Let me make one thing clear from the outset.
I am not really interested at all in deals done to other franchises, all of the portals do deals everyday that are different from one office to the next. To me ownership has nothing to do with its viability. It may well do in the future.
What I want is real competition, because that my friends is the only things that keeps prices low and drives innovation for agents and consumers. Look at the two major portals, they may not say it but they are no doubt obsessed with one another. One as the leader and one as the wanna be leader.
It seems to me that what the industry needs is something clean, really slick, really fast and professional. A national portals success amongst heavy competition is where it places the listings on the user tree.
Yes, MyHome is a dud today, but it will survive and it has to evolve and fast, the PBL’s of this world will not go away, they are not going to go into a corner and surrender……
Here is my plan……………
1. Get a Website Manager, whoever you have got, get rid of them, I am not being nasty. I am just being honest….the person in charge of getting this to market should be ashamed of themselves. If it is a family member, move them into a more ‘important role’. A website manager does not have to be a technology expert or a design expert. They just have to know how a website should work and just as importantly know how to deal with people (current developers)….
2. Hire an Interface Designer: Do not use an ad agency, they are clueless when it comes to the Internet, get an independent first class Interface designer. They are not hard to find and you will see results fast. (4 weeks and all will be fixed….)
The next thing to do is shelve all marketing until the site is ready. I have had at least 20 calls today, from other portals, clients and competitors. The time for sniggering and laughing is over. I want this site to work and it is 4 weeks away from being the great site it should have been today.
So here is my message to MyHome – You have 2 options.
1. Dismiss all criticism because you are PBL and because of this you know you are right…
2. Get on with the job at hand, admit you stuffed up (even if only to yourselves) and get about fixing things.
Before you can do any of this get a ‘home’ button this should take the developers around 5 minutes to successfully achieve (why is this not still done?) …then sit down and search the Internet for an Interface Designer and make sure you see his/her work before proceeding.
All of the issues with the site will come out over the next 4 weeks, so please listen…..
Then we might have something to crow about…..