Section 2: Agent Manual

This section explains how to use the many features in your Vision CRM account, including mail, reminders, prospect detail pages, and more.

Agent Dashboard

The Dashboard gathers key information about your prospects in one place so you can quickly identify messages that require your attention and other tasks that you need to complete. You can perform some key tasks quickly from the Dashboard.

Figure 2 The Agent Dashboard provides a quick overview of prospect activity

New Prospects. See all prospects with a status of New. If the list is long, make sure that you are quickly following up with prospects and changing the status.

New Messages. See all the messages that have not been filed. Prospects are waiting for answers to some messages, but some just need to be filed. Make sure you are filing messages after you respond.

Upcoming Reminders: See reminders for key tasks you need to do.

Visitor Chart. Quickly check the number of visitors, grouped by source, who have come to your website in the last 30 days.

New Prospects. Quickly check the number of new prospects you have received in the last 30 days.

Recent Prospects Online: See a snapshot of the prospects who have most recently visited your website. For a full list of prospects who have visited your site in the last 48 hours, click Recent Prospects Online.

New Messages

To view a message

• Click the subject of the message.

To reply to a message

• In the Actions column, click the Reply to Message icon.

To file a message

• In the Actions column, click the File icon.

New Prospects

To view the details about a prospect

• Click the prospect's name.

To change a prospect's status

• In the Status list, click the status you want to apply.

To transfer a prospect

• In the Actions column, click the Transfer Prospect icon.

To send an email to a prospect

• In the Actions column, click the Send Email icon.

Upcoming Reminders

To view all reminders

• Click View all.

To add a reminder

• Click Add a new reminder.

Email Messages

Prospect-Based Email

Prospect-Based Email is any email correspondence between you and one of your prospects (as compared with email between you and someone who is a colleague, for example.) The system groups all prospect-based email by prospect name, so you can easily review and respond to messages from the dashboard or from the prospect area of the site.

The messages received from or sent to prospects are never deleted or lost. You can view the entire history of email between you and a prospect on the prospect's Summary page. To learn more about viewing and responding to messages from the Prospect section of the site, see the Prospects section.

New Messages from Prospects

When a prospect emails you, the message will first appear on the dashboard under New Messages and at the top of the Messages page in the Inbox. The system automatically recognizes when an incoming message is from a prospect, and will place it in these locations. Later, the message will be stored permanently on the prospect's Summary page.

BEST PRACTICE: The New Messages list shows high-priority email messages to which you have not yet responded. After you deal with each of these emails, remember to file it. To file a message, click the File icon in the Action column (Fig 3) or check the option to file when replying to the message. To see all messages related to a prospect, go to the prospect's History page.

Figure 3 File icon in New Messages section

Sending Email Messages to Prospects

The system provides more than one way to send email to prospects, since timely communication is central to your success.

1. To write a normal text email to a prospect, click the Send email icon on the prospect's Summary page or in the Actions column of any Prospect list.
2. To reply to an email you received from a prospect, click the Reply icon in the Actions column on the New Messages section of the Dashboard or under Emails From Prospect on a prospect's Summary page.
3. To send an email with listings, on a Prospect Details page, click the Send Listings button.
4. To set up a prospect to receive automatic emails about new properties, on the Listing Alerts & Viewed Listings page of the Prospects section, click the Add New Listing Alert button.

Any email message that you send to a prospect from the site will automatically append your contact information. For more information, see the Email Signatures section.

Sending and Replying to Email

On both the Compose Email Message page and Reply to Email Message page, a Message Template dropdown contains pre-written text that you can use. Some messages are provided for you, and you can add messages that you want to save for future use. For more information, see the Message Templates section.

Note: Clicking the title of a message template will not send the message; it only loads the selected text into the typing area. You can edit the text before sending the message.

Figure 4 Message template dropdown

Send Listings

You can send an email with listings to a prospect:

• On any prospect summary page, click the Send Listings button.
• On an MLS Search results page, click the Send Listings button at the bottom of the page.

To send listings from a prospect summary page

1. Click the Send Listings button.
2. Get a list of relevant listings to choose from in one of the following ways:
   1. On the Search Options page, enter relevant criteria, and then click the Search button.
   2. On the Search Options page, in the Saved Searches list, click a saved search.
3. Select the listings that you want to send.
4. Click the Add Selected Listings button. The MLS#s for the listings you added will appear at the top of the page.
5. You can perform more searches, continue to select and add listings, and delete listings until your list is ready to send.
6. When the list is completed, click the Send Selected Listings button.

To send recommended listings from a prospect summary page

1. Click the Send Listings button.
2. Click the Recommended Listings tab.
3. Select the listings that you want to send. The MLS#s for the listings you added will appear at the top of the page.
4. You can perform more searches, continue to select and add listings, and delete listings until your list is ready to send.
5. When the list is completed, click the Send Selected Listings button.

To send listings from an MLS Search results page

1. Select the listings that you want to send.
2. Click the Add Selected Listings button. The MLS#s for the listings you added will appear at the top of the page.
3. You can perform more searches, continue to select and add listings, and delete listings until your list is ready to send.
4. When the list is completed, click the Send Selected Listings button.
5. In the Send Listings window, enter a subject for the email.
6. Start typing the first or last name of a prospect, and then select the name from the list that appears.
7. To include a salutation, select one from the first dropdown list.
8. To use a message template, select one from the second dropdown list, and then make any changes.
9. Type the body of the message into the text box. The system will attach your signature before sending the message, so do not add your name or contact information in the text box.
10. Click the Send button.

For more information on MLS Searches, see the Search MLS section.

Note: You do not need to add the closing or your contact information to the message. They will be automatically appended to the message.

See also: Prospect Details, Recommended Listings, Search MLS, Listings.

Recommended Listings

The system automatically provides a list of Recommended Listings that match the prospect's behavior on the site but that the prospect has not yet viewed. The recommended listings are based on several criteria: the average price of the homes the prospect has viewed, the most common areas the prospect has looked in, and the types (residential, land, etc.) of properties the prospect has viewed. The system searches based on the criteria, and then it filters out the properties the prospect has already viewed.

To send Recommended Listings

1. In the left navigation, click Prospects.
2. Click the name of a prospect.
3. On the prospect's Summary page, click the Send Listings button.

Note: When you email recommended listings to a prospect, the listings will not be removed from Recommended Listings list until the prospect views the listings on your website.

Recommended Listings are also used in the Initial Contact Wizard.

For more information, see the Send Listings section.

Webmail

Webmail is used for any email that is between you and someone who is not a prospect, for example a colleague. While prospect-based email is used throughout the system, Webmail is available for personal email.

To open Webmail

1. In the left navigation, click Inbox.
2. Click the Open Webmail button (Fig 5).

Figure 5 Open Webmail button on the Inbox page

To close Webmail

1. Click the red button at the top right (Fig 6).

Figure 6 Close Webmail by clicking red icon

Normally we recommend that you do not use Webmail to email a prospect. However, to send a message with an attachment, you must use Webmail because you cannot send attachments with the standard prospect email. If you must use Webmail to contact a prospect, use the Associate option to ensure the message appears in the prospect's email message history.

BEST PRACTICE: Check Webmail and scan for email from prospects that should be in your Inbox.

Email Association

When a message in Webmail belongs with a prospect, you can "Associate" it to put a copy of the message on the prospect's Summary page. You can use this if you send a message with an attachment from Webmail or if incoming email from a prospect is not recognized as prospect-based email and is put in Webmail. (See Prospect-Based Email for more details). When you send email messages to prospects from your MLS system, you can send a copy to yourself at your system email address, which then appears in Webmail and can be associated on the prospect's Summary page.

To associate a message from Webmail

1. At the bottom of the message, click Associate Email.
2. In the Type list, click Sent to Prospect or Received from Prospect.
3. In the Prospect list, click the prospect to whom the message will be associated.
4. Click the Add button.

Often, a prospect will sign up for your website with one email address but use a different address to correspond with you. This will cause the prospect's email to be sent to Webmail. To make the system recognize the messages as prospect-based email, add the prospect's email address.

Email Signatures

Signatures are added to all prospect-based email that you send (but not Webmail). Using signatures helps avoid problems with spam-blockers and saves time. When you compose an email for a prospect, you do not see this signature as you are typing, but it will be included when you send the email. The content of the signature is automatically taken from the contact information you entered for your account. You can change the content of the signature on the Email Signature page on the Email tab in the Admin section.

Email sent from Webmail will not have an automatic signature unless you configure a signature in Webmail settings.

Email Etiquette

The system does not allow HTML or attachments when emailing prospects. The presence of HTML in an email makes it much more likely to be blocked by spam filters. Because the real estate industry has been labeled as notorious spammers, by sending real estate information in an email there is already a high chance of getting identified as spam. While HTML-formatted emails may be attractive, many intended recipients will never see them. This is why we standardize many automatic emails, such as the welcome email and rely more heavily on text.

For a similar reason, we do not recommend sending attachments. Attaching a file to an email triggers virus filters. If the attachment is text, do not attach it as a file. Instead, copy the content and paste it into the email as normal text. To attach pictures or PDFs when necessary, compose the message in Webmail and use the browse/add buttons on the bottom to attach files. (There is an 8MB file size limit for attachments.)

For more information on the email system, see the Prospect-Based Email section.

