New Pricing Plans, Calling Free Trials and Platform Product Launch
In summary:
We’re launching new pricing on March 11th, 2019, for new customers
We’re switching from tier-based to more flexible per-user pricing and have 4 new plans
You can remain on your current pricing for the next 12 months automatically or 2 years if you are/become an annual customer before March 11, 2020 (which also saves you an additional 20%)
What a Ride It’s Been…
In the last 8 years we’ve helped our customers follow up on millions of leads, clients and referrals and together helped drive a better experience for your customers, and ultimately sales results in your business.
Our work is far from done. Our goal is to be the best real estate sales solution on the market and continue to earn your business every day with best in class technology and service. This year we’ll be continuing to evolve our sales workflow across our web and mobile apps as well as integrating tighter with your websites and lead providers.
We’ve never taken any outside investment or venture capital money and remain a completely independent, owner-operated company that answers only to you, our customers. We’re in a unique position to spend our time on the improvements and innovations that drive the business results of our customers first, knowing that ours will logically follow.
The Next Chapter of Follow Up Boss
Since we launched Follow Up Boss in 2011 we’ve received a lot of feedback on what we could improve and are updating our pricing to reflect our services in 2019. Below is some of the feedback we’ve received and what we are doing about it.
I would like to add an additional agent but do not yet need the next pricing tier for my team. We are switching to a per-user pricing model so that you only pay for the users you have in your account, more in line with other CRM systems.
I would like to purchase calling for my whole team but the additional cost per user is prohibitive. We will be offering 4 new plans with flexibility on features and the option to buy calling for individual agents at $39 instead of $79. We will also be offering two months free on calling when you choose annual payments which wasn’t an option before.
Can I try out your calling features? I’m not sure if they are for me. Yes you can now do a 14-day free trial of calling, click here to set it up. Also see the section below on calling for more details on what’s included and if it’s right for your business.
Can you help me more with my account? We are always here to help all our customers and will be doing more in 2019 to further improve our best practices training and support team; we recently launched our success training refresh and new support center.
Many of our larger customers have significant lead generation budgets, multiple offices and have been asking for a dedicated point of contact.
As part of our new platform product, we’ll be offering priority support and a dedicated customer success manager who’ll work with you ongoing to make sure Follow Up Boss is fully integrated and driving results for your operation.
New pricing plans
As part of an effort to continue working towards being the best real estate sales solution on the market, today we’re letting you know about the more flexible pricing structure we are launching to help you find plans that better align both to your business’ needs, and to its size.
As you can see, we’ve added more flexibility not only with how you’re able to add and remove agents rather than being stuck working with having to buy in batches, but we’ve also built the tiers to reflect the different types of real estate businesses we’re regularly working with.
The Start tier is for those just getting their business up and running, and for folks primarily focused on earning referral business from their clients and sphere and need a simple system to track those relationships over time.
The Grow tier is for businesses that are ramping up their Internet lead generation, and also adding agents to their team and so tracking and accountability, as well as features for distributing leads and automating follow up, which become paramount to your success.
The Dominate tier is for those teams that want to completely close the loop and track all of their team’s activities, make it easier for their agents to track and organize their follow ups, to eliminate additional systems like virtual calling platforms, and run all of their primary conversations through one central system.
Finally for larger teams/companies, we are launching the Follow Up Boss Platform which will include features for managing multiple teams, priority support and a dedicated customer success representative, more information on that below.
Current customer grandfathering
The new plans go live for all new customers on March 11th.
While we know some of our customers will want to shift to our new plans right away, all current customers have the option to stay on our existing pricing model for 12 months after the new pricing goes live meaning you’ll have the option to stay on current pricing until March 11th, 2020.
In addition, if you’re already on an annual plan or you switch to one before March 11th, 2020 you will get an additional 12 months on our current pricing plans plus a 20% annual discount off the monthly price.
Also see our Frequently Asked Questions below.
Calling
Over the past 3 years we’ve invested heavily in building a sales calling system into Follow Up Boss to go alongside our texting and emailing features, it’s our goal to stop the chaotic workflow that has agents and ISAs jumping between 6 different systems just to do their follow up.
We have not heavily marketed these features so I wanted to provide a quick recap of the features and benefits of the calling system and how it may benefit you.
Beyond being a 1 click outbound dialer we provide an inbound call workflow that makes sure you never miss another call. Any missed calls or voicemails are saved in the system and you can call them back in 1 click.This works at the team level ensuring workflow, visibility, and a high level of service to every customer or potential customer that calls into your business.
We provide the ability for your team to answer calls on the computer and features for routing to mobile phones, out of office, and fallback options if the call is not answered.
We provide caller ID when taking calls on the computer and also through our iPhone app, this ensures you greet every person in your database personally when they call in. This feature will also be coming to Android in future.
We provide a call list feature that allows you to rapidly call your smart lists in Follow Up Boss, automatically filters out bad numbers and lets you move quickly on to the next call. You can also call any lead with 1 click just by clicking on their phone number.
ISAs can live transfer phone calls to agent’s mobile phones in two clicks, eliminating the need for time-consuming back and forth and leading to a better customer experience. ISAs also have the ability to see agent’s calendars in the system and book in appointments directly.
Optionally you can turn on call recording for coaching your agents and ISA teams to improve the level of service and results on inbound and outbound calls.
