24 August 2008
Put the emotion back into your email communications!
Posted by Jerry Kidd under: How to...; Product Reviews; Sales Tips .
In my opinion, one of the characteristics of a good real estate agent is the ability to listen to what their client/customer has to say and then to be able to translate that into action. Equally important is the ability to communicate information back to the client/customer. In the past we typically did that in person or over the phone. Then email happened upon the scene.
The widespread adoption of email has handed us a two edged sword. Although no one can deny that the speed and convenience of email has improved our communication abilities, I would ask if there is one among us who hasn’t had the experience of a miscommunication caused by the recipient taking a different meaning than what was intended from an email.
There is no question that email lacks the emotional portion of a communication that we normally get in our face to face encounters. People do better when we can use our sight and hearing to “read” the other person. Email alone can’t give us that needed dimension.
This is where Eyejot comes in. From the Eyejot website we get this: “Eyejot is the first, comprehensive, client-free online video messaging platform ideal for both personal and business communications. It offers everyone the ability to create and receive video messages in a self-contained, spam-free environment. With no client to install, you can start using Eyejot immediately with any browser, on any platform.”
Sounds great, but what does it mean to a real estate agent? Simply this: if you have an inexpensive camera and microphone hooked up to your computer, or if you have a built in camera and microphone, and you can use a web browser, you can send a video message to your client. You can do this for FREE, but there are restrictions. There are two paid versions as well as the free version. The chart below illustrates the differences:
Here is some more from their website:
“It couldn’t be easier
Harness the power of video in conveying emotion, tone, and energy while leveraging the flexibility of an email-like system, where each party can send and view messages at their convenience.
Sending video messages with Eyejot is as easy as sending email. There is no software to download or install. Just login to your account, record or upload your video, and send! The recipient gets a friendly email message telling them they have a new video message, and they can watch it with a single click. No registration required.”
One of the features that that makes this product stand out is that I can customize the look and feel of the emails that are sent. I can also attach documents and weblinks. Although there are other video email applications available, the ability to send ad free emails that are branded and that can contain contracts, reports, spreadsheets and much more is a clear winner for us as agents.
This is an example of an Eyejot that I sent to myself so that I could show you. In this Eyejot I talk about the inexpensive camera that I bought at Office Depot this morning for $29.99.
If you click on the image you’ll get the actual Eyejot that I created. When you do, notice the downloadable PDF file and the URL to the Logitech web site.
You can go ahead and visit the website for the camera or download the PDF just by clicking on them in the video. And of course, you will get to see the video that I created in a just a few minutes of my time.
The system requirements to use Eyejot are relatively modest, and here they are:
There are only a few things you need before being able to use Eyejot. They are:
- Modern web browser (IE, Safari, Firefox, Opera)
- A webcam
- A microphone (if your webcam doesn’t have one built-in)
- Adobe Flash 9 Flash 9 is available for most operating systems including:
- Windows XP
- Windows Vista
- Apple OS X
- Linux
The final thing that puts this over the top for me is that once you have sent an Eyejot, and the recipient opens it, you get a notification email that they have done so. Here is an example of one that I received after an Eyejot that I sent had been opened.
This is only available on the ProPlus ($99.00 annually) version. In my not so humble opinion, this is a great feature to have as it will help you document the communications that you have with your client/customer and using this product will go a long way in avoiding the kinds of miscommunications that are possible with “naked” email.
If you want more information on this, go to their web site at www.eyejot.com
Sign up for the free version and give it a test drive. If you do, send me an Eyejot! I’d love to chat with you “personally”.
