Cendant's Lead Management System Marks Its First Year With Success Stories From Across the Company's Real Estate Brands
31 Octobre 2005 - 4:46PM
PR Newswire (US)
Proprietary LeadRouter(TM) Technology Has Delivered More Than
240,000 Qualified Leads to Its Real Estate Professionals
PARSIPPANY, N.J., Oct. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Cendant
Real Estate Franchise Group today announced that its proprietary
LeadRouter(TM) lead management system has now delivered more than
240,000 qualified sales leads to sales associates affiliated with
its Century 21(R), Coldwell Banker(R), Coldwell Banker
Commercial(R), ERA(R) and Sotheby's International Realty(R) brands.
LeadRouter will mark its first anniversary within the Cendant
brands next month. The LeadRouter system converts
Internet-generated consumer inquiries into voice calls that are
delivered to sales associates' cell phones, allowing sales
associates to respond to consumers within minutes of receiving the
request. Cendant has a business methods patent pending with the
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its LeadRouter system.
LeadRouter is now in use by more than 2,700 offices and 75,000
sales associates throughout the Cendant real estate brands and NRT.
This is a more than 1,000 percent increase from its initial pilot
group of 250 offices and 7,000 sales associates who were using
LeadRouter prior to December 2004. "In its first year, LeadRouter
has exceeded our expectations as an effective tool in distributing
real-time leads to the sales associates affiliated with our real
estate brands and in enabling them to be the first to respond to
homebuyer and seller inquiries, a must in today's competitive
marketplace," said Alex Perriello, president and CEO of the Cendant
Real Estate Franchise Group. "By making LeadRouter available to the
real estate professionals within our brand networks, they are in a
position to better serve consumers and take advantage of
incremental new revenue opportunities." Cendant's LeadRouter system
has been well-received by its affiliated real estate professionals.
Many brokers and sales associates have contacted the company to
share their success stories. According to Jeff Shaw, broker/owner
of CENTURY 21 Shaw Realty Group with six offices in North Central
Florida, LeadRouter has been well received by his sales associates
and has positively impacted his business. Not only has he realized
a considerable increase in the volume of leads since introducing
the LeadRouter system to his sales associates, Shaw has also seen a
significant jump in production. He said, "LeadRouter is the
greatest tool that the Century 21(R) system has ever rolled out."
Brokers are also finding that LeadRouter helps their recruiting
efforts. Ed White, branch sales manager for the Hillsdale, N.J.,
office of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in New
Jersey/Rockland County, N.Y., has demonstrated the LeadRouter
technology during numerous recruiting appointments and reports that
sales associates are impressed when his cell phone rings with the
lead and he hands it to them to answer. On one occasion, White
recruited three sales associates from a competitor in a single day
and attributes that to the strength of the LeadRouter system.
"Without a doubt, it is the most exciting tool I have seen in my 23
years in this business," he said. Sales associates are also
realizing the benefit of the LeadRouter system. By responding
quickly to a LeadRouter call, Rick Redd, a sales associate with ERA
Noakes-Rooney & Associates in Findlay, Ohio, gained a client
and helped her both buy and sell a home within a month's time.
Within two days of receiving the lead on an ERA Noakes-Rooney
listing, Redd showed the property, wrote an offer and went to
contract on the home. What's more, the buyer, who had previously
listed her property with a competitor, listed the home with Redd
after the competitor failed to sell it within 45 days. Thirty days
later, that property was sold as well. Said Redd, "This incremental
new business came to me directly from that one lead forwarded by
LeadRouter." The LeadRouter technology makes it possible for sales
associates to respond to online consumer inquiries via telephone
within minutes. According to a 2004 Realtor.com survey, nearly 50
percent of online inquiries from homebuyers and sellers go
unanswered after 48 hours. In an industry that rewards timeliness,
response times can be the key to securing new business. The 2004
National Association of Realtors' Profile of Homebuyers and Sellers
shows that 65 percent of agent-assisted homebuyers used the first
agent they interviewed and that 73 percent of home sellers
contacted only one agent in determining who would assist them with
their home sale. This proprietary software also provides office
managers and administrators with oversight tools for managing all
customer leads, not just Internet leads. It also creates daily,
weekly and monthly reports along with an integrated system that
enables brokers to track the source of all their business.
Additionally, sales associates must follow up on customer inquiries
in order for them to continue to be eligible to receive leads from
the LeadRouter system. Cendant's LeadRouter system was a recipient
of the 2005 CIO 100 award, given by IDG's CIO magazine in
recognition of the technology's operational and strategic
excellence. LeadRouter was also recently recognized within the real
estate industry as the "Most Innovative Technology" in the 2005
Inman Innovator Awards, an honor shared with Google Earth. About
the Real Estate Services Division of Cendant Corporation Cendant
Corporation is primarily a provider of residential real estate and
travel services. On Oct. 24, 2005, Cendant announced its plans to
separate into four independent, publicly traded companies -- one
for each of its real estate, travel distribution, hospitality and
vehicle rental businesses. The transaction is expected to be
completed in the summer of 2006, at which time the Cendant name
will be retired. The Real Estate Services Division, which will
remain intact to become a new, stand-alone Real Estate Services
company, consisting of four primary business units: the Real Estate
Franchise Group, representing more than 14,000 residential and
commercial franchised real estate offices and 300,000 sales
associates affiliated with the Century 21(R), Coldwell Banker(R),
Coldwell Banker Commercial(R), ERA(R) and Sotheby's International
Realty(R) brand names; Cendant Mobility, a premier provider of
employee relocation and global mobility services with six global
service centers on four continents; NRT Incorporated, the nation's
largest residential real estate brokerage company with operations
in 35 major metropolitan areas; and Cendant Settlement Services
Group, a leading national provider of title, escrow and other
settlement services. For more information on Cendant's Real Estate
Services Division as well as expert commentary on emerging trends
in the real estate industry, visit the Cendant Media Resource
Center at http://www.cendant.com/media/. Completion of Cendant's
contemplated separation is subject to various risks, including but
not limited to, risks inherent in the contemplated separation and
related transactions and borrowings and costs related to the
proposed transactions; distraction of Cendant and its management as
a result of the proposed transactions; changes in business,
political and economic conditions in the U.S. and in other
countries in which Cendant and its companies currently do business;
changes in governmental regulations and policies and actions of
regulatory bodies; changes in operating performance; access to
capital markets and changes in credit ratings, including those that
may result from the proposed transaction; the ability of Cendant to
obtain the financing necessary to consummate the transaction; and
the ability of Cendant to satisfy certain conditions precedent,
including, final approval by our Board of Directors, receipt of a
tax opinion of counsel and the filing and effectiveness of
registration statements. FirstCall Contact:
nicole.milluzzo@cendant.com DATASOURCE: The Cendant Real Estate
Franchise Group CONTACT: Nicole Milluzzo, of Cendant,
+1-973-496-7470, Web site: http://www.cendant.com/
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