Case Study: Smart City Locating

Creating a Custom CRM to Communicate with Thousands at Once

Smart City Locating connects thousands of apartment hunters with the most amazing apartments in Dallas, Houston, and Austin and has expanded into Denver and Atlanta in 2020. The company truly is a disruptor in the real estate market, using personalized criteria to help both newcomers and lifelong residents find their perfect home.

(Thinking) Out of the Box

Out-of-the-box CRM solutions weren’t helping Smart City meet its ever-growing demands. A custom solution would give them the personalization, simplicity, and efficiency they needed.

Keeping Connected

Smart City agents never miss a lead thanks to the action-incentivized application that requires follow-up dates, prioritizes leads, and tracks which agents are available and when.

Real-Time Reports

Agents have access to dashboards that detail the company’s financial health in real-time. This transparency has improved efficiency and created “friendly competition” between teams.

One Size Doesn’t Always Fit All

In 2017, Smart City Locating started the search for a CRM solution that would help their real estate agents manage leads. However, while using a one-size-fits-all CRM, it quickly became evident that the cumbersome, inefficient, and complex application was hindering, not helping, agents meet the needs of their customers. With thousands of apartments becoming available in Texas’s three largest cities every day, Smart City needed a more streamlined solution.

The company partnered with KDG to build a web application hyper-personalized to the specific needs of their agents. Utilizing a simple dashboard and streamlined reporting, this application highlights only the features necessary for Smart City’s operations. Leads and contacts are never forgotten about thanks to automated lead assignments, workflows, and follow-ups.

Now, agents can effectively and efficiently communicate with thousands of clients at once without ever missing a beat. Other unique features built for the one-of-a-kind application include:

Automated Lead Assignments & Rotations
Breakdown of Day’s Action Items
Agent Teams
Custom Reports on Response Time, Revenue, Properties, & More
Invoice, Payment, & Commission Management
Lease & Lead Details
Property & Management Company Details
Lead Statuses
Location & Agent Performance Dashboards
Webform Integration & Duplication Resolution
Corresponding Mobile Application

Solutions

Detailed Dashboards

Agents admit to refreshing the application’s dashboard multiple times per day so they can see the real-time health of the business in highly visual graphs that show everything from sales goals and apartments found to agent leaders and lead sources. This transparency has made all of the agents more efficient in their day-to-day operations.

Today’s Actions

One of the highlights of the application is the Action Today page, which showcases the different roles in the company (from the Agents and Invoicing team to the Assigners) and their day’s goals. What invoices need to be sent? What leases need to be confirmed? Do any leads have tours scheduled? The Smart City team is always kept two steps ahead. This efficiency has translated into a 38% increase in revenue per employee.

User-Friendly from the Start

Little training is needed when a new agent joins the Smart City team thanks to the simplified, user-friendly interface. The features users need are available immediately, with straightforward workflows not cumbered by hidden menus or extraneous buttons. What you see is what you get.

Functional & Flexible

The highlight of a custom application is that it grows with your business. Smart City’s application does just that. As their vision changes, so too does their application. Its functionality and flexibility make it possible and easy for new features, adjustments, and workflows to be built. The application can evolve just as quickly as the real-estate landscape.

Moving Forward

There are always plans for future features and enhancements. KDG has helped Smart City transition maintenance of their application to an in-house development team, but KDG remains available through monthly SLA plans to help with updates, development, and consulting as needed.

Real-Time Dashboard

A real-time dashboard reports on the health of the company. Agents can see everything from sales goals and top agents to lead traffic.

User Management

Agents each have their own profile, and their contact info, roles, and commission can be easily edited.

Lead Rotation

Leads are rotated between agents as they come in to ensure that they're never missed in the pipeline.

Reporting

A master report shows the activity of agents, the sales they've closed, and the leads they're working on.

Lease Details

The application keeps track of lease details like rent, lease term, and move in date, as well as agent commission.

Lead Management

Thousands of leads come in the system and can be reported on or filtered based on preference and property criteria.

Lead Filtering

Leads can be filtered by status so the Smart City team knows which leads have leased, which may have been lost, and which are in the process of making a deal.

Properties

Agents can update properties, view their amenities, add tags, and see the apartment's lease history.

Action Today

The Action Today feature highlights to-do lists and tasks for agents, admins, and other Smart City team members.

Agent Summaries

The application gives a quarter-by-quarter breakdown of the revenue brought in by each agent.

So many people were trying to sell me, sell me, sell me. [KDG] was like ‘What do you need?’

Cassie Brown,
CEO

Creating a Custom CRM to Communicate with Thousands at Once

(Thinking) Out of the Box

Keeping Connected

Real-Time Reports

One Size Doesn’t Always Fit All

A New Way of Apartment Locating