Keller Williams Realty of Northern Colorado

October Boo Series
by Joy Ferguson, Relocation Director

It would be hard not to write an article at this time without noting the sad passing of Steve Jobs. I have very little idea of the exact affect he had on my life. But I look at my home computer, laptop and smart phone, and marvel at the technology available at my fingertips.

One of the major factors for real estate agents joining our particular company, Keller Williams Realty, is the technology. What really stands out for me is how it is delivered to everyone. Because it just isn’t enough to have all these “gee whizz” tools if we can’t master them comfortably. How many of you out there avoid using some of the advanced aspects of technology simply because you don’t have time to sit down and learn how to wrap your head around it all?

Well here’s how it is done at Keller Williams, and it just makes so much sense. Being a national company we do have the benefit of embracing big ideas and the resources to roll them out. But then what? How do you bridge that gap between “the big idea” and having an agent use it to deliver a great product to the consumer, in our case a home buyer or seller? Well, to start we have our own IT Director, Kelli Wallace. Kelli’s background is in computers and she has her Computer Science degree. That can make the rest of us a bit nervous; however, Kelli also has a wonderful teaching ability. She can actually explain how to make this work for us. The critical thing here to note is “explain how to make this work for us” – and not “how it works.” It’s not that I don’t have some curiosity – I have often wondered at how a fax machine does what it does. But now I can’t remember when I last sent a fax.

The next vital step, as I see it, is tapping into our technically-inclined agents, or Techies, as I call them. We all have them – some people in the office who were born with a grasp on technology! Rather than having our agents attend an all-day technology course where only the donuts keep them going – and then cornering one of the Techies in the copy room to help the afterwards, here is what we do:

Rod Fishkin	David Timm	Mike Weber
www.rebeccafishkin.com	www.davidtimmhomes.com	www.m-weber.com

• Kelli works hand-in-hand with our Agent Leadership Council (ALC) to ensure we are providing the very best suite of technology tools to our agents. Currently, David Timm serves as the Technology Liaison for the ALC. Kelli and David meet regularly to evaluate new tools, re-evaluate existing tools, and fine tune systems and processes related to our software applications.
   
• Kelli also works with our two eEdge Ambassadors, Rod Fishkin and Mike Weber, on a regular basis to deliver top-notch training on Keller Williams’ new eEdge system. eEdge is a complete lead-to-close agent business solution–including lead management, contact management, a marketing library and a paperless transaction system. As you can imagine, there is a lot of ground to cover with this system. Rod, Mike and Kelli offer monthly workshops to get agents setup and running on eEdge.

The end result is that there is a Tech Team in place to sift through “shiny objects,” identify the tools that most benefit the Realtor® and in turn their customers, and then deliver the classes and workshops necessary to master the tools. In class, the “Tech Intimidation” factor is removed, and we know we are all going to learn something valuable right then, right there. Thanks Kelli, Rod, David and Mike!

Thank you for reading our Fort Collins Relocation Blog!
posted by: Joy Ferguson, Relocation Director at Keller Williams Realty of Northern Colorado
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