As a “People’s Choice” award-winning real estate firm in Southwest Florida every year for the last two decades, Wagner Realty has rightfully earned a reputation as being truly client-centric.
That reputation has helped the firm expand to more than 220 agents, across eight offices, serving thousands of clients along Florida’s Gulf Coast.
In addition to always putting its clients first, another strategy that has helped Wagner Realty grow consistently over the years is cost-consciousness. The firm doesn’t spend money frivolously.
In fact, although the operations team recognized the benefits of switching from its on-premises phone systems to a companywide cloud phone solution, they put off that upgrade for several years because they were wary that it would increase their telecom costs.
But then they discovered that switching to a new solution could actually save Wagner Realty money—while at the same time making everyone’s work easier and adding efficiencies in the company’s day-to-day operations.
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A better phone solution… at a discount rate
This lightbulb moment took place at a meeting of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, a global network of independent brokers in which Wagner Realty has a membership.
“LeadingRE is a wonderful information-sharing association,” says Natalie Russell, Wagner Realty’s Operations Manager. “We learned during one of these meetings that because LeadingRE is a member of RingCentral’s Strategic Industry Alliance partnership, we could purchase the company’s solutions at discounted rates. That was the catalyst we needed to finally move to the companywide VoIP phone model we had wanted to set up for years.”
Firms that have a LeadingRE membership can get discounts on useful software and tools (like RingCentral!) that are designed to help brokerages and agents get more done.
Saving money and improving operations
Soon after she rolled out RingCentral’s all-in-one cloud solution to all 220 of the company’s employees—which she was able to easily do in a single day— Natalie saw both the cost savings and the productivity improvements she and her team had hoped for.
Natalie found several ways RingCentral could lower Wagner Realty’s overall telecom bill, pretty much right away.
“Because we’ve consolidated our communications services all onto the RingCentral platform, we were able to get rid of the conferencing app we were paying for.”
The team now had messaging, video conferencing, phone calls, screen sharing, and more—all in one app:
But that wasn’t all.
“As soon as I set up the RingCentral Auto Attendant with our Property Management division’s after-hours greeting, we’re going to be able to end our contract with the third-party answering service.”
From a mobility perspective, Natalie has also been able to help her staff stay productive and accessible even while they’re away from the office—something the company’s old on-premise phone systems simply didn’t allow.
“If they’re on the road and a customer calls, our agents can take that call on their Wagner Realty business line. And if they’re on a computer softphone call with a client… and they need to get on the road… the agent can easily switch the call to their mobile without the client even realizing they’ve done it. This system is so flexible—it’s perfect for our agents.”
And it really is that easy—all you have to do is hit “Switch to this device” to transfer a meeting from a computer to a phone (and vice versa). Perfect if you’re on the go:
🤯 You could save up to $400 an hour in IT costs.
Explore the RingCentral Advantage for small businesses:
💰 You can also use this calculator to see roughly how much your business could save by using RingCentral to support your team’s communication with each other—and clients.
Read the full story of how Wagner Realty is benefiting from its new cloud phone system.
Originally published Sep 30, 2020, updated Aug 01, 2024
