Showcase IDX updates showcaseidx.com

We work hard to continue to provide you with the tools and knowledge needed to grow your business and make your life easier. This is why we are constantly looking for ways to enhance and further innovate the Showcase IDX WordPress plugin. One of the latest examples is the recent improvements to the notes feature on the lead profile pages.

We help you keep track of important notes on your leads! Add and manage important notes and comments on each of your leads, so you can keep track. These notes are viewable internally to your team in the IDX control panel only and are especially useful in support of continuity between agents and the sharing of important notes on leads when reassigned from one teammate to another.

These latest enhancements include:

• Improved performance and responsiveness: Now notes display instantly when added, without needing to refresh the page.
• Delete old or unwanted notes: Want to remove an old note? Made a mistake? No problem! Now you can delete it.
• Transparency and continuity: Now the name of the agent who posted the note appears next to it. This is especially useful for agents receiving reassigned leads, as it lets them know who to reach back to for more information on a specific comment.

Check it out on the Showcase IDX WordPress plugin today!

New

As recently mentioned, we have been working closely on a multiphase effort to enhance the featured sign-up and sign in forms on agent websites in a continued effort to increase lead conversion. We are confident that this effort will improve the already good conversion rates on websites powered by Showcase IDX, and is also an effort that we will continue to look at in both the short and long term.

We have completed Phase 2 of the sign up form CRO enhancements! In this second phase, we added a setting that allows agents to toggle the Social sign-up and login functionality off and on as desired. This also includes the ability to edit and customize the header and value text added in Phase 1.

• Please note that Social sign-up and sign in option remains “on'' by default. Note: For longtime Showcase IDX customers and those with many leads, please consider your leads who are currently using Social Media to sign in before choosing to disable that option, to prevent unintentionally hindering them from signing in.
• Want to change the ‘Create A Free Account’ heading to something that better reflects your brand, style, flair, and… YOU? No problem! Now you can customize it!
• You can also edit the value text! The value text now included provides a quick statement letting the consumer know the value they will gain from signing up.
  • Note: Agents could have added this type of “value text” before with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) if they possessed that skill set or went to a developer, but now are able to simply change that text in the settings.

Watch this quick video that demos these new settings!

We have been working closely with a CRO expert that spends millions of dollars a year on driving leads, specifically within real estate.

In partnership, their efforts and observations, combined with our own team’s thorough research, across other industries as well, have led us to apply these changes to the featured sign-up forms on agent websites in a continued effort to increase lead conversion. We are confident that this effort will improve the already good conversion rates on websites powered by Showcase IDX, and is also an effort that we will continue to look at in both the short and long term. This is a multiphase effort and we’ve just released Phase 1!

• Phase 1 (Just Released): This initial phase includes enhancements to the sign-up form’s layout (includes both hard and soft prompts). This will keep with the form’s current functionality, but make it more visually appealing and streamlined, as well as introduce a powerful headline and value text.

Here is an example:

• Headline: “Create Your Free Account”
• Action Statement: “Get instant access to new inventory. Save searches and receive email alerts on new homes, price reductions, and status changes.”

This new version of the form is replacing the previous version. If you have applied custom CSS to your IDX to modify the previous form, that CSS is likely no longer needed and should be reviewed and/or deleted.

Stay tuned for Phase 2!

• We care greatly about the user experience (we always have!). As such, our team has been heavily focused on Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), which includes this week’s improvements to the listing summary pop-up on the map display. The previous user experience included only an image of the listing and limited information.

  • Now, your consumers are presented additional value-add information, such as price, property type, status, and more!

  • Not only does this enhancement look more attractive, it also follows best practices from what we have seen in multiple successful websites, such as eCommerce, which implement these attractive ‘quick views’, to engage viewers and increase consumer conversion. This is all part of our renewed and ongoing efforts for optimization. Expect more CRO updates coming in the next few weeks too.

• We are sure you also noticed an update to the WordPress plugin (version 3.1.8). There are a ton of optimization pieces we have made, so be sure to update!

• The team continues to be both hyper-vigilant and hyper-sensitive toward preventing spam - we hate spam and so do you!
  • In continuation with our proactive stance towards eliminating pesky and annoying spam, we have recently implemented “honeypot” protection.
  • This mitigative method and security mechanism immediately blocks forms from submitting when spam bot activity is detected.
  • It doesn’t stop there! We are continuing to evaluate and implement new and proven methods based on industry best standards and add additional layers of security in our fight against spam bots.
• We are continuing to make sure you get the attention and keep your hard won leads! New listing alert emails (aka, search subscriptions) no longer attribute the listing agent or brokerage, so they stay associated with your website.