Reminders

There are two kinds of reminders: System reminders and User Reminders. System reminders appear automatically—for example when a prospect saves a listing—and are displayed for only three days. When you add a reminder, it is an user reminder. User reminders do not expire. They will be visible until you complete the reminder or delete it. You can remove a reminder from the list by click the Completed icon. Any reminders associated with a prospect will also appear on the prospect's Summary page.

System Reminders

System Reminders are created automatically when your prospects take certain actions. Reminders will appear when:

• A prospect provides a phone number when signing up. Suggested action: Call if you have not contacted the prospect already.
• A prospect signs up for a Listing Alert. This reminder notifies you that your prospect has signed up for a listing alert. Suggested action: Review the listing alert to asses if you think the prospect's criteria are realistic. If not, email the prospect to explain why the search criteria may not be successful and offer to update the listing alert.
• A prospect saved a listing. Suggested action: Contact the prospect to see if you can provide additional information about the saved listing.
• A prospect is transferred to you from another agent. Suggested action: Call or email the prospect if you have not already.

You cannot edit the System reminders. The Edit icon will not be clickable (Fig 7).

Figure 7 A system reminder in the Reminders section

User Reminders

You can add reminders for yourself. You can set future reminders. And you can associate the reminder with a prospect or set a general reminder. For example, if a prospect tells you she will be looking for a house in six months and to call her at that time, you can create a reminder and forget about the task until the reminder appears.

To associate a message from Webmail

1. Click the Add a Reminder button.
2. In the Add a New Reminder window, enter a due date for the reminder. The reminder will appear in the reminders section on the dashboard three days before the due date you set.
3. Choose the prospect to associate the reminder with (if any).
4. Write the text of the reminder.
5. Click the Save button.

Prospects

Organization and Lists

You can see all your prospects in the Prospects section. Simply click Prospects in the left navigation. Each prospect has one status assigned at a time (New, Retry, Active, Inactive, Hot, Sold, or Trash). The prospect list shows New prospects by default. To see prospects with a specific status, in the Status list, click the status. With the exception of Trash, changing a prospect's status will not delete, unsubscribe, or change the prospect in any way.

You can change a prospect's status as often as you want. Keeping the prospect status up to date will help you focus on the prospects who need your attention and who are most likely to become clients. Good use of status will help you save time and prioritize your tasks.

To change a prospect's status

1. In the Status column, click the dropdown menu, and then click the new status.

Note: If the Status list is any value other than All, then the prospect will disappear from the list when you change the status.

To see the prospects with one status

1. In the Status list, click the status.

You can assign status in the way that works best for you, but we recommend the use outlined in the Prospect Status Definitions section for each status type.

Note: The Performance Evaluator page uses these definitions for each status. If you use the status types differently, then the data in the Performance Evaluator page may not be useful for you.

Prospect Status Definitions

New

All prospects that you have not yet contacted. After you have attempted to contact a prospect, change the status to the Retry or Active, based on the response. The only prospects with New status should be ones that you have not attempted to contact yet; therefore, this folder should usually be empty.

Retry

Any prospects that you need to proactively contact and monitor. As soon as possible, you should contact all prospects who have recently visited the website (see the Last Action date) with whom you have not been in recent contact. These prospects are valuable because they are coming to the website and looking at listings. Because they appear to be actively looking at homes, they are most likely to turn into clients. Keep the Retry list to the most recent 20 or 30 prospects. If a prospect has not visited your website in a week or two, try to contact him or her one more time, and then change the status to Inactive.

Active

Any prospect that falls between Retry and Hot. These prospects are engaging with you and your site but may not be ready to buy right now. This list generally includes people who are contacting you with questions by email as well as long-term prospects who are receiving listing alerts and therefore do not need to be proactively contacted at present.

Inactive

Prospects who haven't contacted you or visited the site in over two weeks. Many prospects become Inactive. Prospects who have not returned to the website for a long time are not likely to become clients. Focus your efforts on prospects in the Hot, Retry, and Active lists.

On the Recent Site Activity page you can see if any of the Inactive prospects come back to the site. If they do, change their status to Retry.

Hot

Prospects who are working with you to buy a home.

Sold

Customers who have completed the sale or purchase of their home.

Trash

Prospects who ask to stop receiving email, unsubscribed themselves, or have no valid phone number or email address. Use this status very rarely or not at all. A prospect marked as Trash will be automatically removed from automatic emails and listing alerts. Read the next section for more detail

Defining Your Own Status Values

It is not possible to define your own status values. However, if you prefer to use a different method of keeping organized, you can create standard comments for each prospect in the Comments section of the prospect's Summary Page. To find all the prospects of a certain classification, use Find Prospects (see below) to search for any prospects based on the comments you entered. Some agents enter comments such as "Waterfront," "Serious," "Just looking" or "Wants residential in Council Bluffs." If you use consistent wording in the comments, you can later search for groups of prospects based on these comments.

In effect, this lets you make unlimited prospect groups of your own design.

Trash

Be careful with the Trash status. Any prospects marked as Trash will be removed from automated emails. They will not be deleted. Do not mark any prospects as Trash unless you specifically intend to remove them from all system emails and listing alerts. The Trash list should contain very few of your prospects, and only those who:

• Request to stop receiving email from you and should be removed from automated emails.
• Have already unsubscribed themselves.
• Offer NO way to be contacted. The prospect has no means of being contacted—no valid phone number and no valid email address.

Do not put prospects into trash because they stopped coming to the website, provided a fake name, or said they already have an agent. It is a very common mistake to mark all old prospects as Trash. When an agent does this, prospects that are set up for listing alerts, for example, will have their alerts deleted. This may cause you to miss out on a transaction when the prospect starts actively looking for homes a few weeks or months later.

Recent Activity Page

The Recent Activity page shows you a list of prospects who have visited your website within the last 48 hours. Check this list daily, and contact each of these prospects every day. Anyone who is coming back to the website is worth your attention. If you are not already working with all of them, try to contact them by phone. As a general rule, every prospect that shows up on this page should have a status of Retry or Active.

Figure 8 The Recent Activity Page

To open the Recent Activity page

1. In the left navigation, click Prospects.
2. Click Recent Activity.

The system scans your prospect list to find any prospects with Inactive or Trash status who have been back to the website in the last two weeks. Prospects with phone numbers appear in Quick Calls; prospects without numbers appear in Quick Emails. Try to make contact with all of these prospects and then change their status to Retry, Active, or Hot, depending on their response. See the Organization and Lists section.

Prospect List

The first page of the prospects section lists prospects by status. The list contains an incredible amount of information about each prospect. The column descriptions and icon descriptions that follow will help you understand the information available. To see more information about a prospect, click the prospect name.

1. Prospect. Click the name to go to the Prospect Details section.
2. Phone Icon. The prospect provided a phone number. Move the mouse over the icon to see the phone number. (The phone number also appears on Prospect Details page.)
3. Mortgage Pre-Approval Icon. This prospect requested information on mortgage pre-approval when signing up.
4. Listing Alerts Icon. The prospect is receiving listing alerts.
5. Invalid Email Icon. The prospect's email address has not passed our email validation process and does not appear to be a working email address.
6. Unsubscribed Icon. The prospect has unsubscribed from automatic system email and listing alerts.
7. Looking In. The prospect is looking for a home in this city or town.
8. Avg Price. This is the average price of all listings the prospect has viewed on your site. We track each prospect's activity on the site and calculate this average from the listings the prospect actually views. If the prospect has not viewed any listings, the average will be zero. The system uses the average price for recommending listings.
9. View. This is the number of listing the prospect has viewed on your website.
10. Save. This is the number of listings the prospect has saved on your website.
11. Created. This is the date the prospect signed up on your website or when you added the prospect to your account.
12. Activity. The activity date is the last time the prospect visited your website. If this date is given as a time of day, the visit occurred within the last 24 hours. If it is a date, then the visit occurred more than 24 hours ago.
13. Time Frame. This is the prospect's time frame to buy a home. When a prospect registers on your website, they are asked how soon they are looking to buy and can choose "Now," "1-3 months," "3-6 months," "6+ months," or "Just looking."
14. Prospect Status. This indicates where the prospect is in the home buying process. To change the status for a prospect, click the button to open a dropdown menu, and then click the new status. To learn more about when to use each status type, see the Organization and Lists section.
15. Transfer Prospect Icon. To transfer the prospect to another agent, in the Actions column, click the Transfer Prospect icon, and then follow the on-screen instructions. At this time prospects can only be transferred to other agents with Vision accounts.
16. Email Icon. To send an email to this prospect, in the Actions column, click the Send Email icon, and then follow the on-screen instructions.

Find Prospects

You can search for prospects by name, email address, phone number, or text in the Comments section. For more information on how to search by comments as a technique for organization, see the Organization and Lists section.

BEST PRACTICE: Enter comments such as "Adult community," "cash," or "wants residential in Fargo" in the Comments section on a prospect's Summary page. You can search for groups of prospects based on this information later.

Add a Prospect

You can add your own prospects to the system to keep track of them, give them access to the listings on the website or to set them up for Listing Alerts.

Figure 9 To add a prospect click the Add a Prospect link on the Prospects page

To add a prospect

1. Click Add a Prospect.
2. Enter the prospect's information.
3. If you want to, you can personalize the welcome email that the system will send with login information for your website.
4. Click the Save button.

