Agent Office Software
Real Estate Contact Management- What Agents Don't want to Hear from Tech Support
I've been teaching real estate agents how to leverage Agent Office Softwarein their businesses since the early days of DOS and when mobile phones were called Car Phones because they had to be bolted to your automobile because there were no batteries small enough to carry around or antennas that didn't require a windshield to be suction cupped to. One of my crowning achievements was to work for the company that literally introduced the laptop computer to the real estate industry. Back then it weighed about ten pounds, had a monochrome screen and a hard-drive smaller than what an iPod Nano can hold today. A lot of things have changed since then.
One thing that hasn't changed in all these years is the pain and hassle of calling for technical support when your little do-dad won't turn on or freezes like a deer in headlights. I have two PowerPoint slides I still use today in seminars that list the answers to this article's title. Two of my favorites are: "Do you have a brick or a sledgehammer handy?" and "Please hold for Mr. Gate's attorney." I'll hang on to the rest in case I'm ever in town for a live seminar ;).
The problem with tech support when dealing with Real Estate CRM is that most of the people there don't even use the software. They are almost like a smoke screen instead of any concrete help. My guess is none of them as ever sold real estate either. So basically if you have a question about Real Estate Contact Management software, the help you retain from the conversation is going to be minimal. Their main goal is to help you with those "error" messages. It's just one of the many issues that consumers complain about regarding technical support for programs like Top Producer and AgentOffice. Can you imagine trying to do a mail merge in your word processoor for your contacts and everytime you click the print button one letter pops up and the printer stops? Once you are irritated beyond belief you finally call tech support for the answer. The only problem is you have to hold for long periods of time (which has steam coming out your ears) and when you finally talk with you they have a series of questions. Unfortunately they only make matters worse by asking if other programs similar to the one you have find issues as well. Uh, hello? Why would we have more than one? Probably the funniest part is going through all the same stuff you tried already and wasting another hour to 2 hours time. So what is their final answer; "Well, there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with your software." Thank freaking goodness, now can you fix the bleeping problem already! One time I had a person tell me technical support said; "Maybe you shouldn't try to use it to do mail merges." Really?
What it comes down to is you have an educational issue as opposed to a technical one. A great example of this is when you try to print out your Real Estate Contact Management list and it was prepared in a form letter as opposed to something else. Usually it's the smallest issues that end up creating the big problems. Taking for instance when you tell the Real Estate CRM software to print "to the contact" not "to the group." Unfortunately most of the tech support people don't even know this is a problem when you prepare a mail merge. They will however make you feel like an idiot and that everything is your fault.
Then of course you can't forget about the cost attached to inferior technical support. Top Producer says their tech support is free, but you actually pay $39 a month for the program. AgentOffice gives you a month free when you purchase their software, but if something goes wrong you have to pay $295 for a year long support contract. Heck, this is the same price as purchasing the program!
My point here is, if you just take the time to get trained on the program you purchase, life with Agent Office Support will be much easier. Just think of it as a good health strategy. After all, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you take this route you won't have a tech support person say; "We can fix this, but you're going to need a knife, a roll of duct tape and a car battery."
If you are in need of Agent Office than look no further then AOExperts.com. AOExperts.com are expert looking for Agent Office Support .
I've been teaching real estate agents how to leverage Agent Office Softwarein their businesses since the early days of DOS and when mobile phones were called Car Phones because they had to be bolted to your automobile because there were no batteries small enough to carry around or antennas that didn't require a windshield to be suction cupped to. One of my crowning achievements was to work for the company that literally introduced the laptop computer to the real estate industry. Back then it weighed about ten pounds, had a monochrome screen and a hard-drive smaller than what an iPod Nano can hold today. A lot of things have changed since then.
One thing that hasn't changed in all these years is the pain and hassle of calling for technical support when your little do-dad won't turn on or freezes like a deer in headlights. I have two PowerPoint slides I still use today in seminars that list the answers to this article's title. Two of my favorites are: "Do you have a brick or a sledgehammer handy?" and "Please hold for Mr. Gate's attorney." I'll hang on to the rest in case I'm ever in town for a live seminar ;).
The problem with tech support when dealing with Real Estate CRM is that most of the people there don't even use the software. They are almost like a smoke screen instead of any concrete help. My guess is none of them as ever sold real estate either. So basically if you have a question about Real Estate Contact Management software, the help you retain from the conversation is going to be minimal. Their main goal is to help you with those "error" messages. It's just one of the many issues that consumers complain about regarding technical support for programs like Top Producer and AgentOffice. Can you imagine trying to do a mail merge in your word processoor for your contacts and everytime you click the print button one letter pops up and the printer stops? Once you are irritated beyond belief you finally call tech support for the answer. The only problem is you have to hold for long periods of time (which has steam coming out your ears) and when you finally talk with you they have a series of questions. Unfortunately they only make matters worse by asking if other programs similar to the one you have find issues as well. Uh, hello? Why would we have more than one? Probably the funniest part is going through all the same stuff you tried already and wasting another hour to 2 hours time. So what is their final answer; "Well, there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with your software." Thank freaking goodness, now can you fix the bleeping problem already! One time I had a person tell me technical support said; "Maybe you shouldn't try to use it to do mail merges." Really?
What it comes down to is you have an educational issue as opposed to a technical one. A great example of this is when you try to print out your Real Estate Contact Management list and it was prepared in a form letter as opposed to something else. Usually it's the smallest issues that end up creating the big problems. Taking for instance when you tell the Real Estate CRM software to print "to the contact" not "to the group." Unfortunately most of the tech support people don't even know this is a problem when you prepare a mail merge. They will however make you feel like an idiot and that everything is your fault.
Then of course you can't forget about the cost attached to inferior technical support. Top Producer says their tech support is free, but you actually pay $39 a month for the program. AgentOffice gives you a month free when you purchase their software, but if something goes wrong you have to pay $295 for a year long support contract. Heck, this is the same price as purchasing the program!
My point here is, if you just take the time to get trained on the program you purchase, life with Agent Office Support will be much easier. Just think of it as a good health strategy. After all, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you take this route you won't have a tech support person say; "We can fix this, but you're going to need a knife, a roll of duct tape and a car battery."
If you are in need of Agent Office than look no further then AOExperts.com. AOExperts.com are expert looking for Agent Office Support .
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