At Showcase IDX we know that having on-demand access to reliable and accurate data is critical for both your business and your customers. This is no easy task, as there are hundreds of MLSs, each with their own setup of compliances, and updates. Our dedicated data team remains hyper-focused on keeping up with the latest changes and compliances, so you can stay focused on what you do best. Here is a sample of some of the data updates and fixes we have addressed just over the last month:

• Stellar MLS
• Fixed HOA/Condo Fees on Condo property types
• Added directional suffix to street address
• RETS feed was deprecated and moved to MLS Grid
• NWMLS
  • Fixed mapping for Agent and Office IDs
  • Fixed issue where bathrooms were not properly displaying
• CATRS (Tallahassee)
  • Fixed calculation for HOA fees so they display monthly total
  • Fixed issue with open houses
• Smart MLS ‘Coming Soon’ listings now show open houses in the future
• Updated San Diego MLS timezone to provide accurate open house times
• Garden State MLS stopped supporting Coming Soon listings
• Fixed issue with KAAR where some Single Family Homes displayed as Farm listings
• Added search filters for new construction and foreclosure to NJMLS
• Added school district to Northstar MLS
• MIBOR: Fixed an issue where multi-family properties were displaying as “for rent” only
• REIN: Fixed an issue where some Townhouses were displaying as Single Family Homes
• Miscellaneous feed compliance updates

The team also addressed a periodic issue where some streamlined amenity filters would not save when creating a search. Now all amenity filters saved in your search will remain.

• User experience is highly important to us, so we are dedicated to ensuring the best experience possible. As part of this effort we removed an unresponsive “x” close button from the hard registration prompts that appear when a user is searching, and gave the impression that the registration popup could be closed. That “x” close button is now removed, resulting in a more intuitive and streamlined user experience.
• Housekeeping is important, especially with all the exciting improvements and enhancements being applied recently! That’s why we continue to review and tidy up our code. Our latest example is the cleaning up of old code related to when we required leads to “accept” search recommendations, as well as preventing counts from updating for leads with pending searches.

Be sure to check back weekly for more updates as we continue to streamline and apply enhancements to the plugin!

New

• We just made it possible for you to quickly search within your search recommendations using our new search feature!
  • Now agents can quickly search within the search recommendations by lead name (first or last) or the name of the search.

• We also applied some enhancements and fixes to our Slack Integration, such as:
  • Addressed an issue where an extra slash was being introduced to the URLs for “saved search” events, preventing them from opening properly.
  • Enhanced event messaging displays "sent a message" instead of "asked" for each message.

• We get a TON of questions asking “What can I do to get the best results with Showcase IDX?” There’s so much that you can and should be doing! To help make this more convenient for you and to enable self-learning, we have added direct links to our Showcase IDX Support Center to the Agent Command Center/IDX Control Panel and additional resources
  • “Support Center” link next to “Integrations” tab
  • “Resources tab” next to “Settings” tab
    • Support center
    • Live Demo schedule and registration
    • Approved Website Developers
    • Affiliate program signup

• We care about accurate data, and understand that knowing which listings and searches your leads saved is critical for informed follow-up. As such, we fixed an issue impacting the saved/subscribed search and listing count.
  • Now, for example, if a lead saves 10 listings and decides to unsave one of them, that number of saved listings will immediately update to reflect 9 saved listings. This is also true for subscribed searches.
  • We also took the initiative to retroactively review and fix all lead profile pages for active accounts, so now all are up-to-date with the most accurate counts.

Improvement

• Updated the Billing page in Agent Command Center to reflect unsuccessful charges more clearly, including each service and product included in your invoice:

  • If your card information on file for billing has changed or expired and can longer be used for payment, you will now see $0.00 when an automated payment attempt was unsuccessful. Click for screenshot
  • Your invoices now clearly list each product and service included (e.g. ‘Premium - Monthly’ $99.95, ‘FMLS Passthru Fee’ $10.00, etc.; Click for screenshot

• Improved the handling of lead ‘first seen/last seen’ dates on their profiles for more accurate reporting Click for screenshot

• Updated the text on the SEO setting page from “Google Webmaster” to its new name – “Google Search Console”. Click for screenshot