Do you believe these common back office technology myths?
The real estate back office has a reputation for being tedious, time-consuming, and frustrating. Unsurprisingly, this reputation extends to tech that helps you manage your back office. When you think of back office technology, you might think of clunky, hard to use, and outdated tech that makes managing your back office harder.
While some back office tech can be hard to use and outdated, modern back office technology doesn’t fit any of these characteristics. Believing myths like all back office software is clunky and inefficient can stop your brokerage from performing at its best. That’s because you won’t have the right tools to boost productivity, cut costs, and manage more deals.
Wondering what back office myths could be holding your brokerage back? Let’s dive into the first one – back office software is difficult to use.
The first common myth is that back office software is hard to use.
When you think of back office software, you might think of clunky software that makes it difficult to do everything you need. The software you’re thinking of probably has a non-intuitive user interface that makes it nearly impossible to find the data you need when you need it.
While some back office software can be frustrating to use, the right back office software is easy to use and makes everything simpler. Modern back office software has everything you need in one platform. Plus, this platform is easy to navigate with a clean and streamlined user interface. Central document storage also helps you find what you need in seconds.
Thinking that all back office software is hard to use can make you swear off back office software entirely or stick with the wrong software. Either option can keep you from peak back office efficiency – making it harder to reach your brokerage goals.
Another common myth is that back office software only lives in the back office.
Some back office software only runs on a local server and requires a local network connection to access it. If you want to connect to this back office software from outside the office, you have to set up and maintain a VPN – which is time-consuming, complicated, and costly.
Because some back office software only lives in the back office, you make think all back office software is hard to use on the go. However, modern back office software is designed to help you and your team work from anywhere.
Instead of requiring a local server, modern back office software is cloud-based. As such, you and your team can access your back office and documents from anywhere. Some back office solutions also provide a mobile app – so you can access your back office software from any device.
Modern back office software is also faster than local back office solutions. With light, cloud-based architecture, modern back office software can help you get everything done faster. Plus, this software integrates with modern tools you use to manage your brokerage – like Dropbox, Google Drive, and QuickBooks.
The right back office software has the modern features and integrations you need to streamline your back office.
Along with being outdated, another back office software myth is that it’s just transaction management.
Transaction management is an important part of your back office. However, it’s not the only part. Your back office also consists of accounting, commission calculation, agent management, reporting and analytics, and more. But, early back office software focused mostly on transaction management – leading to the misconception that back office software only manages transactions.
While some back office software still only manages transactions, modern back office software helps you manage your entire back office. In one platform, this back office software provides powerful tools to help you increase transaction management efficiency, handle accounting, automate commissions, view real-time reports/analytics, and more.
If you just have a transaction management point solution, you’re missing out on opportunities to further increase back office productivity to help your team manage more deals and increase revenue.
Spreadsheets, paper files, and other manual management methods being as good as back office software is also a common myth.
Before back office software, Excel and pen and paper were the go-to back office management methods. Those methods worked for decades, which can make it difficult to see the value in back office software.
However, back office software not only helps you improve accuracy in your back office. It also helps you get more done with fewer team members.
Your team has to manually enter data into spreadsheets and move it to things like franchise reports. This manual data entry and transfer is prone to human errors that can be hard to spot and time-consuming to fix. Any errors in your back office can cause headaches for clients and create tax or compliance problems for you.
Back office software can read data from your other data sources (like your CRM or MLS) and transfer it between your back office tools (like transaction management and commission calculation). This helps you eliminate human error to save time and improve accuracy.
The right back office software can also help you automate tedious tasks throughout your back office – like data entry, calculations, and creating reports. Automation can help your team manage more transactions without needing to hire more staff. And, it frees up your team to focus on their highest and best use (like working with clients).
Thanks to automation, back office software can do a lot more than spreadsheets or pen and paper.
Another back office software myth is that your brokerage only needs front office software – like a CRM.
Your front office is responsible for generating leads, managing prospect interactions, converting prospects to clients, keeping in touch with clients, and more. So much prospect and client information can be difficult to keep track of without technology.
In contrast, you might think your back office just manages transactions and other post-client tasks. Since the back office doesn’t work directly with clients, you might think there’s no need for back office software.
However, your back office has a huge impact on client satisfaction. How quickly and accurately you can manage transactions can determine whether your clients win or miss out on their dream home. Dealing with paperwork can also be tedious for clients. The right back office software can help you speed up transactions and create a digital experience for your clients – boosting client satisfaction and referrals.
The last common myth is that all back office software is the same.
All back office software manages your back office. Since this software is supposed to do the same thing, you might think that all back office software is the same. So, you might think using whatever back office software you find first or is the cheapest is a good choice.
While all back office software manages your back office in one way or another, not every back office software is modern or user-friendly. The wrong back office software will be slow, clunky, hard to use, inefficient, and overall frustrating.
So, it’s important to choose the right back office software. This software should be cloud-based, and easy to use. And, the right software should consolidate your back office. That way, you only need one platform to manage every aspect of your back office.
The right back office software should also be modular, so you only pay for the modules you need. And, the software should automate tedious tasks throughout your back office and centralize your document storage.
Choosing the right real estate back office software with those features ensures that you’ll maximize efficiency, productivity, and revenue while decreasing costs.
Your back office can be complicated and frustrating to manage. Myths surrounding back office tech (like it being hard to use or outdated) can stop you from adopting the right back office tech to make managing your back office a breeze.
The good news is back office software doesn’t have to be hard to use or limited to in-office use.. This software also helps you manage more than transactions and has many more features than spreadsheets or paper. Back office software is also just as important to the client experience as front office software.
However, it’s important to choose the right back office software to avoid these myths because not all back office software is the same.
If you’re looking for modern and easy-to-use back office software, Brokermint is the way to go. From a complete, cloud-based platform, Brokermint provides everything you need to streamline your back office. Plus, Brokermint has a simple and intuitive user interface that makes managing your back office easy.
Get started maximizing your back office efficiency with your Brokermint demo today.
.png "google-play-badge (1)")
