Tracking MLS Product Adoption and Engagement with User Telemetry

With so many tools available to Multiple Listing Services today, it can be difficult to discern which ones really matter to your subscribers. Most vendors use proprietary metrics to measure adoption and engagement - there’s been no standardization for the benchmark metrics MLSs should use to measure whether a tool they offer is actually providing a meaningful return on investment.

Sara Fogg, Implementation Manager for New England Real Estate Network (NEREN), a multi-state MLS with more than 11,000 members from New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts, felt this pain acutely. NEREN offers a myriad of tools to support their customers with listing exposure, lead gen, transaction processing, and prospecting. Sara and the rest of the NEREN team and Board of Directors wanted to know which of the tools were used most often and by whom.

Like many others, NEREN is providing technology choices. For example, they offer CRS and REMINE, both of which can be used for prospecting leveraging public records data. Without standardized reporting or even agreed-upon requirements for reporting usage metrics with each technology partner, Sara set out to find a way to objectively measure engagement for each of the NEREN technologies.

She turned to her AMS and Single Sign On (SSO) provider, MMSI, to see if there was a way to gain insight into which tools were most popular and to better understand which tools were demonstrably valuable to each of NEREN’s customer segments. NEREN was the first organization to use MMSI’s new “User Telemetry” engagement analytics, serving as a beta-tester for this new feature.

With the data captured on their SSO Dashboard, NEREN is now able to measure and track usage and engagement across all of their tools and services. The data delivered from the dashboard helped NEREN recognize that products that are more integrated into the main workflow of a user enjoy higher adoption. They now deliver seamless integration for both of their public records products which has measurably increased engagement with both products, CRS and Remine. Engagement metrics can also help an MLS understand which technologies may need more promotion or more of a training focus.

MMSI delivered a suite of analytics to help Sara bring greater transparency for the NEREN Technology suite and it’s ROI. With the MMSI’s User Telemetry, Sara has instant access to the number of total logins, unique logins, and clicks on any technology accessible via a tile on NEREN’s MLS dashboard.

Many of the data points are shared with NEREN’s Board of Directors. The transparency with such data helps the board better understand how their budget is put to work.

“We wanted our Board of Directors to see the value that MMSI is providing with this, and to be able to see the total engagement versus the timeline,” Fogg said.

NEREN has worked with MMSI since early 2018. For NEREN, MMSI meant being able to replace two technologies with one integrated system with its own dashboard, saving money and streamlining subscriber management.

“It’s great to actually have the data, where we didn’t have it previously. And it’s just nice to be able to see where it’s going to go from here because I know it’s going to get better. That’s one of the best things about working with MMSI: Once they put something in place, they always improve upon it,” Fogg said.

She appreciates MMSI’s proactive approach that is equally reactive when concerns arise. “They are phenomenal to work with. If you have an issue, they are very responsive.”

“They’re very open to hearing feedback and even constructive criticism… and very good at customizing, to make sure you’re taken care of so you can get back to the work of serving your members,” she added.

For those also struggling with measuring adoption and engagement of their technology offerings, Fogg offers this advice: “Get in and play because you can’t break anything. The only thing you can do is uncover more intelligence about the engagement levels of the tools you offer.”