2nd Annual Internet MLS Customer Satisfaction Survey

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In January of 2003, Clareity Consulting of Scottsdale, Arizona completed a survey of Americas leading Multiple Listing Services. This survey was designed as a follow up to Clareitys first Internet MLS Customer Satisfaction survey. The purpose of the study was to learn more about Internet MLS (iMLS) adoption, customer satisfaction, system performance, and vendor responsiveness. This year 89 MLSs with Internet based systems responded - 78 were operating standalone and 11 systems were running in parallel to a legacy MLS system. The MLSs were located coast-to-coast, ranging in size up to 34,000 subscribers.

The following MLS software vendors were included in this survey the number of standalone MLS responses received for each MLS provider is in parentheses:

The following MLS software providers were not included in this report because Clareity received less than two responses: Advanced Marketing Services, ARIS, Coherent, Dwellinks, Hillside Software, ProMatch, Quest Technologies, RealGo and Wyldfyre.

Clareity also received responses from three MLS owned and operated systems. In 2001 and 2002, several regional MLSs took over full ownership and software development responsibility for their web-based MLS software.

When looking at the results of this study, it is important to realize that there are different types of MLS software vendors being compared. Specifically, FNIS, Interealty, MarketLinx, Rapattoni and Stratus are vendors with a history of serving larger MLS markets, while Offutt Systems, FBS, and Solid Earth have typically focused on small to mid-size markets. The distinction is that Clareity could easily have split the statistical tables below in two Vendors Proven in All Markets and Vendors Proven in Small/Medium Markets. This is an important distinction, because some vendors that may appear to have only middling ratings are actually at the top of their market segment.

Please Note: Vendors Proven in Large Markets are displayed in blue in the following tables, while Vendors Proven in Small/Medium Markets are displayed in purple.

A. Customer Satisfaction

The following chart represents overall satisfaction today:

Almost all MLS vendors were rated Excellent or Good for overall satisfaction today. The MLS owned and operated systems should be expected to do well, since they have only one customer to serve - themselves. It should also be noted that Stratus only had responses from two very large MLS customers, but they apparently serve them very well. A single customer rated satisfaction with MarketLinx only Acceptable, and three customers rated FNIS Acceptable.

The following chart represents MLS staff satisfaction with the systems:

In this chart we see some movement within the top and bottom of the field from the overall satisfaction ratings but the systems that satisfied the users were given the best ratings by the MLS staff too. There are other aspects of the system that affect this rating, and those will be come out in the sections below.

Survey respondents were asked whether they would choose the same MLS vendor again. All indicated, Yes, but the following:

33% percent of all FNIS respondents also indicated that they would not choose the same FNIS system again.

The following chart represents overall satisfaction in the first 30 days:

Conversions are rarely fun, but some vendors did better than others with Stratus and Solid Earth having the greatest satisfaction in the first thirty days. The section below helps explain these initial satisfaction ratings.

B. Implementation Planning, Data Conversion, and Ability to Hit Deadlines

Satisfaction with implementations can often be traced to the ability to deliver on promises made during the initial sales presentations. Clareity asked the MLSs to rate the vendors on Truthfulness in representing their software and capabilities during the initial sales presentations; compared to what was delivered The following chart shows the response:

Stratus and FBS clearly set expectations properly and delivered what the customer was expecting.

Survey respondents were also asked to rate each vendor on their implementation planning. The results were as follows:

In 2001, MarketLinx was the clear winner in this category, but in 2002, they slipped in customer satisfaction with their implementation planning.

Clareity also asked respondents to rate the Vendor's ability to hit deadlines and deliver the system on time. The four highest rated MLS vendors were:

Since data conversion is an important part of implementation, Clareity had the survey respondents rate the MLS vendors on data conversion accuracy. The following were the results:

Rapattoni, Solid Earth and MarketLinx were each given an Acceptable>

C. System Features, Performance and Reliability

Both Stratus customers gave Stratus Excellent user interface ratings, while the rest of the field was largely split between Good and Excellent.

Most of the systems were well rated for response times during peak periods, with MarketLinx and Interealty having a single Acceptable>

* All systems with less than Good ratings were hosted by the vendor.

As expected, Stratus was rated 100% excellent in their reliability and system up-time but so were Rapattoni and the MLS Owned and Operated systems. Rapattonis recent data center investment appears to be returning dividends. No vendor was rated poorly.

