Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past decade, there’s a strong likelihood that technology has revolutionised your life. If you are involved in small business, however, you might want to ask yourself whether technology has altered your life enough?
Small businesses probably stand to gain the most from putting tech to use. The other side of this coin is that small businesses that don’t avail themselves of the latest technology, might have the most to lose.
Nowhere is the ‘techno advantage’ more apparent than in the field of real estate. This became impossible to ignore during the coronavirus pandemic, when agents and agencies who were up-to-speed on the most recent virtual property marketing tools were able to reap enormous dividends when lockdowns prevented in-person real estate showings.
When lockdowns were imposed across the world, the real estate agents who had already taken the time to familiarise themselves with the latest virtual property marketing technology were immediately in pole position. BoxBrownie.com rose to prominence during the pandemic for ours offering of virtual property marketing services, such as 360 o virtual tours, 3D floor plans and virtual staging.
What we saw right off the bat was that agents who had made it a priority to learn the latest tech were able to adapt to the pandemic without losing a step. Agents who depended almost entirely on more traditional marketing methods were at a massive disadvantage, compared to their tech-savvy colleagues.
Before the pandemic, there was a strong culture of “if it’s not broke, why fix it” in the real estate industry. There was a mindset that just ignored the possibility of innovation. Perhaps it was a general trepidation towards new technology. But now many people, especially in real estate, have become convinced at the value of the new marketing technologies.
Real estate, in particular, is an industry where small businesses can get a massive boost from the latest tech. This does not mean that a business shouldn’t think carefully about what technology to use and/or which provider to go with.
There are some important questions each small business needs to ask itself as it weighs up the potential of a new technology:
- How does it impact your agency operationally?
- How does it impact your clientele, tenants, landlords, sellers, buyers?
- How does it impact your employees?
- What is the cost of the software weighed up against a potential return on investment.
- Are there alternatives?
Once a business is able to answer these sorts of questions it will then be in a better position to answer the most important question of all: Should we adopt it?
Though virtual property marketing technology has been credited with saving the real estate industry during a COVID crisis that logically should have destroyed it, this also had what might be deemed “the charlatan effect”. With agents scrambling to put proptech to work, many fly-by-night organisations came out of the woodwork claiming to offer virtual tours or virtual staging, without being able to deliver a quality product in the timelines the agents required.
There were numerous groups out there offering what they called “virtual tours”. Agents would submit their images, pay their money and what they’d get back would be a slideshow, which is not a virtual tour at all.
Technology can be a small business’s best friend – but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t choose your friends carefully.
