And just like that, 2021 has come to an end. In a year that was unlike any other (well, perhaps a little too similar to 2020), the development team worked non-stop to make Spectre the most innovative and groundbreaking instruction generation tool on the market.
We’ve made lots of changes to Spectre, so many in fact that we wanted to look back at all the ways we’ve improved our software over the last twelve months. So without further ado, here is our very own, Spectre Wrapped…
January
In the first month of 2021, we introduced a feature that allowed agents to mark multiple landlords as “Do Not Send”, instead of needing to block one at a time. It’s just one of the many developments our team implemented to make sure user experience is as streamlined and efficient as possible.
We also improved the way Spectre Credits worked to bring in decimalised charges (i.e 6.8 credits for Land Registry purchases), so even though the price of postage goes up each year, agents can keep prospecting costs down. In total, we’ve calculated this change saves our clients about £15k per year.
February
February saw the team upgrade the images on our postcards to include PNGs as well as JPEGs, meaning even more formats are supported and agents could make their prospecting materials look even better. We also updated our Branch Activity Reports so every agency branch was included (not just the ones that generated letters that month) - giving agents a complete overview of how each team was performing with Spectre.
March
In March, we made Spectre more stable, faster, and reliable by migrating our software to AWS. It was a huge undertaking, but we knew it would deliver significant benefits for our clients, and our team all pulled together to ensure a seamless transition - it’s probably the thing we’re most proud of this year. We also added a host of new sales triggers to our prospecting letters (including months after SSTC), so agents can continue profiting from other post-sale services and/or company referrals.
April
For the rainiest month of the year, things were cheery over at Spectre. On top of adding new functionality that lets agents filter off-market data to make their prospecting more focused and effective, the team also introduced tools for Customer Success Managers to find properties in an agent’s account. This made it easier for our team to help clients that were unable to find a property, which in turn, allowed them to make their prospecting more targeted.
May
As things started to brighten up, our development team made Spectre shine even brighter. With a new Off-Market feature that allows agents to see how long a property has been occupied up to 25 years, agents could start to target properties with long-term owners who are much more likely to consider selling than new occupants.
June
Since Spectre is designed to help agents generate better results from prospecting, in June, our development team made it easier for them to scale their activities. Our system increased the maximum number of postcards that can be generated at once from 500 to 5000. Now, agents can cast their prospecting net wider and increase the chances of winning instructions.
July
In July, we took Spectre further up the UK by establishing Spectre Lettings Scotland, meaning more agents across the nation could benefit from our groundbreaking technology. We also launched our Anniversaries feature; one of our most innovative tools that allows agents to stay in contact with past clients by sending an annual property performance report to win repeat business, without lifting a finger.
August
In August, we celebrated our most successful product launch to date - Property Reports. We created three powerful reports to help agents set themselves apart from the competition with expertly designed and fully branded marketing on 25 million UK properties… a guaranteed way to wow clients, secure valuations and win more instructions.
September
This month, Spectre was not only shortlisted for Supplier of the Year - Technology (Apps) at The Negotiator awards, but Street Group (which comprises Spectre) was also shortlisted for SaaS Company of the Year at the Prolific North Tech awards! Even with all these celebrations, work didn’t stop at Spectre HQ…
Our development team launched a brand-new sales dashboard, meaning your favourite prospecting features were all in one place. We also made it possible for agents to buy title deeds from the ‘generate letters’ page, making unrivalled property data available at your fingertips.
October
October wasn’t too spooky for Spectre. We expanded the number of ways that agents could personalise their postcards to ensure they arrived on a homeowner’s doorstep with maximum impact. What’s more, the team rolled out enhanced prospecting successes detection for Lettings users which led to a 150% overall increase in the amount of lettings successes detected. There truly were no skeletons in our closet.
November
In the month that Spectre was rated Exceptional in the Best EA Supplier Guide 2022, we showed just how powerful our software could be by integrating with Reapit. By fusing these two leading products, agents could begin personalising their prospecting mailers with known contacts - without the lengthy manual importation of data.
That wasn’t the only integration, however... we also integrated Spectre with Street Insights, the newly launched property platform offering unrivalled property data and professional reports totally free for life, for all UK agents. But Spectre users got an added bonus; this integration also meant they received access to Insights Pro at no extra cost. With lead capture QR codes on 20:20 postcards and the ability to automatically pull in photos without the need to upload them, this integration was a total game-changer for customers.
December
To wrap up another year of developments, we saved the best until last. Another redesign of Spectre Successes so agents can see a more detailed breakdown of instructions, and invaluable additions to off-market data filtering, like number of bedrooms, leasehold/freehold, plot size, bungalows, and council tax bands. The perfect way to finish off the year in style.
It’s fair to say Spectre has come a long way in 2021, but we’re looking forward to taking the UK’s leading instruction generation tool even further in 2022. Just watch this space.
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