In 2012, RE/MAX, one of the global leading real estate franchisors in the world, recognized a vast business opportunity in the Philippines’ vibrant real estate market and stepped in with a determination to elevate the local real estate landscape with excellent customer service. Today, RE/MAX Philippines is one of the most prominent professional real estate organizations in the market, having over 30 offices with more than 240 agents, covering the Philippines’ three main island groups: Luzon, Mindanao, and Visayas.
Property Raptor had a chance to connect with RE/MAX Philippines and exchange views on RE/MAX’s pain points and our capabilities in late 2020, before the real estate firm named Property Raptor as its strategic partner to transform its business in the Philippines. Recently, Miguel Naval, the Head of Operations of RE/MAX Philippines, kindly walked us through the transformation journey and the experience of working with Property Raptor.
Business challenge:
Corresponding to RE/MAX’s mission to provide the best level of service in the market, Management sees that collaboration across offices is part of the core of excellent customer service, and such collaboration is unachievable without a powerful central system. However, this solution did not exist in the beginning.
Comprised of thousands of islands, the Philippines’ physical geography makes this market particularly challenging. Lack of collaboration among offices was a major pain point. Many franchisee offices used different tools for their own benefits and separately managed their own network, assets, and clientele. For them, the next office was another island away and had little impact on their business.
Although RE/MAX has tons of listings, emails and messaging applications were the main methods agents used to share listings. Agents would send clients’ requirements out and see if anyone in the network had relevant listings. Miguel explained that the waiting time could take up to a few days, depending on how busy the team was and how frequent agents checked their inboxes.
He knew that this fractured workflow was a problem and that it could cause a loss of deals to competitors. “We had cases where an agent lost a deal to another agency, only to find out later that one of our agents had pretty much the same listing,” he added.
At an agent level, RE/MAX Philippines did have CRM systems before employing Property Raptor; however, they lacked connectivity. Documents, contacts, and listing data were stored in various, disconnected databases. The agents had to manually go through separate worksheets to get contact data and access a cloud drive to gather listing pictures, if not stored locally on their own devices. Without having everything in one place, they spent a significant amount of time accessing and updating information each day.
The transformation:
To RE/MAX, Property Raptor is a solid foundation that helps differentiate the firm from other agencies in the Philippines. Miguel shared that the team was not looking for a technology to replace agents:
“A lot of businesses, including real estate, are still person-to-person. I believe that customers will continue to need a person to talk to and deal with the issues. We were looking for a tool that would allow us to do that side better, to get in front of them quicker, [and] found Property Raptor as a partner who address that right out of the box.”
This new foundation has allowed RE/MAX Philippines to apply a new method of data structuring that follows Property Raptor’s data architecture. First, the separation between properties and listings means smarter and faster inventory management in long term. Second, the distinction between lead and client lists lets the agents manage their contacts efficiently based on qualifications and buying potential. With Property Raptor, data is centralized and updated across offices, and collaboration is maximized. “The team is now confident in the data and technology,” Miguel emphasized.
The Advanced AI Matching and Opportunity Module are the top features of Property Raptor that Miguel thought helped revolutionize RE/MAX Philippines. Thanks to the Advanced AI Matching, the agents no longer rely on ineffective messaging and email communication. Today, the team collaborates and accesses listings across offices directly through the platform – fast and reliably. The AI technology also helps maximize sales potential when generating listing recommendations by considering leads’ website footprint and flexibility on criteria learnt by agents.
On the other hand, the Opportunity Module helps RE/MAX agents stay on top of deals, regardless of complexity or length, as each stage of the deal and respective correspondences are logged in the system.
In addition to the core CRM, RE/MAX’s new websites for its Philippines head office and franchisee offices were developed by Property Raptor. The websites are tightly integrated into the core CRM, and the agents get to enjoy one, united system that publishes listings and delivers seamless customer experiences.
Property Raptor’s uniqueness:
RE/MAX was looking for a tech partner who could provide a foundation to build upon, as the firm viewed its CRM system as a platform for ongoing development rather than a static software solution. Therefore, the firm’s ideal tech partner had to show the same ambition for futureproofing and continually developing the system.
Throughout the entire process, Miguel and the team were able to observe Property Raptor’s problem-solving mentality, openness, transparency, and determination.
“Through meetings, Property Raptor helped us understand problems. Not only did the Property Raptor team listen to us, but they also gave us feedback and actively suggested ways to address problems. We also continue to see the results from our conversations being executed.” He explained. “It was really the participation and collaboration that gives us our confidence. Knowing that the [Property Raptor] team looks at the problem on the tech side the same way we do on our side – that is the difference, and we totally appreciate that.”
On a last note, he also encouraged any business to challenge the status quo, “It will always be difficult to adjust to new technology and ways of working. Change is uncomfortable, but to grow, you must get out of your comfort zone to take your real estate business to the next level.”
Property Raptor was built with a single mission: to help real estate agencies nurture customer relationships, automate sales, and close more deals. RE/MAX Philippines is one of many real estate organizations that have successfully transformed their business and realized their full potential with the help of Property Raptor. As we work closely with the clients, our CRM platform continues to improve and evolve to keep up with the ever-changing business environment and ensure our clients stay ahead of the competition.
Build your own success story today! Book a tour to learn more about Property Raptor and what you can achieve with us.
