Legitimate Misdirection into the Online Pit

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT | PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SERVICES

Digital age! A boon or a curse, arguably the topic that would spark an intense word war amongest pretty much equally divided supporters. We live in an age where with every passing day, if not minute, we come across rising of new stalwarts and downfall of the once upon stalwarts too. Digitally driven, Tech oriented concepts are doing wonders and we hear stories about how they are making a fortune and how they have absolutely changed the game. “Rags to riches” is the modern fairy-tale for the adults to reassure their faith in faith. Now there are a lot of unanswered questions, Is the online business structure misguiding from the original idea of business, i.e. earning profits and it has become all about the valuation?

Are we getting what exactly we are looking for, as users?

Isn’t it taking us to a place where exposure is everything, conversions means nothing?
Aren’t human skills taking a backseat and it has become limited to digital marketing expertise? 

Property posting portals is a familiar territory when it comes to the glorification of facts and how things exactly work is only known to people who’ve been paid members or in other words “sitting ducks” of the fancy sales pitch. THE CONVICTION, Jesus, fancy terms and confusing way of operating and number of things that need to be monitored and considered before & after posting properties and above all the kind of money they demand! Sounds like whining, all right but again, only people who’ve gone through this ordeal might back the above thought up! The kinds of things that are promised without actually promising it is mind boggling. The level of skill set and the script required to turn such a good and simple concept into a ‘head spinning’ and ‘pull your hair out’ difficult one is immense. When given a deeper thought, turns out, the whole concept is designed to make sure that online portals have a backup answer and an exit to every reason why the paid members are not getting the desired results.

What should be done after having paid the money, understanding every portal individual complication, posting the properties, updating the tiniest bit of detail of the property, making sure the properties are verified (again a tedious process), monitoring it and then getting demotivated with the response?!? As a smart, educated individual we’d think of calling the sales executive or call the helpline or escalate the matter to a senior of the company! Sounds like the right thing to do, little are we aware that the web was spun way before the deal was closed. But we’ll discuss this matter in the latter part first let’s understand where and how things went downhill.
Here are some examples of questions and counters and the subtext of the conversation with the sales executive’s pre-membership:
To be paid member: How does the paid membership work and how and how much is it better than free posting?
Sales Executive: We have — — a million clients posting free properties every month, however, we have a limited number of people into paid membership. With paid membership, you can be at the top of the page, within the first 10 properties and it becomes easier for you to get business. We have — — million people visiting our site looking for properties. Paid membership gives you an edge above other members.

Subtext: Free properties get a secluded position on the 20th page may be, free property is how we generate traffic on website, we generate income through paid members us giving them a good position for a few days and boss there is no guarantee of anything but sure a lot of people will click on your post we will boost your ego by tagging the property with a fancy name.
To be paid member: So if somebody logs into your website, my posted properties will be on the first page?
Sales executive: Yes, the minute somebody types in the area name in the search box your posted property will have a good visibility.

RENTAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT | NRI PROPERTY SERVICES

Subtext: Only when somebody will type in the station area then specify east or west, filter through the area only then will your property be at the top 15, 20 properties depending on your luck.

To be paid members: What’s the assurance about the responses, probability & ratio of views to conversions and most importantly actual conversions?
Sales Executive: We’re the no. 1 online property portal in India so you can imagine the no. of people who will be viewing the property. As far the trend is concerned,  you might get 3 responses to every 500 views, again depending on the area, pics and the rest of the place. The conversions are how good you are in handling the clients since you will close the deal yourself!

Subtext: No. of views is what we will get you, rest of it, we aren’t concerned.

To be a Paid Customer: I asked you about the assurance!

Sales Executive: No online portal gives you any sort of guarantee or assurance. I don’t want to give you false promises. Statistic suggests you are 68% more likely to have a successful transaction with us than any other portal.

Subtext: GUARANTEE?!? Of course not! Let me give you good odds since there is no way to confirm the vague fact and get you positive about making a purchase.

Thus starts a harrowing journey of a paid member into this torturing world called 

“ONLINE PROPERTY PORTALS”. After having discovered the various aspects and experiencing failures multiple times, some tend to think there is a flaw in the way they are going about it. 

Numerous attempts to change the way of operations go in vain. The only option left is to analyze even the most intricate details and that is when the demotivation enlightens them. No. of views in 1000’s, but there is no way to authenticate this fact. Responses in single digit, most of which happens only to view the contact details of the one posting the property. Conversion?? Absolutely nothing. “Cut them slack, it’s just a few listings. Try some more and see.” says the naïve side of the brain. But then, a dozen listings with the same pattern don’t lie. The repetition of the pattern is no coincidence.

As discussed earlier, the almost done and dusted paid member in the last attempt would call up the customer care to give them a piece of his mind. Every question he has a counter. A person who has paid a premium charge for the service will feel like he was set up right from the onset. There is absolutely nothing legitimate that was signed or committed. The sales executives won’t provide anything in writing and the customer care executives won’t do anything about things that are not in writing in the name of “COMPANY’S POLICY”. ’Drawing circles’ & ‘Back to square one’ are two different phrases and somehow they have managed to merge them into one and making the paid members draw circles around square one.

Helpless & Dejected is all he can feel, login to the account every day just to see the no. of views going off the charts without responses and zero conversions. However, still continuing paying a hefty amount every now and then, thinking his reputation is at stake and going off of the digital world means an avenue closure he cannot afford. An individual thinks a digital platform will help him get business and expansion becomes simpler and effective. Instead, he felt cheated, he felt helpless, he felt dejected, he got demotivated and still could not let go for a hypothetical, futuristic, conductive, situation. The need was for business, profits, expansion, reaching out to a mass target audience and the overall increase in the goodwill. What was gained from the entire thing was just marketing, if it involved the target audience or if it was system generated, can never be known. Just the thought of valuation of the company might be affected, a paid member does not unsubscribe. Fear is what is driving people these days more than happiness or willingness.

AREN’T THE ONLINE PROPERTY PORTALS MARKETING DRIVEN & INDIRECTLY BRANDING THEMSELVES AS A RESULT ORIENTED CONCEPTS?!?!? IF YES, THERE A DESPERATE NEED FOR CHANGE OF APPROACH. IF NO, THEN WE CAN ALL AGREE THE IDEA OF BETTER BUSINESS SELLS BETTER THAN ACTUALLY GETTING BETTER BUSINESS