Import Prospects

If you have a list of prospects that you want to add to your Vision account, you can import the list. Importing prospects requires that you have your data formatted correctly in a .CSV (comma separated values) file, so that the correct data will be included in the correct location.

Make sure that the data in the CSV you want to import is in the order specified on the Import Prospects page.

You can import more than one list each day, but the total number of imported prospects each day cannot exceed 100.

Note: If your team or brokerage uses Vision, please see your broker or team leader to use this feature.

To import prospects

1. In the left navigation, click Prospects.
2. At the top of the Prospect List, click Import/Export.
3. On the Import Prospects page, follow the on-screen instructions.

Export Prospects

You can export a list of prospects to a CSV file. If you have a large number of prospects, you may want to export each status type separately.

Note: If your team or brokerage uses Vision, please see your broker or team leader to use this feature.

To export prospects

1. In the left navigation, click Prospects.
2. At the top of the Prospect List, click Import/Export.
3. Click the Export Prospects tab, and then follow the on-screen instructions.

Note: To see the order of the exported data, read the note at the top of the Export Prospects page.

Export Messages

You can export messages exchanged between you and your prospects. For large prospect lists, you may want to export messages for each prospect status as a separate file or limit the date range you export.

Note: If your team or brokerage uses Vision, please see your broker or team leader to use this feature.

To export messages

1. In the left navigation, click Prospects.
2. At the top of the Prospect List, click Import/Export.
3. Click the Export Messages tab, and then follow the on-screen instructions.

Note: To see the order of the exported data, read the note at the top of the Export Messages page.

Tools for the Seller

While many tools in this system help you work with buyers, two useful tools are geared toward sellers: the Seller's Market Report and the Market Status Report. To learn more about listing promotion tools, see the Manage Listings section.

Seller's Market Report

The Seller's Market Report can be included in your listing presentation to inform a potential seller of the tools you have at your disposal to market their property via the website. You can create the report as an email or printable document. This Seller's Market Report shows a potential home seller the exact number of prospects in your database who have recently been looking for similar homes, and explains that you can market the home directly to relevant prospects.

To send a Seller's Market Report as an email

1. In the left navigation, click Prospects, and then click Seller's Market Report.
2. Enter the information for the listing, and then select Email.
3. Verify the potential seller's email address, and then click the Continue button.
4. Select up to three listings to include with the report, and then click the Continue button. If there are no relevant listings, do not select any listings, and then click the Continue button.
5. Preview the email message. If you want to change anything, click the Back button. When you are satisfied with the message, click the Send button.

To print a Seller's Market Report

1. In the left navigation, click Prospects, and then click Seller's Market Report.
2. Enter the information for the listing, select Print, and then click the Continue button.
3. Select up to three listings to include with the report, and then click the Continue button. If there are no relevant listings, do not select any listings, and then click the Continue button.
4. Preview the report. If you want to change anything, click the Back button. When you are satisfied with the document, click the Print button.

Market Status Report

When a prospect lists a home with you, the home seller can see activity related to the listing in real time. The home seller will need the MLS number of the listing to log in and see the Market Status Report. The seller will be able to see a list of all of the prospects who have viewed the listing and various other tools to monitor the listing's performance.

To access the Market Status Report, your seller should go to your website, click the Sell a Home tab, and enter the MLS number into the Client Login box.

Prospect Details Section

The Prospect Details section contains valuable information on each prospect grouped by tabs: Summary, Listing Alerts & Viewed Listings, and History. The Summary page contains all information for a prospect, including any reminders, comments, and settings specific to the prospect. On the Listing Alerts & Viewed Listings page, you can view all the listings the prospect has viewed on the website, any listings the prospect has saved, and listing alerts set up for the prospect. On the History page, you can view all email messages to and from a prospect.

Prospect Summary Page

You will need to use this page often, so you can get to it by clicking the Prospects link in the left navigation and then locating a prospect in the prospect list or by using the search feature. In addition, throughout the site when ever you see a prospect's name, you can click it to go to the prospect's Summary page.

You will see the following information for every prospect (Fig 10):

Figure 10 Information available on the prospect's Summary page

Prospect name. The prospect name is listed at the top of the page.

Snapshot. Based on the searches that this prospect has performed on your site, the system creates a simple statement of what the prospect is looking for, including the location, average price, and number of bedrooms and bathrooms. The statement appears above the tabs.

Contact information. At the top of the Summary tab, you will find all the information you need to reach the prospect, including phone numbers, email addresses, and a physical address.

Status. This indicates where the prospect is in the home buying process. To change the status of a prospect, click the down arrow to open a dropdown menu, and then click the new status. To learn more about when to use each status type, see the Organization and Lists section.

Timeframe. On the registration form, prospects indicate how soon they are looking to buy: “Now,” “1-3 months,” “3-6 months,” “6+months,” or “Just looking.”

Created. This is the date the prospect signed up on your website (or the day you added the prospect to your account).

Source. This indicates how the prospect entered the system. For example, the prospect could have signed up on your website after following a link from a Craigslist post or you could have used the import process to add the prospect to your account.

Last Action. This is the most recent date and time the prospect visited your site.

Moving From. This is where the prospect is from, not necessarily where the prospect is looking for property. This comes from information provided on the registration form.

Looking In. This is where the prospect is looking for property. The system calculates this based on the prospect's searching behavior.

Has Agent? New prospects can indicate whether they are already working with a real estate agent, and the response appears here.

BEST PRACTICE: We recommend responding to prospects even if they signal that they are already working with an agent. The prospect may be unhappy with the service their agent is providing and you could have the opportunity to help. Contact the prospect and simply ask about the situation.

Mortgage Lender? If a prospect selects that they need a mortgage preapproval when they sign up, you will see this here.

Selling Home? When a prospect signs up, they may indicate whether or not they plan to sell a property. If you learn that a prospect needs to sell a home, you can change this value in the prospect profile.

Listing Addresses? This option is only available in some areas, based on your MLS. By default, the system does not show the addresses of any listings to site visitors. To allow a prospect to view address for all listings on your site, click the Edit button, in the Listing Addresses dropdown list, click On.

Edit Profile. To change any of the information about the prospect, click the Edit button. For more information, see the Editing a Prospect's Profile section.

Send Email. To compose an email to the prospect, click Send Email.

Transfer Prospect. To transfer the prospect to another agent, click Transfer, and then follow the on-screen instructions. At this time prospects can only be transferred to other agents with Vision accounts.

Print. To print the prospect's contact information, click Print.

Export V-Card. To export the prospect's contact information as a V-Card, click Export V-Card.

Notifications. If there is a notification at the top of the page, then you should read it first. Some notifications suggest quick action, for example if the prospect is new, then you should use the Initial Contact Wizard right away. Some notifications do not require immediate action, for example if the prospect has unsubscribed.

Current Reminders. You can see a few current reminders, act on them, or easily add a new reminder. To see all reminders, at the bottom of the page, click All Reminders. Use the icons to edit a reminder, mark it as complete, or delete it. For more information on Reminders, see the Reminders section.

Recommendations. The system recommends that you take certain actions based on this prospect's site activity, self-expressed timeframe, and other information.

Comments. To see all comments that you have written about this prospect, or to add comments, at the bottom of the page, click Comments. For more information on using Comments to sort prospects, see the Organization and Lists section.

Emails. To see recent email messages sent to or received from this prospect, at the bottom of the page, click Emails. To see the entire email message text, click the message text excerpt. To reply to a message, in the Actions column, click the Reply icon. For more information on sending email to prospects, see the Sending Email Messages to Prospects section.

All Reminders. To see all reminders, at the bottom of the page, click All Reminders. For more information on Reminders, see the Reminders section.

Editing a Prospect's Profile

Click the Edit button to open a window that will allow you to edit or add to a prospect's details. You can update the prospect's name, email address, phone numbers, ZIP Code (where they are from), and the timeframe for buying. The average price and looking in information is based on the prospect's behavior on the site, so you cannot edit it. If a prospect signs up with an email address that does not appear to work, or if the email is entered incorrectly, you can correct the email address here.

BEST PRACTICE: If a prospect signs up with one email address, but emails you from a different address and this email appears in Webmail, add that email address to the prospect record so that the system associates the email in use with the prospect record.

Prospect Who Needs to Sell a Home

When registering on your website, a prospect can notify you of any property to sell. If a prospect says he or she is selling, we recommend that you use the Seller's Market Report to make a listing presentation (Fig 21).

NOTE: If your team or brokerage is participating in the Referral Network and a potential seller's home is not located in your area, the prospect may be referred to another real estate agent in the Vision network. If this occurs, you will be notified on the prospect page.

Unsubscribed

If a prospect is Unsubscribed, the system will not send any emails automatically (Fig 22). The prospect will still be able to view listings and email you. You will also be able to email the prospect. Unsubscribing only prevents Automatic Emails and deletes any existing Listing Alerts the prospect has.

Figure 11 A notice appears at the top of the Prospect Details page

A prospect can unsubscribe on the My Tools page of your website. If the prospect requests verbally or by email that you stop sending email, then you should take action to meet that request.

To stop sending automatic emails

• On the prospect's Summary page, click Stop System Emails.

