To all the agents in the house,
In December, Keller Williams launched the Command App for its agents. The app is a "flexible extension of the Keller Cloud platform," the Austin-based company declared, that will "optimize the features and benefits of Command that agents need to facilitate real-time communications with clients, record and monitor important business insights, and complete core tasks on the move and in the office."
It's now April and I wonder how the app is catching on. I've emailed Darryl Frost of Keller Williams some questions to that effect, but I'd like to hear as well from Keller Williams agents reading this.
My colleague Brooklee Han, who wrote about the app's rollout back in December, has asked a few Keller Williams agents and brokers, and received mixed reviews.
"It's trying to be better, but it's not there yet," Tracy Keffer of Columbus, Ohio said of Command. "Speed is the biggest issue with me."
The handful of other agents interviewed say they do not rely on the app.
"All KW agents are required to use Command in order to register home sales with the company," said Mark Siwiec of Rochester, New York. "So, we are obligated to use Command for that reason. Otherwise, it is up to the agents how much or if they use Command. We don't use Command for anything other than the necessary reporting."
"We don't use Command for a CRM because it's clunky," Siwiec continued. "I mean I email about 65,000 people once a week or once every two weeks and Command just doesn't have the horse power."
Whether or not agents use Command is important, because it is an investment of unclear time and money that Keller Williams has made for its agents, and a possible recruiting tool for new agents.
Agents, It also raises the question of whether your brokerage has an in-house app, and, if so, whether you use it. And it raises a larger point: Is developing an app a crucial way that brokerages stay competitive and even how real estate agents as a whole maintain their relevancy and edge in 2022? Or is it kind of an excessive waste of money?
Please send me your thoughts anonymously to mblake@housingwire.com.
Sincerely,
Matthew Blake
Senior Real Estate Reporter
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