Does your tech stack help you retain top agents – or drive them to another brokerage?
Attracting and retaining agents is key to your brokerage success. But, even the best support, training, culture, and retention efforts likely won’t be enough if you don’t have the right tech stack.
If your tech is outdated, clunky, hard to use, or disorganized (to name a few), your top agents will struggle to do everything they need to do. Rather than stick with a brokerage that makes daily tasks so difficult, your best agents will leave for another brokerage with better tech.
The good news is it’s easy to fix the top tech issues that drive away agents. We’ll cover the top 7 tech reasons agents leave your brokerage – and what to do about them. To start, let’s take a look at the first reason: outdated tech.
An outdated tech stack is the first tech reason agents leave your brokerage.
While modern brokerage tech solutions are constantly innovating, some brokerage tech is the same as it was decades ago. These dated solutions don’t take advantage of automation, the cloud, mobile apps, and other modern technologies.
If your tech stack is outdated, your agents have to work harder to get everyday tasks accomplished. Agents at other brokerages have the advantage of newer tech, making it hard for your agents to keep up. This can cause your top agents to leave for another brokerage with updated tech.
To update your tech stack to retain agents, you need modern front and back office tech. A predictive CRM and a complete, cloud-based back office platform can modernize your brokerage and provide agents with the tools they need to thrive. That way, you can retain (and attract) top agents.
Another tech problem that could drive agents away from your brokerage is having too many tech tools.
The right tech can help your agents and team with front and back office tasks. With so many tech options available, it’s easy to choose a solution for each aspect you want to manage (like prospect info, marketing, transaction management, accounting, reporting, and more).
However, choosing so many separate solutions can make it hard for agents to find what they need when they need it. Agents also have to learn how to use so many different tech tools, which can be frustrating and time-consuming. Rather than deal with your overwhelming tech stack, agents will leave for a brokerage with simpler technology.
That’s why you need to consolidate your tech stack. Instead of choosing tech that only does one task (like eSignatures), you should choose complete platforms that do many tasks.
A predictive CRM can also help you with lead generation, marketing, websites, and more. And, a complete back office platform can take the place of separate solutions for transaction management, accounting, agent management, eSignature, and more. That way, your agents only need to navigate a few tools – increasing productivity and retention.
Along with having too many tech tools, requiring agents to do everything manually can cause top producers to leave your brokerage.
Automation reduces the work your agents have to do. From data entry, to document creation, to analysis and report generation, and more, automation can help your agents maximize productivity and close more deals. But, if your tech doesn’t offer the automation your agents want, they could leave for another brokerage.
To retain top agents, you need to choose tech with best-in-class automation. You should look for a CRM that generates predictive insights to help your agents know who to contact when. For your back office platform, you should look for a solution that automatically enables seamless data flow and automates data entry.
By updating your tech stack with automation, you can help your agents maximize productivity and generate more revenue – leading to better retention.
Having hard-to-use tech can also cause agents to leave your brokerage.
Technology is supposed to make things easier for your agents. Hard-to-use tech, however, can make even simple tasks time-consuming and frustrating. Your agents have to fight with your tech every time they want to do something. Or, your agents could go tech-free. Either option puts your agents behind the competition – prompting them to leave for another brokerage.
You should make sure any tech you choose is easy to use. It should have a simple design, straightforward navigation, and an intuitive user interface. To make your tech even easier to use, you can look for cloud-based tech that enables your agents to access what they need from anywhere.
Choosing easy-to-use tech ensures that your tech stack helps agents, instead of holding them back. Easy-to-use tech that agents love to use can help you retain agents.
Your agents might also leave your brokerage if your tech has little to no training.
Even the easiest-to-use tech requires instruction to get started. However, many brokerage tech solutions lack adequate training. Your agents are expected to know how to use new tech without much help. This can lead to frustration and agents never getting the full benefits of your tech – prompting top producers to leave for another brokerage.
That’s why it’s important to consider training when choosing tech. Any technology you adopt should come with comprehensive and accessible training. Whether it’s in person or remote, this training should provide agents with everything they need to make the most out of your tech.
With the right training, your agents will know the best way to use your tech to help them maximize their performance, which boosts agent retention.
Slow payment is another tech issue that can cause agents to leave your brokerage.
After agents put in the work to close deals, they want to be paid promptly. But, if your back office team has to manually manage commission calculation and payout, it can take weeks (or months) for agents to get paid. This slow payment can cause top producers to leave for a brokerage that pays faster.
To pay agents faster, you need a complete back office platform with commission automation. This software can quickly pull data, enter commission info in the right place, calculate commissions, and move the info into accounting for payment. Some back office software also has next-day ACH payments to pay your agents even faster.
The right back office software makes it easy to pay agents in a matter of days (instead of weeks or months). Fast commission payout can help you retain top agents.
One last tech reason agents leave your brokerage is that your tech doesn’t have mobile capabilities.
Your agents are on the go all day. Yet, some brokerage tech solutions require your agents to be at the office or on a local network to access what they need.
Any time your agents need to use your tech to create eSignature documents or check their pipeline, they have to waste time going back to the office. This wasted travel time hurts your agents’ productivity and can cause them to look for another brokerage.
That’s why you need brokerage tech with mobile capabilities. Your tech should be cloud-based. This allows your agents to access what they need from anywhere. And, your brokerage tech should also have mobile apps, which make on-the-go access even easier.
Mobile capabilities help your agents get things done on the go and save travel time. By helping your agents maximize their productivity, provide better client service, and close more deals, mobile tech can help you retain your best agents.
Keeping great agents at your brokerage is crucial to your brokerage success. However, even if you have great support, a good culture, and top-notch training, agents might still leave your brokerage.
Why? Because your tech tools are outdated, not consolidated, require too much manual work, are hard to use, have poor training, are slow to pay agents, or lack mobile capabilities. Any of these top tech problems can cause your best agents to leave for a better-equipped brokerage.
To retain your agents, you need better tech tools. If you’re looking for the best tech to help you retain your agents, BoomTown and Brokermint are the way to go.
Both BoomTown and Brokermint offer complete, modern, and easy-to-use platforms. BoomTown and Brokermint also offer automation, great training, and mobile apps. And, Brokermint’s complete back office platform helps you pay agents quickly with next-day ACH payments.
Book your BoomTown and Brokermint demos today to see how the right technology can help you retain your best agents.
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