The top rated vendors for overall feature depth were:

1. Stratus
2. FBS
3. Solid Earth

The top rated vendors for public records were:

1. Interealty
2. Stratus
3. Solid Earth

The top rated vendors for mapping were:

1. Solid Earth
2. Stratus
3. MarketLinx

The top rated vendors for reports were:

1. Solid Earth
2. Rapattoni
3. Stratus

The top rated vendors for IDX implementation were:

1. Stratus
2. Rapattoni
3. FBS and MLS Owned and Operated (tied for third)

Clareity asked, Who keeps pace with evolving technology (e.g. IDX; RETS; VOW; Mobile Devices / WAP / PDA interface)? The ratings were as follows, with Rapattoni, Stratus, and FBS leading the vendors. Only FNIS received less than a Good rating.

MarketLinx has been an industry leader in RETS development and recently implemented advanced GIS mapping, so Clareity was slightly surprised at this rating.

D. Vendor Responsiveness and Customer Service

When it comes to change, some vendors are better than others in fulfilling change requests. The following chart shows how the vendors rated:

The respondents rated end user support:

They also rated staff support:

Clareity felt the question regarding staff support did not apply to MLS owned and operated systems.

E. Recommendations from MLS Leaders

Respondents were asked to share the top three things they would do differently in the system/vendor selection; contract negotiations; conversion planning; user training; or member communications for their Internet MLS system. Clareity received dozens of excellent recommendations. Here were some of the best:

1. Make sure youre comparing apples to apples in terms of program features, and pay attention to the more technical aspects of the system (what kind of equipment do they use, are there backups and redundancy, etc.)
2. Spend more time evaluating systems.
3. Insist on more testing time before conversion.
4. Run parallel until all end users have comprehensive hands on training by vendor staff.
5. Dont run parallel for too long. It only prolongs the agony and members dont learn the new system as long as the old one is available.
6. Wait a little longer next time to sign up for new technology.
7. Communicate with your members as much as possible about the change. Do it to the point of overkill.
8. Have a better transition plan.
9. Require financial statements and a performance bond from the vendor. Require that in the event of sale, it be a condition of the transfer of contract to the new vendor that the product be continued to be supported and not dumped.
10. Have written performance standards and penalties for vendor. Define events of Material Breach more specifically. Include a "Walk Away` provision.
11. To the extent possible, make sure the vendor has not scheduled a cutover for another customer either shortly before yours or immediately after yours. That way you will get much more attention for a longer period of time.
12. Provide, in the contract, exact dates after cut-over for vendor to correct errors and shortcomings that are inherent in any new system
13. I would not have reassigned some of our areas at the same time as the cutover.
14. Make sure vendor does comparison of how data will transfer in all modules from old to new in advance of conversion
15. Hire another staff person to help manage the transition.
16. Would conduct more browser and IE basics training at cutover.

F. Conclusion

A year ago, the group of new MLS companies, led by MarketLinx, Stratus, and Rapattoni, outscored the established MLS vendors at iMLS implementation, end-user satisfaction, and vendor responsiveness. Since that time, Stratus and Rapattoni have maintained relatively high consistent service levels. MarketLinx experienced rapid growth over the past 12 months by taking away several key accounts from FNIS and Interealty. This survey revealed what may be the inevitable results of that success – MarketLinx is still doing very well, but slipped in its customer satisfaction ratings in a few areas.

Last year, we saw Interealty and FNIS both dump their first generation iMLS systems to offer new, redesigned systems. Interealty improved dramatically in several key areas in 2002 including vendor responsiveness, but FNIS still has room for improvement. Just prior to the publication of this report, FNIS made a management change that placed industry veteran and former Clareity partner Ira Luntz in charge of MLS system development. Clareity wishes Ira and the new FNIS management team well in their endeavors to roll out Paragon 2.0, re-releases XMLS, and improve customer satisfaction.

This year, we observed that FBS and Solid Earth have gained a loyal following by providing excellent service. While these vendors have historically served mostly small and mid-sized MLSs, the new survey results indicate that FBS and Solid Earth may appeal to larger MLSs, especially those seeking a higher level of service.

Clareity thanks the MLS executives that participated in the 2nd Annual Internet MLS Customer Satisfaction Survey and the MLS vendors that provided customer lists for this survey. Clareity believes that this annual survey helps move the industry forward, recognizing the MLS vendors that have done a great job for their customers and motivating other companies to improve customer satisfaction.

Thank you!

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