Each agent or ISA with calling has their own unique phone number for calling and texting, this ensures a seamless back and forth with the customer and also allows teams with lead source dependent splits to track the original source of phone call inquiries.
We provide detailed reporting on the number of calls made, conversations, and talk time so you can benchmark your team members. Because all your call data is in Follow Up Boss you can also easily filter and segment your leads using it.
If you’re already using another virtual business phone system or have company landlines I highly recommend exploring switching over to simplify and benefit from your CRM and calls being in one place.
You can find more information about our calling features here and do a 14 day free trial here, if we are a good fit for you it is also possible to port in existing business numbers.
Platform plan for larger accounts
As we’ve grown over the years, a number of our customers have grown with us and exceeded the limits of our up to 25 user plan. It’s exciting to be part of the growth of these companies and in many cases see their evolution from a single scrappy entrepreneur into robust companies that provide the highest quality service in their markets.
In order to serve clients at that size and scale, we’re adding a platform offering in order to adapt our services to suit the unique needs of larger clients who need more support to roll out and integrate Follow Up Boss with their operations.
Specifically next week we’ll be adding:
Priority support: I’m extremely proud of the level of support we’ve been able to achieve over the past 12 months for all customers and we will continue to invest heavily in support going forward.
When you’re spending tens of thousands and in some cases millions of dollars on leads any downtime or issue has a more dramatic effect on your bottom line.
For platform customers, we will be implementing priority support to make sure your questions or issues are quickly resolved.
A dedicated customer success team member for your account who will help you drive your business results/strategy with Follow Up Boss.
Your customer success manager will provide tips, training and resources to make sure your team is successful as you grow and as we develop our system.
Support for multiple teams and offices within one account.
While we have some very large organizations of hundreds of people already running Follow Up Boss using one account the workflow was not ideal.
We are adding ‘team within teams’ functionality which allows proper grouping of teams and a team leader level of access so they can properly support their agents without needing admin access to your full account.
Common Questions About Our Pricing Changes
Can I switch to the new plans now?
You will be able to switch on March 11th, 2019. All new customers will also be on the new plans from this date.
Can I remain on my current plan?
You can remain on your current plan up to 11th March, 2020 if you are paying monthly or if you upgrade to annual before 11th March, 2020 you will be grandfathered until 11th March, 2021 and also get a 20% annual payment discount.
What happens when the grandfather period ends?
You will be switched over to the new pricing, we’ll be in touch again in advance of this happening to make sure you’re aware and are put on the best value plan for your business.
If I pay annually now, can I move to the new plans / pricing in the next 2 years?
Yes this is one of the most flexible options as you will have a 2 year grandfather period and get the 20% annual discount but also be able to switch over to the new plans if you wish before the 2 years is up and of course be credited for the amount paid already.
What happens if I’ve paid annually beyond 11th March, 2021
You will remain on the current pricing and not be moved to the new plans until your next annual payment, this in effect means you will get more than 2 years on the current rates if you choose this path.
Can I upgrade my plan on the old pricing plans?
Yes we’ve made the grandfather period flexible so you can upgrade or downgrade your account on the old plans if that’s beneficial for you. For example if you are on the 5 user plan currently you can choose if you wish to switch to the new pricing or platform plan or to use our legacy 10 user plan during the grandfather period.
Will these pricing changes cost me more after the grandfather period?
This will depend on the amount of users in your account in future and if you wish to implement the calling system or platform plan in your business. For some customers moving to the new pricing right away will be advantageous in price for others the best deal will be to pay annually through the grandfather period.
Can I get the $39 calling license on the old pricing plans?
The changed dialer pricing is only available on our new pricing plans. In most cases, switching to the new plan and adding the dialer for $39 or our dominate plan will be cheaper than the grandfathered plan with the old dialer pricing. We are happy to help you find the best deal here if you reach out.
Will you be improving the product over the next 2 years and beyond?
Absolutely yes, we have a strong track record over the last 8 years on product improvements and stability, in 2019 we’ll be focussing on making the sales workflow in our web and mobile apps stronger as well as integrating more in-depth with your websites and lead providers.
Several rollouts will be happening soon including a redesigned people screen, your company texting number being more flexible and usable for incoming texts and calls and updates to the Android and iPhone apps.
We also have some larger initiatives planned to help you show more value to your agents, capture more calls from your website and drive more appointments and deals.
If you have not already please do leave us feedback on what you’d like us to build next, we prioritize heavily around what will drive the most results for our customers and your feedback helps us do that.
We will be updating this post as additional questions come in.
Ok so what’s next?
Review the new plans and see if you’d like to switch over. You’ll be able to do that inside your account starting March 11th.
You’re automatically grandfathered in on your current plan until March 11th, 2020. If you wish to remain on your current plan for 2 years until March 11th, 2021 you can upgrade to annual payments here.
If you have a large amount of users and are looking for a dedicated customer success manager, multiple teams functionality and priority support, get in touch with us about our platform plan.
If you’re a current customer and want to discuss anything about the new pricing and its potential impact on your team now or over the coming months, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the team or myself.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your business and support over the years. It has been an incredible journey so far. I know first hand the challenges and chaos of building a small business from scratch, and because of that experience, it’s important for me to tell you how much I value the trust you place in us to be a part of your business.
And I plan to honor that trust by doubling down on our software, systems and people to help you drive growth and sales results and make being a business owner just a little bit easier, and a little less chaotic.
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