So, the company I work for has a free public search site for houses... it's definitely NOT our main focus. We have our MLS site (for our actual realtor members) and our corporate site which is updated with training manuals, tip sheets, links to all sorts of helpful things, news articles, etc. A lot of other MLSs have gotten rid of their public search sites because listing syndication means that the properties are on google & yahoo & trulia & zillow & 8 million other sites.
But we still have our site. And we revamped it this week. We're changing color schemes and adding a bunch of functionality and all sorts of other things. Yeah, there are a couple of things that are missing from the site that our IT department is going to be adding back in, but the majority of features are still there. Just in different places or don't work the same.
But it's free. The public can use it and they don't have to pay anything or even register online. Completely free to them.
BUT OMG some of the emails that we've gotten this week since we changed it. Some are good suggestions, some people just don't actually look or read so they're sending in emails complaining that they can't do something that they CAN... and some just don't make sense, like this one:
"Comments: I like the new web layout, but keep the old format!"
We've gotten several complaints because we "I use your site constantly and you should have told me you were going to be changing it!" (Ummm.... we don't require people to register so we don't know who's on the site and YOU'RE NOT PAYING FOR IT ANYWAY)
And some people I just want to fit in the face with a shovel:
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Comments: I apologize in advance but your new web site blows. The search function is an absolute joke. Your previous web site rocked!! Bring it back ASAP!!
Comments: I hate your new website. I go on it almost everyday & this was not an improvement. It's so hard to find anything on here now. It's very user unfriendly. I'm EXTREMELY unhappy with this new setup.
Comments: PLEASE bring back old website. This new one is slow. Photos do not show as well. Search options are less useful. IT IS ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE. Please bring back old website NOW. (NOTES: New website isn't slow unless you're on dialup. Photos actually show BETTER and are larger. There are more search options to play with.)
Comments: this new web sight suck
Comments: I don't have any questions.
I know how to search the new site
The new site sucks it's terrible
It was a waist of time and money to install something so bad
To replace something that work great ?
So I guess that would be my only questions I would have ???
Why would you screw up a good thing for a bad one ???
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And maybe those don't seem too bad (and we've had worse, but I don't feel like searching through my email to find them) but we've been getting 100+ emails exactly like this every day since Monday. Some of them are multiple people... but still! I hope it slows down soon... *cry*
What I do find funny is that 75% of the emails say that they're not going to use our site again... like we're losing out if they go away. And I bet you that most of these people have never used the site before anyway. Honestly, we make NO money off of it. We have it for a courtesy to people... if people stopped using it we could just get rid of it completely and not have to worry about it, and then we could focus on things that DO make us money!
But we still have our site. And we revamped it this week. We're changing color schemes and adding a bunch of functionality and all sorts of other things. Yeah, there are a couple of things that are missing from the site that our IT department is going to be adding back in, but the majority of features are still there. Just in different places or don't work the same.
But it's free. The public can use it and they don't have to pay anything or even register online. Completely free to them.
BUT OMG some of the emails that we've gotten this week since we changed it. Some are good suggestions, some people just don't actually look or read so they're sending in emails complaining that they can't do something that they CAN... and some just don't make sense, like this one:
"Comments: I like the new web layout, but keep the old format!"
We've gotten several complaints because we "I use your site constantly and you should have told me you were going to be changing it!" (Ummm.... we don't require people to register so we don't know who's on the site and YOU'RE NOT PAYING FOR IT ANYWAY)
And some people I just want to fit in the face with a shovel:
-----------------------------------------
Comments: I apologize in advance but your new web site blows. The search function is an absolute joke. Your previous web site rocked!! Bring it back ASAP!!
Comments: I hate your new website. I go on it almost everyday & this was not an improvement. It's so hard to find anything on here now. It's very user unfriendly. I'm EXTREMELY unhappy with this new setup.
Comments: PLEASE bring back old website. This new one is slow. Photos do not show as well. Search options are less useful. IT IS ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE. Please bring back old website NOW. (NOTES: New website isn't slow unless you're on dialup. Photos actually show BETTER and are larger. There are more search options to play with.)
Comments: this new web sight suck
Comments: I don't have any questions.
I know how to search the new site
The new site sucks it's terrible
It was a waist of time and money to install something so bad
To replace something that work great ?
So I guess that would be my only questions I would have ???
Why would you screw up a good thing for a bad one ???
-----------------------------------------
And maybe those don't seem too bad (and we've had worse, but I don't feel like searching through my email to find them) but we've been getting 100+ emails exactly like this every day since Monday. Some of them are multiple people... but still! I hope it slows down soon... *cry*
What I do find funny is that 75% of the emails say that they're not going to use our site again... like we're losing out if they go away. And I bet you that most of these people have never used the site before anyway. Honestly, we make NO money off of it. We have it for a courtesy to people... if people stopped using it we could just get rid of it completely and not have to worry about it, and then we could focus on things that DO make us money!
Comment