eWebinar helps us leverage the benefits of virtual learning while remaining personal in a way that I've never seen
[Transcript] I'm Alei Tygert, I oversee training and marketing at dynaConnections. I'm happy to talk today about what's become one of my favorite tools, eWebinar. A little bit of background, we specialize in MLS software for large organizations. Our solution, connectMLS, is currently provided to over 140,000 real estate agents.
We're a little bit different in that we use responsive design for all of our software, so it can adjust to any device automatically just based on the dimensions and that's something that really needs to be seen to be understood. eWebinar has been really helpful for us in that regard. We also have been onboarding a number of new customers and a positive training experience isn't just vital for software adoption, but it's also something that differentiates us as a company. So, it's really important that we do it well.
Today, I want to walk through some of the challenges that we faced as we were approaching our training program and how eWebinar helped us, not just overcome them, but also offer solutions that I didn't even think were possible previously.
One of the most daunting challenges with training in general is that there are often very different audiences. In the same session, we may have a power user who is very familiar with the system. They log in all the time. They can still benefit from training to learn about new features or tips. They have a very good working knowledge of the program.
Then sitting right next to them, may be someone who logs in once or twice a month, or isn't as familiar with technology in general. So they have very different needs, but both are equally important to us. Prior to eWebinar, it was really hard to meet both of those needs in one session.
The way that eWebinar has helped us is at the beginning of a session, we can say for the next 30 minutes or 45 minutes, please make use of this chat feature. If you have any questions, submit a message and our team will respond to you in real time. We do have a team that monitors it and they're able to provide that personal support. And then at the end of the training, we provide a link within the eWebinar to a meeting where they can unmute and ask any questions that they have, get more one-on-one support.
For that power user, often the 30 minutes is more than enough. They can get along with their day, but they've still learned. And for that user who requires a little additional support, their needs are met too. That's been really important to us and something that we haven't been able to accomplish prior to this in a successful way.
Also this year in particular, that shift to virtual was a big one that was really helped by eWebinar as well. Prior to COVID, most of our training was done in person. As an attendee of so many live webinars, it seemed like something always goes wrong regardless of how much capital a company has, or how good the technology is. It just kind of seems like Murphy's Law of live webinars. So, we were definitely apprehensive about moving to an all virtual training schedule and we wanted to make sure what we were delivering was professional, that we avoided any technical glitches, and eWebinar has also helped us to do that.
They really helped us to leverage the benefits of virtual learning. We're able to reach a lot more people in an environment that's really comfortable for them, but it still remains personal. And it mitigates a lot of those risks associated with virtual delivery. Every step of the way, whether from content creation or as an attendee from registration, from the chat window, from all the emails, a lot of it is really personalized in a way that I hadn't seen available prior to eWebinar. That was definitely a huge help, especially this year.
Along with that personalization from a market standpoint, each of our markets is very different based on geography. They have different needs, different goals. And the software is also highly customized. So their implementation may look different than another one of our markets. However, we are just one team. Our training team is somewhat limited in our finite resources. Because of eWebinar, we've been able to allocate those resources better. We have analytics that we can work with each of our teams and look at, we can create content based on a particular market’s goals that may be different from another market. But because we can automate part of that, we can use our time better and end up creating content that's better for all of their users and better experience overall.
And then kind of alongside that, our customers are MLS organizations or associations, but our end users are their customers. When it comes to training, it's really helpful to have a representative from both organizations, from the software vendor, as well as from the MLS organization represented. That branding is really important. Also our areas of expertise are different, if we can have two moderators, one from each company, we can answer all of their questions in the chat and in a really helpful way. Then also there's a lot of collaboration because we both have access to those analytics, we're able to work together so that both of our training departments are made stronger as a result. And that's been really huge for us as well.
So obviously this is a huge asset that has really strengthened our ability to provide fanatical support, not just to our customers, but also to our end users.
One more quick thing, coming from a software development background in particular, something that's really important to us is that we deliver solutions that meet needs, but in a timely manner. However, in order to do that, you need usability testing and feedback and all of that takes time. We're definitely well aware of that inherent difficulty, and know how deliberate you have to be in order to do that well. And here again, I think eWebinar has gone above and beyond. Just in the couple of months of working with them, I can already think of an example where they sought out feedback from us. They asked what we liked, and most importantly they asked what we didn't like or what we still had need for. With us, we had so many attendees during the training sessions and we needed a way to respond to the chats from our mobile devices more easily. And so even though I'm sure they had competing priorities, they also already had email notifications and desktop notifications in place, so it wasn't a dire need. But despite all of that, they were able to deliver an integration with Slack that completely met our needs within a really short amount of time.
Needless to say, I'm a fan. It’s something I've really been pleasantly surprised with every step of the way. Due to its positive ROI, I will definitely continue to integrate it within our training plan.
I would definitely recommend looking into it. Maybe there are things that can help your company the way they have for ours. And I hope this helps.
