Today's business world is one of extreme dichotomy. In this digital age, there are myriad tools available to help you navigate the complexities of running your real estate business; managing staff, keeping track of clients and marketing your services. The dichotomy is that while these digital tools are designed to simplify your life, they often add to the general chaos. The overwhelming task of choosing the right—email provider, cloud service, CRM, productivity app, phone service—gets in the way of true productivity.
Improving and growing your business should be simple. When digital tools enhance your day-to-day business, you suddenly have both time and energy to focus on the more important task of serving your clients. The key is to find the right tools.
Google offers some of the most sophisticated—and affordable—business tools on the market. From calendars to cloud storage, organizing every aspect of your company doesn't need to be complicated. While your competition is striving to keep up with the latest software, these 5 Google tools will help you streamline and advance your real estate business.
G Suite
The G Suite is not exactly a tool as much as the collective of all things Google. Many of the programs, apps, and cloud services that will serve your business needs exist within the G Suite platform. By creating a G Suite business account, not only can you personalize your email (and add multiple users and business emails within your account), but you can manage all of your digital tools in one place. Whether you are on your computer or phone, every aspect of your business is available and synced. Access marketing information or share the photo album from your latest property listing. Once your G Suite account is in place, the remaining tools are just a click away.
Keep
One of the biggest struggles of any agent or business owner is having a singular place to keep notes, thoughts, lists, and general reminders. When life is constantly on the move, it is easy to forget which of your ten productivity apps you used that particular day. Did you share your note with your team of agents? Who has the most up-to-date copy? Jumping from app to app and between emails is a drain on your time and mental energy. Instead, Keep provides a virtual—and nicely organized—note board. Rather than a desk full of sticky notes or a phone full of unused apps, you can organize your mind and business in one place. At its minimum, Keep is a note-taking and list-making app that allows you to label, organize, and file your thoughts from any device. Because Google is all about collaboration, you can also use Keep with your team to collaborate on project ideas or to do lists.
Forms
Capturing key client information or feedback is essential to the functions of a real estate operation. Whether capturing leads or organizing clients by need, having a professional way to gather information allows you to stand out from your competition as well as build client trust. That is where Google Forms comes in. One of the many applications in the G Suite, Forms provides templates for company surveys, data collection, and even internal requests. Interested in learning about client satisfaction? You can use forms to send out a professional looking satisfaction survey. The data points are then collected in a spreadsheet for easy review. Internally, forms can be used for everything from purchasing to IT support requests, keeping your company running smoothly while giving you access to key information in real time.
Analytics
Part of owning or running a business is keeping a pulse on the impact of your marketing, website, and online customer interaction. Google Analytics requires a slight learning curve but is also an invaluable resource when it comes to understanding how well your website is serving your clients and potential clients. Through Analytics, Google tracks your website traffic generating data about how many visitors you get, how often, and what times or days they visit your website. This information helps you gauge the effect of marketing campaigns or newsletters. Are your marketing efforts driving more traffic to your website? Which campaigns are most effective? Without the data generated by Analytics, it is difficult to gauge the impact of your hard work.
Calendar
There are a lot of calendars out there that help you keep track of your day, week, or year. Why is Google's so helpful for your real estate business? Because your Google tools can sync across devices, you won't miss another meeting or moment because of poor device communication. Share, add, or update calendar events on your phone and it will instantly update for anyone else who is part of that event. Sharing options also allow others in your company to see all or part of your calendar, making it easier for you and your administrative staff to stay on top of overlapping open houses or important travel dates across the organization.
While staying ahead of the constant challenges and changes in the real estate industry may be difficult, running and organizing your business can be as simple as the platforms and software you use every day. In the midst of an overwhelming plethora of apps and programs, accessing these and other business-friendly organizational tools is the easiest way to simplify and improve your business.
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