Is there such a thing as too much technology?

I went into a shop called Humble Crumble the other day, in which they served three different types of crumble pudding with three different toppings, which was a wonderfully simple menu to choose from.

I stood at the counter waiting to order, smiled at one attendant, asked a question of another one, and when I finally started to order, one of them panicked and pointed at the tablet that stood within the three feet between us.

Simple product. No requirement of service beyond putting the pudding into a bowl and handing it to me, and yet there was an insistence upon me having to communicate more with a tablet than a human.

Now the pudding was delicious, but it seemed like the bit that creates a connection between me and the brand had gone MIA because all I could talk about afterwards was the “deer in the headlights” behind the counter who was not ready for human interaction!

The pudding was great, but I’ll happily have it served to me by anyone, and I won’t care what the name above the door says. As long as I get my crumble, I don’t care who I’m paying.

Within the real estate landscape, we’ve had some tremendous advances in technology and the adoption of processes that have streamlined things tremendously. Technology saved our backsides during COVID-19, and we have access to much greater capacity within our operations.

However, with greater adoption of increasingly common solutions, lots of agencies are starting to become rather similar in the way that they operate, and reliant on their software for a lot of their regular interactions.

Agents worry about becoming obsolete, yet they laud technology when every agent down the road has a similar (if not the very same) setup.

We’re all becoming very similar, right?!

Aside from that, all of these subscriptions and technologies are seriously starting to add up, which is squeezing the juice out of that profit margin!

The truth is, we’re taking on all of this technology in some sort of race to be the best in the hope it’s going to make us different, when in many cases all it does is bury the human element in a myriad of automated emails and AI-written ads, pushing the humans out of the business in the process.

It begs the question: Are we taking on too much technology?

Here are some common traps that you want to become very aware of if you want to get this balance right:

1. Don’t let FOMO cloud your judgement. Just because someone else is using a particular bit of kit, doesn’t mean that you have to or need to. Too often we see agencies taking on technology through fear of being left behind, without really looking at the cost to benefit ratio and seeing if it fits in with the current direction of the business. Make sure that you look at the problem it’s offering to solve, see if that problem exists in your business (or is likely to), and calculate methodically as to whether the solution actually helps or hinders your operation, be it with time or money.
   
   
2. New and shiny won’t necessarily impress! We are like crows at times, getting wowed by some kit and convincing ourselves that our customers will love it. Remember, any technological advance or adoption that you bring in needs to have a potentially tangible benefit for your customer. Even if it’s an internal process improvement, we need to make sure that it provides the potential benefit to our clients in some form or another.
   
   
3. Improvements in efficiency should NOT lead to doing less! If a new software has a real benefit in the amount of time or money you’ll save, then make conscious decisions at the start of adoption as to how you and/or your team are going to spend that time. If the amount of pen pushing is going down, then the amount of human interaction should go up!
   
   
4. Don’t leave too long between human touch points. We’re seeing this cost agencies thousands of dollars in client retention. Being on an email list keeps your brand in front of the client, but other brands will be doing exactly the same, and if you don’t make efforts to maintain human to human connection, then you will lose any favour you had with your potential or existing clients, and whatever differentiated you from your competitors will be forgotten about.

As long as you can legitimately answer the question, ‘How will this help my customer?’, with tangible evidence as to how efficiencies can improve service, then the tech is worth considering. But if you’re bringing kit on just to make your life easier, then beware, because you’ll slowly be making yourself as obsolete as you once feared.

Andy Reid is an auctioneer, podcast host, coach and speaker.