Midwest Real Estate Data uncovers new insight into the customer experience with Zoom platform

For Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED), a multiple listing service, an unwavering dedication to customer experience is one of its biggest drivers of success. And for Katrina Bressler, this dedication is more than just a job, it’s how she approaches work every day. Having worked at MRED for 17 years in various Help Desk and tech support roles, Katrina now leads the customer experience team with unique insight into common customer issues and the tools needed to deliver quality support to their subscribers.

Katrina depends heavily on technology to enable MRED’s award-winning Help Desk team to provide exceptional customer service to nearly 50,000 subscribers throughout Illinois. When the staff began experiencing audio quality issues that required frequent system rebooting and extended troubleshooting, Katrina knew she needed a more efficient way for her team and subscribers to communicate.

Zoom Phone and Zoom Contact Center help augment customer experience

MRED already used Zoom Meetings for remote collaboration, so they were eager to adopt a familiar platform after trying several phone providers that didn’t meet their needs.

“We went through four phone systems before trying Zoom Phone, but it’s been the best fit for us,” Katrina said. “We were giving our personal cell phones to vendors and subscribers, but with Zoom Phone, we can give out our business lines for them to text.” 

When Zoom Contact Center was launched, Katrina realized the customer support team would benefit even more by combining their unified communications platform with a contact center.

Achieving better transparency in customer service

Katrina worked with Zoom’s Professional Services Organization (PSO) to implement the contact center and enjoyed the collaboration and ongoing follow-up meetings to learn more about the solution. In no time, she took advantage of several contact center features, including an SMS queue, call status views, and work session functions.  

“We can see a live view of how long an agent is in a ‘not ready’ status, which is huge for us,” Katrina said. “Being able to know how long a caller is waiting, along with the ability to check an agent’s availability and transfer them to a different queue from Zoom Contact Center has been great.” 

Katrina also enjoys knowing subscribers won’t be routed to an unavailable agent.  

“Sometimes we have employees who forget to log off at the end of their day, and then their phone rings when our queue is turned back on,” she said. “I like that the work session feature times them out and bumps them out of the queue.” 

What’s more, the “Notify Estimate Wait Time” feature enables Katrina’s team to provide more flexibility for callers who are unable to wait on hold. 

Data and analytics help measure program effectiveness 

Running a high-performing Help Desk isn’t easy, but having access to advanced call metrics gives Katrina more insight into the team’s performance to identify areas for improvement.

Using Zoom’s API, the team plans to merge subscriber data from their Help Desk tickets to measure the effectiveness of their training programs. By linking the two systems, Katrina can compare user queries and calls to the number of training sessions a subscriber attends.

Expanding collaboration technology for remote and hybrid interactions

In addition to Zoom Contact Center, MRED plans to implement Zoom Whiteboard to showcase notes and visual aids, and used Zoom’s PSO once again to turn its boardroom into a Zoom Room for future broadcasting of meetings, events, and training to remote audiences.

“Our Zoom Room is going to make my life so much easier. I look forward to being able to start a meeting with one click from anywhere,” Katrina said.

Katrina also appreciates how easy it is for employees to collaborate, regardless of their technical skills.

Engaging subscribers with interactive virtual events

Zoom’s ease of use carries over into MRED’s subscriber events as well. The company chose Zoom Events to host a virtual “pitch battle” for real estate professionals. The all-in-one virtual event platform enabled attendees to network and interact with one another through a variety of unique features. 

“It was a lot of fun because it was interactive and seemed perfect for Zoom Events versus doing a webinar,” Katrina said. “We had the lobby open for attendees to exchange contact information and receive marketing materials.”

Creating a true partnership with Zoom

The customer experience team at MRED values great service, both as a provider and as a customer. Katrina works closely with the Zoom team to provide product feedback or get help when needed, making the relationship feel more like a partnership. As a result, Katrina has felt comfortable extending the company’s use of Zoom to include more solutions in the platform.

“I have such a pleasure working with everyone at Zoom. I don’t feel like another number in the queue, so that’s why we keep expanding our Zoom product line,” Katrina said. “No matter who I talk to with each product, I feel supported.”