Scheduled coverage at the office, Floor time, Up time, opportunity time, it's known as all of the above and probably even more! I have intentionally stayed away from the negative clitches! In a traditional Real Estate Brokerage a licensed real estate agent is usually at the office and available for walk-in and call-in leads. The days of walk-ins are few and far between unless you are in a shopping center and it's a spur of the moment visit. I do believe that most perspective buyers and sellers are either making contact by phone or email. My office is located in a great strip mall with several food establishments- Burger King,pizza, Chineese, Manhattan Bagel, Quiznos, and a nail salon, Carpeting store, hair salon, dry cleaners, video store, Foodtown, a gym, pet supplies, Party Fair, Dollar Tree, Radio Shack, Karate school and of course Century 21 At The Shore which is my Brokerage. The mall is set-up with a large overhang-estention of the roof which provides a paved, shaded, lighted and protected walk-way for customers to go from one store to the other. The foot traffic past my front door is great! In order to get from the Gym to Foodtown, from the pizzeria to Foodtown, from the dry cleaners to Foodtown, from Radio Shack to Foodtown, Karate school to Foodtown, video store to Foodtown you have to walk right past my office! Not a bad location! I see people stop and look in or read the posters and advertisements on my front plate glass windows all the time. If anything, they certainly know where the local Century 21 office is. In spite of all the exposure we do not get many walk-ins. We do have more walk-ins than any other real estate office I have previously worked in. I do know that if you spoke to ten-thousand real estate agents, one-thousands Brokers or managers and asked "how does your company handle floor-time?" the avariation in the answers would be as numerous as the number of times you asked the question! Most real estate Brokerages handle the disbursement of buyer and seller leads in their company Policy & Procedures Manual.
The subject of floor time has always been an issue, an issue with management and with the sales team. My philosphy about the subject is not to make it manditiory, however I do believe that a lead handled immediately real estate agent is more effective than a call back. I slso believe that if a consumer actually walks-in to the sales office there better be an agent readily available to handle their needs. Time is precious, When I make a call, walk-in to a store, a showroom, I like to know that someone is available to help me get or find what I need. I don't like to get the run around or hear that someone needs to get back to me. Give my information to a secretary or middle-man only to hear that I have to wait for a call back. There is no guarantee that when I get that call back I will have the time to discuss my needs. Obviously, I had the time when I made the call or stepped into the door of the business.
My company's floor time schedule is as follows: We are open from 8AM-8pm. The shifts are four hour shifts with two hours of each shift overlapping, leads during that time are on a rotation basis. 8-12/10-2/12-4/2-6/4-8. Plenty of time left in the day for business appointments or handle your personal agenda.
So here is my BIG question! What is your opinion of the subject matter? How does your company handle distribution of new leads? Does your company offer floor time? If your company does offer floor time, what is the policy?
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