Zillow (Z) is launching a customer support team, but not for the potential homebuyers who peruse Zillow’s site looking for a new home. Instead, the online real estate giant is forming a customer support team for the real estate agents, Realtors, and brokers who use Zillow services.
Zillow’s “Client Experience and Account Management Team” will also provide support for brokerages and multiple listing services that use Zillow’s new listing management platform, Zillow Data Dashboard, which is designed to replace the listing services provided by Listhub, which will end on April 7, according to a recent filing by Zillow with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Zillow also announced the hiring of JR Gast (pictured below) to lead the new customer support team. Gast brings nearly 15 years of customer support experience to the newly created post at Zillow. Prior to joining Zillow, Gast served as a senior director of global support for online music service Rhapsody, which boasts 2 million customers across 35 countries.
"I'm very excited to be building this world class support team from the ground up," Gast said. "Real estate pros are critical to Zillow's success, and my team will ensure that the services we are providing them are working flawlessly. I'm looking forward to making the customer support experience as seamless as possible."
In addition to providing customer support to agents and brokers, the new team has a specialized group of support specialists who will focus on direct feeds, including multiple listing services and brokerage feeds, as well as the new Zillow Data Dashboard. “Now, customer support will be available to industry professionals seven days a week,” Zilllow said in a release.
Zillow Data Dashboard is a new listing management and reporting platform that puts increased control of listings in the hands of MLS members and brokers, Zillow said earlier this month when the Data Dashboard was announced.
Zillow said that it expects to directly connect with a total of 1.6 million for-sale-by-agent listings using the new platform. Over time, Zillow expects all listings published on Zillow to come through the Zillow Data Dashboard, the company said.
"We are developing a new, world class customer support experience," said Greg Schwartz, Zillow chief revenue officer. "Real estate professionals have very different needs than the consumers who use Zillow, and they need a dedicated team of people who can quickly resolve any issues that may arise. Under JR's experienced leadership, this team is streamlining the customer experience and taking customer support at Zillow to a new level."
