The real estate chain Coldwell Banker, the iPad is the perfect tool. Soon after the first iPad was unveiled, the company ordered the tablet for both its company and the many field personnel selling home across the country. Today, there are about 50-75 iPads in use internally with every field office using the iPad, along with a customize app displaying videos of available homes.
“The iPad is perfect for luxury upscale clients,” Anna Visioli, Director of Interactive Production at Coldwell Banker, recently told us. Discussions with prospective home buyers often happen on the hood of a car or at a coffee table, making the iPad just right for showing videos and its touch-screen capability is more approachable than the traditional laptop. Additionally, with apps such as DocuSign, clients can sign electronic papers on the spot.
“The iPad is a very visual device. We saw it as a mini TV,” said David Marine, Coldwell Banker Senior Director of Consumer Experience. Although the tablet has seen amazing early adoption, the company has to deal with customers who aren’t at that leading edge. As one example, the company gave an iPad to an older agent who was having a run of bad luck turning prospects into sales. Following the device, the agent sold 7 out of 7 properties, Visioli said.
Although the iPad broadens the possible uses of tablets in business, the Coldwell executives urge a take-it-slow process. “You cannot look at the iPad like a mobile phone,” Marine advises. While it is often thought adopting an iPad means you’ll need to create your own app, that isn’t so, according to Visioli. She suggests using the basic Keynote app to create simple presentations. From there, start small and learn what is capable with the iPad, she adds.
Marine chuckled when he read a rival real estate firm promoting its introduction of an iPad app. “What took you so long?” he asks.
