The real estate industry has very complex communication requirements & the features of the NEWT PBX makes it the perfect real estate business phone system.
The city of Orillia is located 135 km north of Toronto, and is one of Ontario’s premier cottage and waterfront destinations. The area has a rich history dating back thousands of years ago, where Native North Americans populated the area for trading, fishing and hunting. Nowadays however, Orillia’s population has grown to just over 30,000 and boasts an economy that has consistently grown over recent years.
The Stoutt family, much like the city their agency is currently located in, has a rich history in real estate that dates back to 1952, when Steve and Daniel Stoutt’s grandfather first opened Stoutt Agencies. Now, two generations of realtors later, Steve and Dan, along with their father Don, run their own RE/MAX franchise in Orillia and currently employ approximately 50 agents. We caught up with Steve to talk about the day-today activities that go on in the RE/Max Orillia and how the NEWT Business Phone System plays a role in those activities.
One of the major ways the NEWT system was able to help the RE/MAX Orillia save time and effort involved the ease at which they can now bill their agents for their phone calls. “When we used to receive our phone bills from our previous phone company, it would take the better part of a day or two to sort through our approximately 50 agents” exclaims Steve. With the Call Detailed Records feature from NEWT, the accounting department at RE/MAX Orillia can now see agent-specific call records that give the time, location, and length of each call made. When asked about how long it takes them to bill agents now with the NEWT PBX in place, Steve says “within an hour”.
The Enhanced Call Detailed Records feature from NEWT is designed to save real estate agencies time and effort when trying to allocate costs for multiple agents and the calls they’ve made. If a real estate agent has multiple people that work for him/her, the NEWT Business Phone System can pool together all calls made from their group of extensions by provisioning each of their extensions with a code specific for their group. A report on all calls that are part of that group via the code number can then be generated, allowing for accurate reporting on calls placed by the agent and his/her employees. The Enhanced CDR feature is also capable of automatically sending daily, weekly, or monthly reports via email.
Steve also likes how much the NEWT system works with the RE/MAX agents, many of whom are working remotely. “If a call comes to the front desk, we can forward the call to them, it’ll go to their extension at their desk, it’ll go to their cottage, it’ll go wherever they want to be”.
The NEWT Softphone allows agents to conduct business as usual regardless of their location. As long as they have an internet connection, agents can log in using their laptop or home desktop and have access to all the features offered through their NEWT PBX. Furthermore, when they make an outbound call using the Softphone, the recipient of the call will see the caller ID from the PBX, and not from wherever the agent is calling from.
When asked if he would recommend NEWT to other businesses and in particular real estate agencies, Steve was quick to reply, “I would highly recommend NEWT . . . it’s great, it’s efficient . . . it gives us and the agents what they need”.
Re/Max Orillia – Why they switched
For more on what NEWT Business Phone System and NEWT Business Internet Services can do for you and your business, please drop by the NEWT Website or give us a call at 1 (888) 996-6398.