This action will stop Automatic Emails and delete any existing Listing Alerts.

Rejected Email

If the system detects that email sent to a prospect is not accepted and is bouncing back, the system will mark the prospect as Rejected. The email may bounce back because the email address that the prospect provided is fake or due to the prospect's spam settings. When a prospect is Rejected, he or she will not be able to view listings on your website. The prospect will be asked to provide a valid email address the next time he or she logs in to your website.

BEST PRACTICE: When a prospect's email has been rejected, look at the email address to see if it has a typo that you could easily fix to make a working address. The prospect's email address is on the prospect's Summary page.

Initial Contact Wizard

The Initial Contact Wizard is a streamlined guide for contacting all new prospects.

When you receive a new prospect, you will see a notification at the top of the prospect's Summary page. Click the link to the Initial Contact Wizard. (Fig 12)

Figure 12 A link to the Initial Contact Wizard will appear at the top of the prospect's Summary page

The first step is to make personal contact with each new prospect. Every new prospect automatically receives a Welcome Email, which gives login information so that the prospect can return to your website and view listings. To follow up on the Welcome Email, use the Initial Contact Wizard to make personal contact. If the prospect provides a phone number, the Initial Contact Wizard will analyze the prospect's information and provide suggestions for making the call, along with follow-up options to help you keep organized. If the phone number is not valid, or if you leave a voicemail and want to send an email, you can click “I would rather email this prospect" to build a customized email designed for this particular prospect. If no phone number is provided, the Initial Contact Wizard will go straight to building the email.

The email that the Initial Contact Wizard builds has been thoroughly tested for its purpose. While you may edit the text and listings that are included in the email, it is not necessary and may decrease the effectiveness of the email. The text of the email will be different for each prospect based on the person’s behavior on your website.

For example, if the prospect has not set up Listing Alerts, the email will promote Listing Alerts and give a link to set up alerts—many prospects act on this. Also, the subject of the email will include the name of the area the prospect was most interested in on the website. The email will also include listings that the prospect has not yet viewed on the website but that are similar to listings the prospect did view (Listing History). Review the Recommended Listings before sending the email and compare them to the prospect's Listing History. You can remove listings that are not appropriate. The email will also be effective if there are no Recommended Listings for this prospect.

The link to the Initial Contact Wizard will disappear after email has been sent to or received from this prospect, because it was designed to assist with the initial contact with a prospect. The system will send the default Initial Contact email automatically approximately 12 hours after the prospect signs up if a) the prospect did not provide a phone number, and b) you haven't completed the Initial Contact Wizard.

Do not get into the habit of having the system do your follow up for you. The default Initial Contact Wizard email can serve as a backup if you cannot respond in 12 hours, but the best agents always try to follow up within 12 hours. Also, when the system sends out this email without your review, the content which is written to appeal to the prospect might not be exactly what you wanted to send.

BEST PRACTICE: We recommend that you contact at least 90% of your prospects within 12 hours. We calculate your response time across all your new prospects and report it on the Performance Evaluator page.

Comments About a Prospect

On the prospect's Summary page, the Comments section provides a place to record anything that happens with a prospect that is not already documented in the system. You can enter notes on phone calls or copy and paste emails sent from another email address (Fig 13). The system automatically captures the date and the time of each comment, so you don't need to enter that information. The more information you record for a prospect, the easier it is for you to maintain the relationship. Prospects sometimes stop using your website for a time and then come back later. If you write down comments, you will have a complete record of your history with the prospect. Nothing is deleted or lost.

Figure 13 The comments box on the prospect's Summary page allows you to keep detailed prospect notes

To see the Comments section

1. In the left navigation, click Prospects.
2. Click a prospect's name.
3. Scroll down the prospect's Summary page, and then click Comments.

BEST PRACTICE: Use Comments to search for prospects. If you use keywords such as “adult community” or “cash” or “wants residential in Fargo,” you can search for groups of prospects based on this information later.

Emails Received from or Sent to Prospect

In the Emails section on the prospect's Summary page, you can see the emails received from and sent to a specific prospect (Fig 15). The one exception is Listing Alerts. Due to the high volume, Listing Alerts are not shown.

Figure 15 The Email section of the Summary page shows emails exchanged with a prospect

Any email sent to a prospect or received from a prospect will be automatically recognized and shown here. Please note that these emails cannot be deleted.

Email received from or sent to a prospect will not be displayed in the Emails section if:

1. The message was sent from an email address other than one associated with the prospect. In this case the system does not recognize that the message is from a prospect and the message appears in Webmail. You can edit a prospect's email address so that the system knows to recognize the email address the prospect is using. See the Editing a Prospect's Profile section.
2. The message was sent to the prospect from an email account other than the one associated with your system account.

When a message goes to Webmail but should appear in the Emails section, you can associate the message from Webmail to put a copy in the Emails section.

To associate a message from Webmail

1. At the bottom of the message, click Associate Email.
2. In the Type list, click Sent to Prospect or Received from Prospect.
3. In the Prospect list, click the prospect to whom the message will be associated.
4. Click the Add button

Note: If you need to send and attachment to a prospect, you should use Webmail. If a prospect emails you an attachment, the email will appear in the Email Received section however you will not see the attachment. A copy of the email will be available in Webmail for you to access the attachment.

Listing Alerts & Viewed Listings Page

The Listings Alerts & Viewed Listings page shows all listing alerts set up for a prospect, every listing the prospect has viewed on your site, and any listing the prospect saved.

To open a prospect's Listing Alerts & Viewed Listings page

1. In the left navigation, click Prospects.
2. Click the prospect's name.
3. Click the Listing Alerts & Viewed Listings tab.

Listing Alerts

Listing Alerts notify prospects of new properties on the market that match their search criteria (Fig 14).

Figure 14 Listing Alerts can be seen in the Prospect Details section

When a prospect sets up a listing alert, the system emails new listings each day. No existing listings are sent. You will receive a reminder when a prospect sets up a listing alert. No action is required by you because the alerts will be sent automatically, but it is a good practice to review the prospect’s criteria to ensure they are reasonable. You can see any existing alerts under Current Listing Alerts on the Listing Alerts & Viewed Listings page in the Prospect Details section. You may also choose to set a prospect up for listing alerts.

To set up listing alerts for a prospect

1. Under Listing Alerts, click the Add New Listing Alert button.
2. Choose the appropriate criteria.
3. Make sure you have the prospect's permission, and then click the Add Alert button.

Do not set up alerts for a prospect unless you have the prospect’s permission. The system may send an email as frequently as every day, and if the email is not requested, you may be seen as a spammer and lose the opportunity to work with the prospect.

To delete a specific alert

• Next to the alert, click the Delete icon.

To change a current listing alert

1. Under Listing Alerts, choose the appropriate criteria, and then click the Add button.
2. Delete the incorrect old alert.

Note: When the system sends Listing Alerts to your prospects, it does not record them under Emails Sent to Prospect due to the large volume.

The Value of Listing Alerts

Listing Alerts are designed to keep your prospects coming back to your website frequently. Prospects will often wait as long as it takes for the right listing to come along. Eventually, after you have accumulated enough prospects, you may find that most of your returning visitors have listing alerts set up. To see your returning visitors, check the Recent Site Activity page. The more prospects you have who are receiving Listing Alerts, the more returning visitors you will have to your website. The more returning visitors you have, the more likely you are to get a phone call when one of these prospects finds his or her ideal home. In fact, the prospect is likely to find that ideal home in an email from you, via the Listing Alerts.

Encouraging Prospects to Sign Up for Listing Alerts

A. When you receive a new prospect, follow the Initial Contact Wizard process. We have found that agents who use the Initial Contact Wizard to contact new prospect have a higher percentage of prospects with Listing Alerts and also a higher number of return visitors.

B. Monitor your returning visitors. If a returning prospect has not signed up for Listing Alerts, encourage this person to set them up. If you check your Recent Activity list and the Retry list, you may see that most returning visitors have listing alerts. Listing alerts bring prospects back to your site. It is worth contacting prospects who are not receiving listing alerts to encourage them to sign up. You can see the percentage of your prospects with listing alerts by checking the Performance Evaluator tool.

C. When a prospect signs up for a listing alert on the site, you will receive a reminder notifying you. Go to the Listing Alerts tab on the Prospect Details section and review the Current Alerts. Sometimes prospects set up alerts with extremely broad criteria. When this happens, we recommend that you contact the prospect and ask if the prospect would like you to help narrow the criteria. This is a great opportunity to offer service and get the prospect to talk about the types of properties that are most interesting.

Saved Listings

On the Listing Alerts & Viewed Listing page of the Prospect Details section, you can see all the listings a prospect has saved. You should consider contacting the prospect and offering to show one of these homes or provide additional information. If a prospect has saved a listing that is no longer on the market, a house icon with a red X will appear next to the listing.

Viewed Listings

On the Listing Alerts & Viewed Listings tab in the Prospect Details section, you can see a list of every listing a prospect has viewed, organized by date. You can view the listings by clicking the MLS#. Any listings with an icon of a house with a red X are no longer on the market. For more information on Listings, see the Listings section.

To view a listing

• Under Viewed Listings, in the MLS# column, click the MLS#.

