West USA Realty Phone System Success Story
 RingCentral spoke with David Blank, leader of West USA Realty's Freedom Team in Arizona. Blank's creative use of RingCentral led to a spurt in sales leads, a savvy strategy in an inflated housing market.
First of all, what is the Freedom Team?
DB: I'm a subcontractor with West USA Realty and I have a team of 12 under me that we call the Freedom Team. A good portion of our growth, I can tie directly to RingCentral.
You use RingCentral in a unique way. Tell us about it.
 DB: On our sign, we advertise our 800 number and give buyers an extension to dial to hear recorded details about that property. Afterward, they can press a key on their phone to speak to an agent. Even if they didn't talk to anyone, we get a log of their phone numbers and call them all back. This solves the problem that real estate agents and buyers face when the box of flyers on a For Sale sign becomes empty.
So you use RingCentral to generate and follow up on leads?
DB: Yes. It's like having an open house 24/7.
Can you elaborate?
 My brother is my business partner, and a telemarketer for me full time. When we get calls on a property, the buyers' numbers are stored and we call everyone back to determine their interest.
Not only does our 800 number generate leads for the business, but we also don't have clients getting upset that they're out of flyers.
So you've stopped using flyers altogether?
DB: We used to go through hundreds of flyers, and get no calls. Our pitch to sellers now is that flyers are a waste of time. We'll display them inside the more upscale properties, and a few clients will demand them, but for the most part the 800 number has eliminated our need for them.
You also use your 800 number to track an ad's success or failure. Tell us a little about that.
DB: We started advertising our properties in real estate magazines, and we wanted to track the results. In each ad, we included our 800 number with a unique extension, and we changed the extension monthly. We can determine a cost/benefit ratio by the number of phone calls we receive.
How many extensions do you have?
We have 200.
200 extensions?
One big thing that I like about RingCentral is that every time we need more extensions, we get great customer service. This has made me a committed RingCentral user. You guys have been very nice.
Do you use RingCentral in any other way?
 DB: When I become a broker, we'll expand our use of RingCentral to put on the facade of a larger real estate firm. RingCentral has changed the way we do business, absolutely.
Forbes magazine ran an article recently stating that Phoenix, Arizona is one of the best places for business and careers. How is the real estate market these days?
DB: Where are you from?
I live in the Bay area.
 DB: We have about 70 properties for sale for right now, which is far too many and the market is inflated. We've had people from California, Vegas and other parts of the country flocking here like crazy. Now we're paying for it. A couple of years ago, there were 8,000 properties on the market, now there are 43,000. We started using your service in 2004, and back then I was using 2-digit extensions for our listings. Now we're using 3-digit extensions to give us more room.
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