments.
  
  

Completing a Viewing

We class a viewing as completed when the vendor has been contacted and given the applicant's comments. This task is made easy when you have all viewings to hand, with contact links, email and SMS available with a click of the mouse.

Let's say a property has had several viewings at the weekend. By opening its marketing history screen, all those viewings will be listed.

• Double click a viewing to open it to start the feedback process:
  
  

We can now mark this appointment as 'completed'. By ticking 'vendor feedback given' a comment is inserted with the date and time and will put a tick in the completed box if you choose to:

We all know that it can be difficult to contact the vendor straight away, so you may want to send an email (or SMS) at this point and discuss the feedback with the vendor later, assuming of course that the vendor is email preferred mailing and SMS allowed.

I hope this has been of some help. In the next newsletter, we will look at confirming and completing viewings from the Viewings List report. If you want to have a look at it first, from the front screen go to the Reports menu, choose Management Reports, List of Viewings.

PropertyPro Training

When was the last time you or your colleagues had any refresher training? And how much of what you know has been handed down by others? These training sessions are offered as part of your support contract and there is no charge!

Do remember that we run a new user day each month alternating between Admin and Negotiator. If you have a new starter, then please send them along for training. From their viewpoint it eases the pressure of operating a new software program whilst getting used to a new office environment and procedures.

The second session each month is generally on a theme - however, the content is dependent on the needs and questions of those who attend. The refresher training has proved very popular. Although the content for the session is suggested, I will also ask whether there is anything in particular anybody would like to cover and also maybe skip because it is not required. This means that the session could cover anything from Newspaper Advertising to Lettings but will always ensure that everyone is up to date with the latest version.

The next Open Training days:

Wednesday 9th February - New User (Negotiator) Focusing on Property Search, Matching and Mailing properties, Customer Contact, Appointments, Offers and Chain.

Wednesday 23rd February - Marketing Marketing History - recording telephone contact, Marketing History Letter / Report, Customer Search - Mass Mailings, Customer Reports..

Don't forget that if a half day session is more convenient for you, please call. Telephone training may also be available for a small charge provided that a suitable remote connection is available

We look forward to a visit from you very soon!

And finally, if there is anybody else in your office who might also want to receive our newsletter, please let us have their email address and we will add them to the mailing list.

Kind regards

Kate

Kate Hoare (Training Manager)
kate@propertypro.co.uk
Direct dial: 01788 862517

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