How to Use Viewed Listings

Tracking a prospect’s behavior on the site lets you observe, analyze, and ultimately help a prospect. Internet prospects often hide behind their anonymity, but being able to observe their behavior allows you to see their interests and market to them. Observing the Viewed listings may help you gauge whether a prospect is seriously looking for a home. For example, a prospect may be consistently looking in one area, or always at a specific price range, or always looking at listings with a specific feature. Consistency like this is a good sign that a prospect has real interests and may be a valid customer. A prospect who is looking at a random combination of million-dollar estates, trailer parks, land, commercial buildings, etc. may not be a serious home buyer.

BEST PRACTICE: Look at behavior in the Viewed Listing section to understand what homes seem to be of interest to the prospect, especially before using the Initial Contact Wizard or sending Recommended Listings.

Manage Listings

In addition to finding great listing matches for each prospect's search criteria, you also want to promote individual listings. Vision provides a number of ways for you to do this. In the Manage Your Listings section, you can review existing promotional activities.

Figure 16 The Manage Your Listings section

To open the Manage Your Listings section

• In the left navigation, click Manage Listings.

The All Listings page provides an overview of listings and indicates if promotional emails have been sent to prospects. You can easily email a listing on this page.

The Email to Prospects page shows when promotional email was sent to prospects for a particular listing. You can see the number of prospects who received the email, how many visited the site, and how many requested information on the listing.

The Post on Craigslist page shows all listings and whether or not you have posted the listing on Craigslist. If you have posted the listing on Craigslist, then there is data on that post. You can easily post a listing on Craigslist from this tab.

All Listings

The All Listings page shows a list of every property that you or your brokerage has in the database, including the MLS#, address, and listing price. You can also quickly see any associated promotional emails.

To email a listing to prospects

• In the Actions column, click Email listing.

Email Listings to Prospects

When you send listings to relevant prospects, the system lists the MLS#, email date, and some information about the prospects on the Email to Prospects page. The system also creates a report that tracks each prospect who received the message and if the prospect viewed the listing, requested information, or requested a visit.

To see data about the email sent

• In the Actions column, click View Report.

To send a new email message to promote a listing

1. Click the Email a Listing button.
2. Select a listing, and then click the Continue button.
3. Review the list of prospects. Click the check box next to the name of any prospect you do not want to receive the email message. To create a different list of prospects, change the search criteria, and then click the Update button.
4. When you are satisfied with the selected list of prospects, click the Continue button.
5. Add comments about the listing to include in the email. The system will add a greeting including each prospect's name and the contact information for the prospect's agent. Do not add any personal notes, greetings, or contact information in the comments section.
6. Click the Continue button.
7. Preview the email message. If you want to make any changes, click the Back button. When you are satisfied with the email message, click the Send Email button.

BEST PRACTICE: 1) Ensure you send at least one email for every new listing. 2) The goal is to send an email to as many prospects who may be interested as possible, so be judicious about removing individuals from the list.

Posting Listings on Craigslist

Posting listings on Craigslist can help you promote your listings, drive visitors to your website, and ultimately get more prospects. It is important that you follow these steps and guidelines; Craigslist will delete your posts and block you for spamming if you do not. Remember the goal of your post on Craigslist is not just to promote the listing, but also to get people to visit your website and sign up.

BEST PRACTICE: First post any listing you have not already posted. Next, post listings that you posted over 30 days ago. You can see this in the Days Posted column. For more information about the number of listings you can post, see the Craigslist Guidelines section.

To post a listing

1. On the Craigslist Posts tab, in the Actions column, click New Post.
2. Read through the instructions, and then click the Open Craigslist to Post button. Note: Do not close the Vision system window. You need to switch between the two windows as you post.
3. When the Craigslist window opens, you will see the appropriate form to post, or else a page in Craigslist to select the area
4. To log in to your Craigslist account, click log in to your account and enter your login credentials. If you do not have an account, in the top right, click Apply for Account.
5. The process of filling out the form on Craigslist is simple. Just copy everything in a field on the Craigslist Posts tab in Vision, and then paste the content in the corresponding field on the Craigslist form. For example, copy everything in the price field in Vision, then click the “price” field in the Craigslist window, and then paste the date (press “ctrl-V” on your keyboard or right-click and click Paste).
6. Repeat this process for all the other listing fields: Post Title, Description, Street, City, and State. You can use the same information for Specific Location and City. Remember to enter the locations and price accurately so people can search and find your listings.
7. After filling out the fields in Craigslist, for your Reply to options, select the anonymize check box every time.
8. Click the Continue button at the bottom of the page. You will be asked to read and enter a verification word. Once you do this, you will receive confirmation that the listing is posted. You can then close this Craigslist window.
9. On the Craigslist page, click the Mark as Posted in List button. This sets the timer so you will know when to post this listing again.

Keep an eye on your account. When you're logged in to your Craigslist account, you can check your listings to see which have expired or been deleted. Contact Customer Care if you notice your listings being deleted (pink listings).

Craigslist Guidelines

1. Use the content provided. Do not change the link code that is in the body of the post. Without this code, the post will not drive people to your website. The system auto-generates parts of the content, such as the title and parts of the body text, to help avoid repetitive/spam-like content that deters visitors and Craigslist. Experience has shown that the simple posts provided by the system are effective. They do not use complicated HTML, do not provide full home information, and do not add all pictures. Omitting some details encourages people to visit your website and sign up to get this information. You may make slight changes occasionally and make sure the content and wording are appropriate, but we strongly recommend using the structure provided because it has been proven to work.

2. Do not over-post your listings. If you post the same listings repeatedly, or post too many listings in a row, Craigslist will delete your posts and block you for spamming. Post a handful of listings at a time. Depending on the activity level of the Craigslist in your area, avoid posting more than 4 or 5 listings at a time. Craigslist automatically deletes your posts after a certain number of days. For some areas, it is after 7 days; for most, it is 30 days. This means that you may not need to re-post a listing for up to 30 days to keep getting traffic from that post. When you fill out the form to post on Craigslist, you will be notified, “Your ad will expire in X days." If Craigslist sees that you post the same house ten times, Craigslist will delete it and block you.

3. Make sure you post in the right Craigslist area. The Open Craigslist to Post button takes you to the appropriate Craigslist page. If for some reason this button leads to an incorrect area or is not working, contact Customer Care. Only post in “Real Estate for Sale” in the proper geographic area.

4. Fill out the form properly. Make sure you put the price in the “Price” field, the city in the “City” field, etc. Craigslist uses the fields to match posts to searches. People can only find your post if the fields contain the correct information.

5. Every time you post a listing, make sure you select the Do not show any email address check box in Craigslist. If you neglect to select the Do not show any email address check box, visitors on Craigslist will contact you directly instead of signing up as a prospect on your website. Vision cannot track the success of Craigslist posts unless prospects visit your website from the post

Search MLS

On the left side of every page is a link to MLS Search. You can also access the MLS Search page from various pages on the site.

To search for listings, select the search criteria you want, and then click the Search button. After submitting your search, you will see your Search Results. Search results are sorted by ascending price. You can save searches with criteria you plan to use again.

To save a search

• Click the Save Search button.

To change the search criteria

1. Click Show to show the criteria you used for the last search.
2. Change the criteria that you want to.
3. Click the Search button.

To search on saved search criteria

• In the Saved searches list, click the search that you want to use.

Sending Listings from MLS Search

You can send listings to a prospect by email from the Search Results page by creating a list of listings, and then sending the list.

To send listings to a prospect

1. Select the check box next to the listings that you want to send. To select all listings, select the All check box at the top of the column.
2. To add the listings to the list, click the Add Selected Listings button. The MLS#s for the listings you added will appear at the top of the page (Fig 17).
3. You can perform more searches, continue to select and add listings, and delete listings until your list is ready to send.
4. When the list is completed, click the Send Selected Listings button.
5. Enter a subject line.
6. Start typing the first or last name of a prospect, and then select the name from the list that appears.
7. To include a salutation, select one from the first dropdown list.
8. To use a message template, select one from the second dropdown list, and then make any changes.
9. Type the body of the message into the text box. The system will attach your signature before sending the message, so do not add your name or contact information in the text box.
10. Click the Send button.

Figure 17 MLS#s for the added listings

For more details on how to send listings, see the Send Listings section. For more details on listings, see the Listings section.

Mapping Listings from MLS Search

You can view your search results on a map. If your MLS provides the addresses of properties, the map will show the listings at their exact addresses. You can save a map to send to prospects.

To open a map of the listings

1. At the top of the Search Results page, click the View Map button.
2. To change the way the map looks, you use the zoom tools or drag the map to a different position.

To save a map to send prospects

• Right-click the map, and then click Save Image As.

To save the map as an image on your computer

• Attach this image file to an email and send it to a prospect.

Note: You need to use Webmail to send email with attachments.

Listings

The listings on your system can be viewed from either the back end (your Vision CRM account) or from the front end (the website where prospects search for, view, and save listings). Most of the time, please use the back end to view and email listings. The front end is only intended for prospects, so it is best for you to use the back end to view listings. Also, you can only email listings from the back end. The content in the listing will be essentially the same on the front and back end, with a few exceptions. On the front end, by default listings do not show the street address unless you turn on addresses for a particular prospect or if you change the default setting. See the Prospect Details section. On the front end, the listing agent's information will be restricted depending on the regulations of your MLS. Look at the listings on your website to see what is shown to your website visitors.

