Progression Guide: Subscriber Feedback in Action

More than 300,000 agents and brokers across the US and Canada use Matrix, most of them as an out-of-the-box product.  At MLSListings, we determined that subscriber feedback must play a leading role in the development of our Matrix application; no other MLS has been as selective as MLSListings in customizing the software to the needs of our subscribers.

Over the last 24 months, we have consistently collected and logged input at all levels of the organization. We’ve polled agents and brokers through our interaction in the field; we’ve triaged all the comments that have come in through our customer service department and via MyNewPro.  We’ve shared information and received regular feedback and guidance from our Associations, Advisory Groups, Board of Directors and third-party polling groups. We’ve reviewed, prioritized and developed solutions for many of the subscriber requests, and provided explanation for those not possible.

Managing feedback and requests during a platform change is a delicate balance: ensuring users receive the same key functionalities they need to do their business; evaluating and responding to requests for emerging technologies, and testing their compatibility with our many vendor and reciprocal partners has been an extraordinary undertaking. Our product management, engineering and development teams as well as those of our vendor and reciprocal partners have worked extraordinarily well together over the last year to deliver the best system possible for our users.

Solutions Delivered

Subscriber feedback has been critical to the many substantial improvements we’ve made to help customize Matrix to our users’ workflows.  Below is a summary of the major comments we’ve received, and the updates we’ve made and released over the past year as a direct result of user feedback.

It takes too many clicks to get to any search pages
We added four direct links to the Pro Homepage for most-used Matrix searches; launched the “Speed Bar”  on all Matrix search pages as well as the dashboard page; two “quick search” boxes on the Matrix dashboard page (MLS# and RES); and added  a “Recent Searches” dropdown.

The auto-emails are too confusing for clients
We have rewritten the email templates to be more understandable, and they now include instructions for clients.

Some data fields are not included on Matrix Reports
Several fields were added and/or modified in Matrix Reports to incorporate user feedback, for all residential property and multifamily classes, and updates commercial property classes are coming soon.

Listing Updates into Matrix are too slow; my changes aren’t showing up soon enough
We have shortened the incremental data feeds from Listing management into Matrix; data now updates every 5 minutes.

The Advanced Search fields are difficult to find and use; and certain types of searches are confusing
We updated and reorganized some field names to be more familiar and easier to locate. We also added descriptive in-system Help Tips for Residential Search, Agent Roster Search and Advanced Search; and created centralized Training Tutorials and help files into our subscriber “Portal” knowledge base.

We need Net Sheets for CMAs
We added “Financial” tab and created Buyer and Seller Net Sheets.

Appraisers need a way to capture specific required fields
We created a specific export feature to capture data needed for 1004MC form.

We need a robust Statistics feature
We introduced Matrix Stats, a fully-featured statistics package. Users first set search criteria, then hit the ‘stats’ button to choose from close to a dozen ‘preset’ stats templates that can be further customized. See our Stats How-To for more information.

We need a mobile solution with Agent confidential info
We introduced Matrix Mobile, a free, stripped-down version of Matrix available on most devices, including private remarks and showing instructions, and links to the agent’s Saved Searches and Carts from Matrix.

Partially addressed – we’re still working on it

We want to have something similar to the list date/ sale date combo field We improved the system logic in Matrix relating to searching by dates. A special search logic was incorporated in Matrix to return both actives/pendings as well as solds.  For example, if you select all Statuses 1-5 and COE Date 10/01/2011+, then the system will return all current Actives and Pendings, along with the recent Solds after 10/1/2011.

Custom search results are difficult and time-consuming to create
We created more user-friendly column names, established fixed widths for columns (rather than needing to manually resize all columns); added multi-column sort; and added special columns for abbreviated Listing Status codes, Virtual Tour Links. We are still working to improve default templates, drag-and-drop columns, and permanent user sort order.

Printable Agent Full reports with full property history and all photos
While a single printable report with all photos and all property history is not available on the current Matrix platform, this feature is being investigated for a future platform upgrade.  In the meantime, we added the property history expansion feature on the on-screen HTML displays (which are printable). We also added all photos the generated (pdf) Agent Full report with MLS# history.

Not being addressed (here’s why, and what we can do)

Matrix auto-emails have links to a Client Portal, rather than the actual listings
Matrix auto emails deliberately contain links rather than listing information to ensure that whenever the client opens the email, the listing information is real-time. This feature is not expected to change, and by driving clients to the Client Portal, delivers several additional by-design benefits, such as tracking and reporting on listing exposure and traffic.  See our Matrix: November 15 and Beyond article for more details about Matrix’s client relationship management.

I can’t customize my auto-emails, and the email subject line limit is too short.
We have enabled the first email of a new saved search to allow for custom text, but all following emails must use the standard template.  However, users can customize the subject line in any email, and we have extended the character maximum from 50 to 200 characters so users can add additional description in the subject line.

The above summary is not a comprehensive list, but represents the top-requested items, and the most up-to-date information we can provide at this time. We will continue to offer as much transparency as possible, in our continued work with Tarasoft (now CoreLogic^® MarketLinx^®) to advocate for our subscribers’ requests, enhance our own system and continue to develop the industry’s best professional tools for real estate information services.