PRESIDENT’S CORNER: Visible Benefits

In speaking with many of our members over the years, I have always been perturbed by the fact that many of us forget or are unaware that HGAR offers more tools to its members than simply our Multiple Listing Service.

Don’t misunderstand me, our MLS is vital and often central to our ability as real estate agents to fulfill our role in a transaction. However, there are many more benefits to HGAR than we give it credit for. These tools help improve the level of service we offer to the public and, in turn, allow our members to thrive and be successful. For this reason, my objective for 2016 was to develop a strategy that would make these benefits more visible to our members and easy to access.

The Member Experience Committee was charged with the task of developing ways in which to improve and enrich the relationship between our members and the association. This involved exploring ways in which our members could be made more aware of all the tools without impacting the ease with which we access the MLS. With the launch of our new website, we were able to enhance the front facing portion, in particular the public’s experience and I believe, we, skillfully, accomplished that. However, our main focus has always been our members. This month we launched the new version of the back-end segment of the HGAR website, that part which impacts our members directly.

Now, when you log in as a member, you will be brought to your own individual page. From this one page, you can log in to MLS, register for a class or upcoming event, see what’s in the News, follow our Facebook and Twitter activity, make a donation to RPAC and much more. The ease with which a member can personalize the new member portal is quite impressive. If your picture and contact information is in the system, you can customize the page any way you would like. Your page will even track your real estate license’s expiration date.

I am confident that this new member portal will improve the interaction between our members and the association. It will promote and encourage a symbiotic relationship that will be advantageous for all of us and, perhaps, even prompt more of us to get involved with the association in a more meaningful way.

I must thank all those on the Member Experience Committee and HGAR staff for working so diligently on taking our website, both on the back-end and on the front-end, to the next level.

Marcene Hedayati
Marcene Hedayati is 2016 President of the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors, Inc.