When you view a listing from the back end, you can send the listing to a prospect, make a flyer, and view a school report. If you or your brokerage represents the listing, then you can also promote the listing. For more information on promoting your listings, see the Manage Listings section.

To view a listing

1. In the left navigation, click Search MLS.
2. On the Search MLS page, you can search for listings by MLS number or other search options.

For more information about MLS Search, see the Search MLS section.

Admin

In the Admin section, you can make changes to your website and your personal contact information. You can view, edit, and add message templates. In addition, you can see reports about prospects generated on your website and check your performance against national averages. Depending on the product you or your office has purchased, either you or your office administrator may have access to these pages.

Website

On the Website tab, you can edit information that appears on your website.

To edit the website content, go to the following sections:

• General Info contains your company contact information and the page title for the site.
• Profile Info contains your contact information, your bio, and a picture.
• Main Text contains the text that appears on the main page of the site
• Sell Text contains the text that appears on the Sell Your Home page of the site and in the Seller's Market Report.

Note: If your team or brokerage uses Vision, please see your broker or team leader to use this feature.

To make changes to General Info or Profile Info

1. Click the Edit button
2. Type in the appropriate text boxes.
3. Click the Save button

To make changes to Main Text or Sell Text

1. Enter or edit text in the text box.
2. Click the Save button.

Note: If you have your website open in a separate browser window, refresh the site to see the changes.

Communities Served

When visitors go to your website, they will see a Communities Served list. Be sure to include all the communities you are willing to serve as a real estate agent.

Note: If your team or brokerage uses Vision, please see your broker or team leader to use this feature.

To open the Communities Served page

1. In the left navigation, under Admin, click Website.
2. Click Communities Served

To add a community

1. Click the Add Community button.
2. Enter the name of the community, and then click the Continue button.
3. Enter a ZIP Code, and then click the Add Zip button.
4. Repeat step 3 to add more ZIP Codes, as needed.
5. To identify a center of the community, click the Add Center button. The pin is added to the center of the map.
6. To set the center pin in a specific area, drag the pin to the location you choose. You may need to drag the map to get to the location of your choice.
7. Click the Done button.

To edit a community

1. In the Actions column, click the Edit Community icon.
2. In the Edit Community window, make the changes you want. You can add or delete ZIP Codes. You can also add or move a center of the community.
3. Click the Done button.

Note: If you want to delete a center, you need to delete the community and then create a new one with the same ZIP Codes.

To delete a community

• In the Actions column, click the Delete icon.

Search Widget

If you have a separate website or blog, you can provide MLS Search for your visitors. When visitors click Search, they will be taken to your Vision site to see listings. Simply copy the code into your site or blog, and you can increase the value for visitors and drive traffic to your Vision website.

To open the Search Widget page

1. In the left navigation, under Admin, click Website.
2. Click Search Widget.

To add a MLS Search to a website or blog

1. Copy all the text that is in the text box, including the start and end tags.
2. Paste the code in the code for your website or blog.

Alerts

When you set up alerts, you receive notification of new prospects and new messages from your prospects (Fig 18). The notifications can be sent to your cell phone, if it is enabled to receive text messages, or an email address, or both. You can be notified instantly so you do not have to check the system frequently to know about new prospects.

Figure 18 Text message alert set up in the Admin section

You will receive notifications when:

• A new prospect signs up on your website.
• A prospect clicks Request More Information when viewing a listing.
• A prospect clicks Request a Visit when viewing a listing.
• A prospect sends you an email.
• A lender updates comments on a prospect record (if working with a lender).

You can see alerts that are set up in the alerts list. You can have up to 3 alerts

To open the Alerts page

1. In the left navigation, under Admin, click Website.
2. Click Alerts.

To set up an Alert

1. Click the Add button.
2. To set up a text message alert, enter your cell phone number with no spaces or dashes, and then select your cell phone carrier.
3. To set up an email alert, enter the email address.
4. Click the Add button.

A test message, titled Alert Activation, will be sent to your phone or email address when you add the alert. Check to make sure you receive the test alert. There may be a slight delay before your cell phone carrier sends the alert to your phone.

Email

There are several types of email that are sent from the system to a prospect without any action required by you: welcome email, listing alert campaign messages, initial contact email, and listing alerts. On the Email tab, you can review and update some of the text that the system sends to prospects. You can also add or edit message templates and change the email signature for all correspondence.

Welcome Email
A welcome email is sent to prospects when they sign up on your website. It contains their login information and instructions on how to return to the site. You can view the full text sent to a prospect in the Emails Sent to Prospect section of the prospect's Summary page. The welcome email contains critical login information. To ensure that it avoids most spam blockers, we do not allow you to change this email.

Note: If the prospect's email account does not accept this message, the system assumes that the prospect provided an invalid email address and does not allow the prospect to sign into your website. If the prospect provides a new email account, the system will send a new welcome email.

Listing Alert Campaign
The system will send automatic emails at two weeks, one month, and three months if the prospect has not set up any listing alerts and if the prospect has not sent you any email. You can view and update these emails on the Listing Alert Campaign page

Initial Contact Wizard
The Initial Contact Wizard will send an email to prospects 12 hours after they sign up if they did not provide a phone number and if you have not yet completed the Initial Contact Wizard. At the time that you use the Initial Contact Wizard, you can make some changes to the email before sending it.

Listing Alerts
Prospects who are signed up for Listing Alerts, either by themselves or by you, will receive listing alerts automatically. For more information, see the Listing Alerts section.

Message Templates
Message templates provide pre-written text for you to use in new email messages that you send prospects. You can use the ones provided by the system ‘as-is’ or edit them to meet your needs. In addition you can create your own custom templates. When you create a new email or reply to an email, the message templates are available in a dropdown list.

Email Signature
The system adds an email signature that includes your name and contact information to all messages sent by you or by the system. You can view and edit the signature on the Email Signature page.

Site Activity

The Site Activity page shows you the visitor and prospect performance of your website. You can see the number of prospects you have received by source for up to the last 12 months. You can also see detailed source information—such as how many people are coming to your site because of your automatic listings on sites like Trulia.com or personal marketing campaigns—for up to the last 90 days as well as which sources generated prospects.

Performance Evaluator

The Performance Evaluator helps you monitor your performance. You may see several personal statistics based on your account as well as explanations of the statistics and information about what is normal and expected.

Setting Up a Fake User for Testing

Many agents set themselves up as a fake prospect to help them understand what the experience is for a prospect who registers on their website. With a fake prospect, you can view listings, look at your website from a prospect’s point of view, and send yourself the same emails you send to your prospects. With an understanding of how the website works for a prospect, you will be able to provide better assistance to your prospects when they contact you.

To set up a fake prospect

1. Go to your website.
2. If you are already signed in, you must first sign out. In the upper-right corner, click Sign Out.
3. Click the My Tools tab to quickly access the Registration Form.
4. Complete the registration form as if you were a prospect. DO NOT use your Vision system email address as the prospect’s email address. Use a prospect name and email address that you will quickly identify as your test account.
5. Click the View Listings button.

Accessing Vision on Your Cell Phone

You don’t have to be in front of a computer to access your Vision account. Logging into Vision on your smartphone will give you access to the most important parts of your account: email messages and your prospects. You can access Vision on any smartphone, but for the best experience, use a phone running Windows Mobile or an iPhone.

To access Vision on a smartphone

1. On the phone, open your web browser.
2. Go to http://www.servingmainstreetusa.com/m/
3. Log in with your normal login information.

Section 3: Using the System as a Broker or Team Leader

Note: This section covers features for brokers and team leaders. For the entire section, the term "broker" refers to brokers and team leaders and the term "brokerage" refers to brokerages and teams.

Best Practices

Add new agents as soon as possible.
When you first get your login and password information, log in to the system and add agents right away. Some of our advertising goes live the instant your site is up, so you don't want your agents to miss any valuable prospects. If you do not have any agents set up in the system, incoming prospects will be assigned to you. To learn how to add agents, see the Agents section.

Use the team flag to identify agent partners who work as one unit.
For agent partners who work together, enter both agents' names the Name field (for example, "John & Susie Smith"), and then select the Team check box. When this check box is selected, the system will change outgoing messages to use "we" instead of "I."

Post your listings on Craigslist.
Craigslist is a great source of visitors, and you can substantially add to the number of prospects you get each month by posting your listings on Craigslist. You should assign one agent or member of your office staff the task of posting listings to Craigslist. Posting 5 listings in the morning and 5 in the afternoon will only take about 15 minutes each day, and the impact can be substantial. For instructions on how to post to Craigslist, see the Posting Listings on Craigslist section of the Agent Manual.

Participate in the Referral Network.
Referrals are prospects who are working with an agent in the Vision network to buy a home but are selling a home outside of that agent's area. You can easily accept referrals and assign an agent to start working with the prospect to sell the home. For more information on referrals, see the Referrals section.

Set expectations with your agents.
When you start using the system and anytime you add a new agent, be clear about the tasks that an agent must do and how often. At the minimum, agents should log in every day to check for messages and new prospects. Agents should respond to messages within 12 hours.

