As we head into the active Spring market, there is renewed focus on the Bright MLS experience to make sure subscribers get the right data, statistics and tools 
when and where they need it. This week’s update touches on several key areas that subscribers throughout the Bright territory have told us are critically important to them.
Of primary importance are: the changes made to Days on Market (DOM), continued improvements introduced to Support Team(s), more accessible, innovative and relevant Bright training programs and last, but certainly not least, focusing on the importance of social media engagement, communication and the relevant learnings.
Please read below for specific updates on these important subjects as well as a few areas worthy of note. We hope you will feel free to share this update with your leadership and staff and, of course, members of your Associations.
We welcome your feedback, comments and suggestions on our journey to deliver the best MLS experience in the industry and look forward to hearing from you.
Recent updates and system changes for this week
This week we made updates to Days on Market (DOM) for listings in the Withdrawn status and made changes to search and options in Account & Settings. Here are some of the changes that were made:
- DOM temporarily resets in the Withdrawn status
- The DOM/CDOM for listings that were in the Contingent w/o Kickout (CNTG/No KO) status in MRIS are currently processing. Expected completion is end of this week/early next week.
- MLS numbers for listings associated with the property are now sorted by chronological order in Bright’s 360 Report, new Age Field in Bright Search, and other search and report updates. View the full list of changes.
Three new Professional Designations have been added as options in Account & Settings
Requested Changes and Known Issues List
Bright MLS received a request for a list of suggestions, issues and their priorities from many of our subscribers. Below is a link to the most updated version of the Requested Changes and Known Issues list, which now also includes a timeline associated with most items. This will be available to subscribers starting tomorrow. View the Requested Changes and Known Issues list here.
An Update on the Bright Community Facebook Group
As you likely know, industry expert and former Zillow executive Jay Thompson is lending his talents to monitoring, analyzing and moderating the Bright Community Facebook group, where we are sharing updates in real time and gathering important feedback (comments and suggestions) from subscribers.
There are more than 2,700 subscribers in the group with more being added daily. Bright staff are in the group monitoring feedback and reaching out as they can to help resolve issues. While there is still a good deal of unconstructive negativity in the group, this week we saw some positive posts about training and help that Customer Success Champion James Gaughan provided.
Continuing Improvements to Customer Support
- Continuing to make substantial staff additions to be more accessible to subscribers in need of support. We are continuing to increase the number of Customer Service Representatives who will be answering phones, emails and online chat. This week, we onboarded another group of representatives to start taking calls.
- Decline in average phone wait times. As a result of our recent staffing upgrades, a nearly 25% reduction has been made in average hold times when compared to the previous month. We are working diligently to make further and tangible improvements in this vital area of the company.
Education and training
Save the date: Join us on February 25th for a Special YouTube LIVE Session for Appraisers. Training Specialist Laurie Egbert will lead this session with guest speaker Coleen Morrison, who has more than 32 years of residential and commercial appraisal expertise and is the President of her local chapter of the American Guild of Appraisers.
Encourage your members to participate in this special event or join us for one of our other YouTube LIVE training events.
2018 Government Affairs Grant Annual Report Submissions
Bright MLS is in the process of compiling an area-wide summary that highlights the innovative program results from the 2018 Government Affairs Annual Report submissions and hope to share some of the more innovative ideas with you over the next few weeks. The formal announcement of the 2019 program details and requirements will be released by the end of February. In the meantime, if you have any questions about Bright’s Government Affairs Grants, please contact Dennis Durkin directly at 610-783-4650, ext. 1724.
Looking ahead to next week
Bright’s Support Center and Business Office is open for the President’s Day holiday next Monday. In your update next week, we will be sharing:
- More information about upcoming improvement to Public Records.
- We expect to share more information about the DOM recalculations for former MRIS-area subscribers, as the Contingent w/o Kickout (CNTG/No KO) update completes.
- Expanded access to the MarketView360™ application. For those not familiar, the MarketView360™ is a management tool that lets brokers analyze their office market share and productivity. It also lets brokers monitor productivity of their current agents and agents they would like to recruit. In today’s hyper competitive times, Brokers tell us that this tools is essential to helping them run their business, all powered by real time Bright data.
- Two new executive staff additions for the Customer Success Management team and a territory realignment to help us be more proactive in subscriber and Association engagement