Central Florida Real Estate Company Breaks New Ground With Launch of Virtual Interview Technology

KISSIMMEE, Fla. - Nov. 7, 2013 - PRLog -- Kissimmee-based Coldwell Banker Ackley Realty has broken new ground with the way real estate companies recruit sales associates with the launch this month of its web-based Virtual Interview.

The longtime real estate company, which celebrates its 30^th anniversary in January, teamed up with technology heavyweight AlignMark to kick-off the company’s new Accu-Recruiter Virtual Interview.

Ackley Realty is the first real estate company in the country to utilize AlignMark’s new recruiting technology, says AlignMark Vice President Glen Jaffee, whose firm’s clients include Fortune 1000 giants Regions, Boeing, Johnson & Johnson, L.L. Bean and Xerox.

The Virtual Interview will be a featured  element on the company’s website designed to recruit by engaging the prospect looking for information in a way people have become accustomed.

“It’s more than an agent testimonial,” says Jaffee. “It’s an actual exchange of information with the WEB generation prospect about a career with the company.”

“We feel honored to be the first real estate company to implement such ground-breaking technology which we believe will be the wave of the future,” says Coldwell Banker Ackley Realty CEO Rajia Ackley. “This technology not only will have a profound impact on our future recruitment efforts, but  our company’s business and financial growth, as well.”

Ackley General Manager David M. Lopez, who oversees recruiting and training, says the interview is conducted online through the company’s website. Candidates are interviewed by a virtual interviewer – an actor hired by AlignMark – and asked a series of pre-recorded, vital fact-finding questions about such areas as their experience, qualifications, capabilities, and short- and long-term career goals and objectives.

At the same time, the prospect gets to hear exactly why Ackley Realty is a fit for them.

Both Ackley and Lopez believe the technology will greatly enhance their efforts to bring in better and more high-quality real estate professionals into the Ackley fold.

Ackley is pleased to be working with AlignMark, an industry leader and pacesetter in the design and deployment of innovative assessment and e-learning tools around the world. AlignMark, with offices in Orlando, Toronto, Canada, and Bangalore, India, already has authored more than 100 books and professional publications, and maintains appointments to a number of respected groups and organizations, including the Congressional Internet Caucus.

Their Virtual Interview is expected to play a key role in Ackley Realty’s ongoing business operations. Currently, Ackley Realty has about 50 full-time agents and Rajia Ackley plans to at least “double that number over the next 12 months.”

To celebrate the kickoff of its Virtual Interview and to enhance its existing agents’ competitive advantage in the marketplace, Ackley presented new Microsoft Surface II Tablets to all of its full-time agents at a special launch party on November 6. And, from this point on, the company will be providing new Surface II tablets to every new sales associate who comes on board.

The tablets will allow Ackley Realty’s sales associates the flexibility to do listing presentations, write contracts and search MLS listings wherever they are.

“It’s a substantial investment but it underscores how committed we are to our sales associates and their success,” says Ackley. “Not only are we ushering in new technology but we are providing our agents with the training and the tools they need to be successful. Our success hinges on their success.”

Ackley says that a Coldwell Banker affiliate in North Carolina two years ago provided new Apple iPads to their associates and their agent numbers swelled from 300 to more than 700 in a year’s time.

“We have similar expectations,” says Ackley.