Monitor your agents.
Take a few minutes each day to make sure your agents are following up with prospects in a timely manner. Vision provides a number of ways to monitor the agents in your brokerage. If an agent is not following up with prospects, you can follow up on behalf of the agent, reassign prospects to another agent, or even lock the agent out of the system. To learn more about monitoring your agents, see the Broker Tools section. To learn more about the statistics that the system tracks, see the Performance Evaluator section.

Make sure agents follow up with prospects who have Call Center stars.
If you are using the Call Center, make sure that agents follow up quickly with all prospects that the Call Center indicates want immediate follow-up. These prospects are marked by a star with a green plus sign. Because these prospects want to be contacted immediately, they are more likely to purchase or sell a home in the near future, which is good for the agent and the brokerage.

Section 4: Broker and Team Leader Manual

Note: This section covers features for brokers and team leaders. For the entire section, the term "broker" refers to brokers and team leaders and the term "brokerage" refers to brokerages and teams.

Broker Dashboard

When you log in to your account, the Dashboard displays an overview of activity. You can use it as an entry point to many parts of the site.

Figure 19 Broker Dashboard

Waiting Prospects. See all prospects with a status of New. If the list is long, make sure that your agents are quickly following up with prospects and changing the status.

Waiting Messages. See all the messages that have not been filed. Prospects are waiting for answers to some messages, but some just need to be filed. Make sure your agents are filing messages after they respond.

Agent Activity. See when your agents last logged in to the system

Visitor Chart. Quickly check the number of visitors, grouped by source, who have come to your website in the last 30 days.

New Prospects. Quickly check the number of new prospects your brokerage has received in the last 30 days.

Recent Prospects Online. See a snapshot of the prospects who have most recently visited your website. For a full list of prospects who have visited your site in the last 48 hours, click Recent Prospects Online.

Broker Tools

Waiting Messages

The Waiting Messages page shows all messages that have not been filed. Encourage agents to file all messages when they respond, so this list shows only messages that require a response.

To open the Waiting Messages page

• In the left navigation, under Broker Tools, click Waiting Messages.

To view a message

• In the Subject column, click the message that you want to view.

To file a message

• In the Actions column, click the File message icon.

If Agents Are Unable to Respond to Messages

If you know that an agent is temporarily unable to respond to messages, you can respond on the agent's behalf. The prospect will think the message is coming from the agent, so don't include anything in the message that will make the prospect question the origin. It is important for prospects to have only one point of contact at your brokerage. If an agent will not be available for an extended time or has left the brokerage, you can assign a different agent to the prospect.

To reply to the message

• In the Actions column, click the Reply icon.

To assign a different agent to the prospect

• In the Actions column, click the Transfer prospect icon.

Call Center

If your brokerage uses the Call Center, there will be a Call Center tab in the Broker Tools section. You can see the 20 most recent Call Center comments. Prospects with a star with a green plus sign next to their names have requested an agent follow up with them immediately. Agents should call or email prospects with stars as soon as possible.

To open the Call Center page

• In the left navigation, under Broker Tools, click Call Center.

To respond to the prospect as the agent

• In the Actions column, click the Send email icon.

To assign a different agent to the prospect

• In the Actions column, click the Transfer prospect icon

Agents

The Agents tab lists all your agents and allows you to search for an agent, add a new agent, or send an email to agents. You can also quickly review the following information:

Status. There are 5 types of status for agents: active, inactive, temporarily inactive, deactivated, and vacation. For an agent to receive new prospects, his or her status must be active. You, as the broker, set the active or inactive status when you decide whether to put an agent in rotation for new prospects. The system triggers temporarily inactive status and deactivated status based on the agent's behavior. The agent sets vacation status by clicking the On Vacation link on any page.

Last Activity. The last time the agent used the system.

Follow-up Rating. How often the agent responds to prospects within the first 12 hours. For more information, under the agent's name, click Stats.

Temporarily Inactive. The number of times that the system made the agent temporarily inactive for failure to log in within 24 hours of receiving a new prospect.

Months on System. The number of months that the agent has been on the system.

Total Prospects. The total number of prospects currently assigned to the agent.

Total Sales. The total number of sales that an agent has completed.

Figure 20 Agents tab in the Broker Tools section

To open the Agents page

• In the left navigation, under Broker Tools, click Agents.

To view the Profile page for an agent

• In the Agent column, under the name of the agent, click Profile.

To view the Performance Evaluator for an agent

• In the Agent column, under the name of the agent, click Stats.

For more information, on the Performance Evaluator page of the system, read the description section for each statistic.

To add an agent

1. At the top of the Agents tab, click Add an agent.
2. On the Add an Agent page, enter all required fields, including at least one phone number.
3. If this agent profile represents a team, enter both names in the Name text box, and then select the Team check box. The system will change automatic email messages to represent a team, for example by using "we" instead of "I."
4. For existing email, enter an email address that is not part of the Vision system.
5. If you don't want this agent to receive prospects, clear the Include in rotation check box.
6. If you don't want this agent to be able to log in to his or her Vision account, clear the Account Access check box.
7. If you don't want this agent's prospects to receive calls from the Call Center, clear the Call Center check box.

BEST PRACTICE: Include a picture for every agent. When prospects see that your agents are real people, they are more likely to make contact. Each picture should be a JPEG that is 130 pixels tall and 100 pixels wide.

To resend an agent's login credentials

1. On the Agents tab, under the name of the agent, click Profile.
2. If you don't see the agent's name, you can enter the first or last name in the text box at the top, and then click the Find Agents button.
3. Click Resend welcome email.
4. The email will be sent to the email address that is not part of the Vision system.

To delete an agent

• In the Agent column, under the name of the agent, click Delete.

Creating Email-Only Accounts

There may be people in your office who need email accounts but aren't agents, for example office support staff. When you create an email-only account, no page is added to your website, and the user will not be listed as an agent with your brokerage.

Figure 21 Email-Only Accounts page

To open the Email-Only Accounts page

1. In the left navigation, under Admin, click Email.
2. Click Email-Only Accounts.

To add an email-only account

1. Under New Email-Only Accounts, enter an email prefix, password, and existing email address for each new account. Note: Enter an existing email address that is not part of the Vision system.
2. Click the Add button.

To edit email-only accounts

1. Next to Current Email-Only Accounts, click Edit.
2. Enter new information, and then click the Save Changes button.

To delete an email-only account

1. Under Current Email-Only Accounts, find the email prefix that you want to delete.
2. To the right of the Existing Email for the account, click the Delete icon.

To resend login credentials for an email-only account

1. Click the Resend welcome email icon.
2. The email will be sent to the email address that is not part of the Vision system.

Email Agents

You can easily send an email to all your agents, all active agents, or all inactive agents.

Figure 22 Email Agents page

To email agents

1. In the left navigation, under Broker Tools, click Agents.
2. At the top of the Agents tab, click Email agents.
3. In the Send to list, select who you want to send the email message to.
4. Enter a subject line.
5. Enter the text of the email.
6. Click the Send button.

Agent Profile

When you click the Profile link under an agent's name on the agent list, you will see the agent profile. Each profile contains the following information:

• Name
• Cell phone number
• Login
• Vision email address
• Email address outside of the Vision system
• Account password
• Website address
• Agent MLS IDs
• Additional Information (information that will appear in the footer of the website)
• Bio & Awards
• Picture

Additionally, the profile shows you if the agent is set up to receive new prospects, if the agent can log in to his or her account, and if the agent's prospects are set up to receive calls from the Call Center.

To edit an agent profile

1. On the Profile page, click the Edit button.
2. Enter information that you want to change.
3. To change whether the agent receives new prospects, click the Include in rotation check box.
4. To change whether the agent can log in, click the Account Access check box.
5. To change whether this agent's prospects will receive calls from the Call Center, click the Call Center check box.
6. Click the Save button.

To upload a new picture

1. On the Profile page, click the Edit button.
2. Under Current Photo, click the Browse button, and then select the picture you want to upload.
3. At the bottom of the page, click the Save button.

Performance Evaluator

The Performance Evaluator helps you compare the performance of each agent to national averages. The system pulls statistics and in many cases provides a rating. Read the description section for details on each statistic.

Figure 23 Performance Evaluator

To see an agent's statistics

• On the Agents tab, under the name of the agent, click Stats. If you don't see the agent's name, you can enter the first or last name in the text box at the top, and then click the Find Agents button.

To see your personal statistics if you also help prospects buy and sell homes

• In the left navigation, under Admin, click Performance Evaluator.

Prospects

To learn about the Prospects features, see the Prospects section of the Agent manual.

Manage Listings

To learn about the Manage Listings features, see the Manage Listings section of the Agent manual.

Admin

To learn about the Admin features, see the Admin section of the Agent manual

Referrals

The Referral Network connects you with professional real estate agents nationwide. When prospects are moving to a new area, they need to work with an agent to sell the home they have and an agent to buy the new home. Referrals help you, your prospects, and other real estate agents in the network.

Incoming Referrals

Prospects who register on other brokerage websites who need to sell a home in your area will appear on the Incoming Referral list for you to review. As soon as possible, review the terms. If you agree to the terms, assign an agent, and accept the prospect.

Figure 24 Incoming Referrals tab

To open the Incoming Referrals page

• In the left navigation, click Referrals.

To accept a referral

1. In the Actions column, click Accept.
2. Review the terms of the referral. If you agree, click the I agree to the referral terms above check box.
3. In the Assign to agent list, select an agent.
4. Click the Accept Referral button.

