How does dezrez run our wish list for estate agents? The wish list is a fundamental part of our business and I think it’s important to talk you through it!
We often get agents that complain we don’t take their wish list very seriously, “Why hasn’t my wish list request been done?” Some agents get very angry and threaten to stop using our product! Its great that some of our customers are so passionate! I felt it was worth explaining what the wish list is for and our ideas to improve it.
The wish list is just that. A list of ideas agents would ‘like to see’ developed in dezrez. It is not an area that agents can demand functionality. We get a huge number of ideas, some are great and some are terrible (I wont give specifics). We even get wish list requests for functionality that already exists in the product (swiftly passed to the training team). On the day of writing we have had 4 so far! Do the math on the number we get per year! In order to be approved an idea needs to be beneficial to our client base as a whole, move the software forward and have the backing of a number of “pilot” estate agents. It’s always been this way at dezrez.
We take the wish list very seriously after all its agents requests that have made our software what it is today. We look at all of the requests categorising them on a weekly basis. To give each agent a customised response would take a huge amount of time and mean we used valuable developer resource! Hopefully if you have sent a request in you can understand this.
Another thing that you should know is that we work on our product in sections. So for example we are currently working on a new user interface (first official leak) and a viewing reaction area (among other things). Lets take that example, we talk to large numbers of agents on what the viewing reaction area should do, we build, test, revisit the agents and re-test. When we are happy and the agents involved in the spec have tried the product we roll it out to our main agent base. As I am sure you are aware this is a big job. Once that is complete we may not work on this area of the product for some time. Any agent that requests changes to this area after the final release is likely to be disappointed (obviously bugs are treated differently).
So what could we do better? Possibly post some of the better ideas in an area and let agents give us feedback on them (become more of a community)? We could be better at letting people know that we have taken their ideas and run with them. We have completed requests in the past and not told the agent from which the idea originated! We are currently looking to improve our internal systems to keep our agents better informed. Give us your thoughts we are still listening…
Have a great Christmas and New Year
Wilf Lewis and the Team at Dezrez
I would hope most people understand a wish list is exactly that. However, surely it would benefit all agents to see that list of ideas that agents would ‘like to see’. Not only would it stop agents repeating ideas, they can put their weight behind an idea they think could be useful.
Wilf, as you know I am a big fan of ‘user voice’, which is a great way for any company that values its customers, to show it appreciates the opinions and thoughts of them.
Unfortunately, the dezrez wishlist is invisible. There is no way of knowing if your idea has been read, let alone considered. In the early days, i did send ideas to the wishlist, but with no comments ever made about them, it’s quite a disheartening process.
There is no need for a customised response to each agent. Use the web, use the online resources that exist and create the community you mention…after all, you are a forward thinking web based company….and many of the top web based software companies are realising the benefits of being more open about their development.
Many of the developers create online pages detailing their schedule and where they are with certain projects. Sure, timeframes change, problems occur and dates get put back, but its much harder to complain about it when a company is completely open about it.
Please set up ‘uservoice’!! its easy to do , easy to use, easy to maintain….I’ll even give up some of my time to work on it for you as an administrator!!
How can we become a ‘pilot estate agent’ as we are keen to help move the software on to maximise our advantage over our competitors?