Note: If you don't agree to the terms, then click the Cancel button.

Outgoing Referrals

When your brokerage has a prospect who needs to sell a home outside of your area, the prospect is referred to other real estate brokerages who serve that area.

Figure 25 Outgoing Referrals tab

To open the Outgoing Referrals page

1. In the left navigation, click Referrals.
2. Click the Outgoing Referrals tab.

The Outgoing Referrals page contains the following information for each referral:

• Name
• Agent
• Property information
• Date the prospect signed up on the agent's website
• Brokerage the prospect was referred to
• Date the brokerage accepted the referral

Mortgage Lender

You can track how often the featured lender has logged in to the site and the number of prospects your agents have sent to the lender for pre-approval. The Mortgage Lender page also includes the lender's contact information.

The system will notify you if your lender partner hasn't logged in within 72 hours. If the lender does not log in regularly, you might want to work with a different lender.

Figure 26 Mortgage Lender page with notification

To open the Mortgage Lender page

• In the left navigation, click Mortgage Lender

Section 5: Using the System as a Lender

Best Practices

Every prospect in the system has requested a pre-approval.
Inform the prospects how you got their contact information, so they don't think it's a cold call. Make sure they know you are responding to a pre-approval request from your real estate partner's website.

It's important to contact new prospects right away.
If you don't call or email new prospects within the first few hours they will more then likely forget they requested the pre-approval or have moved on to request information from other lenders. Either way the longer you take to follow up the less responsive the prospect may be.

Include your full URL in welcome email.
Every prospect receives an automatic welcome email with text that you can customize. If you have a secure online application, make sure to put the full we address (URL) in the Application Link text box on the Profile Info page of the Admin section.

Share comments with agents.
The more information you share with your agents the more info they will share with you. Remember to share comments with your agents to keep all parties in the loop and to make this process as efficient as possible.

Build relationships.
A good relationship with the agents on the system is essential for your success. If you have never met some of the agents on the system, set up a lunch meeting with the active ones and introduce yourself. The agents can send you prospects as well, so with the proper relationship in place you can double or even triple the prospects you receive. Before sending you prospects, agents need to know you and trust that you will handle the prospect quickly and properly. So with a little face time and the proper use of the system you can be sitting on the web's best source of prospects possible.

Section 6: Lender Manual

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My Inbox Reminders

When you log in to your account, My Inbox displays your reminders in order by due date. Scan the list to easily see the prospects who need immediate attention. You can quickly go to the details page for a specific prospect by clicking the prospect's name.

If the list of reminders is long, you can filter it by using the dropdown lists just above the list of reminders.

To show the list of reminders in the opposite order

• Click Due Date.

To show only reminders due in a particular time period

• Click the arrow next to All, and then select the time period you want.

To add a reminder

1. Click the Add a Reminder button.
2. In the Add a Reminder window, enter the due date and select a prospect to associate.
3. Enter the reminder, and then click the Save button.

Prospects

Organization and Lists

You can see all your prospects in the Prospects section. Simply click Prospects in the left navigation. Each prospect has one status assigned at a time (New, Retry, Active, Inactive, Qualified, Unqualified, Hot, Closed, or Trash). The prospect list shows all New prospects by default. With the exception of Trash, changing a prospect's status will not delete, unsubscribe or change the prospect in any way.

You can change a prospect's status as often as you want. Keeping the prospect status up to date will help you focus on the prospects who need your attention and who are most likely to become clients. Good use of status will help you save you time and prioritize your tasks.

To change a prospect's status

• In the Status column, click the dropdown menu, and then click the new status.

Note: If the Status list is any value other than All, then the prospect will disappear from the list when you change the status.

To see the prospects with one status

• In the Status list, click the status.

You can assign status in the way that works best for you, but we recommend the following use for each status type.

Prospect Status Definitions

New
All prospects that you have not yet contacted. After you have attempted to contact a prospect, change the status to the Retry or Active, based on the response. You should only keep prospects in the New folder that you have not attempted to contact yet; therefore, this folder should usually be empty.

Retry
Any prospects that you need to proactively contact and monitor. As soon as possible, you should contact all prospects who have recently visited the website (see the Last Action date) with whom you have not been in recent contact.

Active
Any prospect that falls between Retry and Hot. These prospects are engaging with you but may not be ready to buy right now. This list generally includes people who are contacting you with questions by email.

Inactive
Prospects who haven't contacted you or visited the site in over two weeks. Many prospects become Inactive. When a prospect has not returned to the website for a long time, they are not likely to become clients. Focus your efforts on prospects in the Hot, Retry, and Active lists.

On the Recent Site Activity page you can see if any of the Inactive prospects come back to the site. If they do, change their status to Retry.

Hot
Prospects who are working with you for a pre-approval.

Qualified
Prospects you have determined are qualified for lending.

Unqualified
Prospects you have determined are unqualified for lending

Closed
Customers who have closed on their home.

Trash
Prospects who have asked to stop receiving email, unsubscribed themselves, or have no valid phone number or email address. Use this status very rarely or not at all. A prospect marked as Trash will be automatically removed from automatic emails and listing alerts.

Defining Your Own Status Values
It is not possible to define your own status values. However, if you prefer to use a different method of keeping organized, you can create standard comments for each prospect in the Comments section on the prospect's Summary page. To find all the prospects of a certain classification, use Find Prospects (see below) to search for any prospects based on the comments you entered. In effect, this lets you make unlimited prospect groups of your own design.

Find Prospects

You can search for prospects by name, email address, phone number, or text in the Comments. For more information on how to search by comments as a technique for organization, see the Organization and Lists section.

Prospect Details Section

The Prospect Details section contains valuable information on each prospect grouped by tabs: Summary and Listing Alerts & Viewed Listings. The Summary page contains all information for a prospect, including any reminders, comments, and settings specific to the prospect. On the Listing Alerts & Viewed Listings page, you can view all the listings the prospect has viewed on the website, any listings the prospect has saved, and listing alerts set up for the prospect.

Prospect Summary

The Summary page contains all information for a prospect, including any reminders, comments, and settings specific to the prospect

In addition to the fields an agent can see, the lender has access to the prospect’s self-reported credit the prospect may have entered on the website when submitting a request for pre-approval.

To learn more about the prospect's Summary page, see the Prospects section of the Agent manual.

Prospect Comments & Sharing Comments with an Agent

On the prospect's Summary page, the comments section provides a place to record anything that happens with a prospect that is not already documented in the system. You can enter notes on phone calls or copy and paste emails sent from another email address (Fig 27). You can share comments with your agent partner. The agent will then be able to see this when he or she reviews the comments. The agent also has the ability to share comments with you.

To share comments with your agent partner

• Select the Share check box when you add a new comment.

Figure 27 The comments box on the Prospect Details page allows you to keep detailed prospect notes

Listing Alerts & Viewed Listings

On the Listing Alerts & Viewed Listings page, you can view all the listings the prospect has viewed on the website. We provide Lenders access to this page so they can have insight into what type of properties interest the prospect and how serious the prospect is.

Listing Alerts

Listing Alerts notify prospects of new properties on the market that match their search criteria. You can review this list to see what types of properties the prospect wants to be notified about.

Viewed & Saved Listings

On the Listing Alerts & Viewed Listings page in the Prospect Details section, you can see a list of every listing a prospect has viewed, organized by date. You can also see which homes a prospect has saved. Any listings with an icon of a house with a red X are no longer on the market. For more information on Listings, see the Listings section in the Agent manual.

To view a listing

• Under Viewed Listings, in the MLS# column, click the MLS#.

Figure 28 The Viewed Listings section shows you all the listings a prospect has viewed on your website

Tracking a prospect’s behavior on the site lets you observe, analyze, and ultimately help a prospect. Internet prospects often hide behind their anonymity, but being able to observe their behavior allows you to see their interests and market to them. Observing the Viewed & Saved listings may help you gauge how seriously a prospect is looking for a home

Admin

The admin section allows you to update the contact information that appears on the website, set up or delete alerts, and update the welcome email that the system automatically sends to prospects.

Website

To update the contact information

1. On the Website tab, click Profile Info.
2. Click the Edit button.
3. Enter new information in the text boxes that you want to change, and then click the Save button

Note: To see the new content on the website, go to the site or refresh the page in your web browser.

Alerts

When you set up alerts, the system will notify you each time you receive a new pre-approval request and when your agent shares a comment with you. Alerts can help you provide excellent service to each prospect and ensure you are notified immediately of any agent updates.

To sign up for alerts

1. On the Website tab, click Profile Info.
1. On the Website tab, click Alerts. 2. Click the Add button. 3. In the Add Alert window, do one or both of the following: a. To sign up for text message alerts, enter a cell phone number, and then select a cell phone carrier. b. To sign up for email alerts, enter an email address. 4. Click the Add button.

To stop receiving alerts

1. On the Website tab, click Alerts.
2. Next to the email address or cell phone number, click Delete.

Welcome Email

Every time that you receive a new prospect, the system automatically sends the prospect a welcome email. You can update the subject and body text of the welcome email on the Email page of the Admin section.

To change the welcome email text

1. Click the Email tab.
2. Edit the subject line or body text of the email.
3. Click the Save button.