What to do when an agent leaves your agency

Sometimes in life, people move on. It’s inevitable that at some stage, an agent will leave your agency - whether that’s to retire, join another agency or become part of the Tap Dancing Troupe on Broadway. In fact, you’ll probably experience it a few times during your career. The first thing you’ll need to do is make sure the handover of work is watertight - so nothing slips through the cracks. With that in mind, we’ve made the process of removing a Rex user incredibly straightforward.

If the leaving user has a generic email address

This one is probably more applicable for support staff. If the leaving user has an email you’ll be giving to their replacement - like agent@thisagency.com, or frontdesk@thisagency.com - you should change the details of that user.

Everything else

You’ll probably want to jump in and delete the user from Rex - but hold your horses. There’s a few things to do first. And by ‘you’, we mean Super Admins and Account Owners. This is serious stuff! You’re dealing with a lot of valuable information, after all.

1. Remove user’s right to access Rex

You can remove the user’s access to Rex so they can't make any unwanted changes without deleting them as a user.

1. Go to Admin > Users & Security
2. Open the appropriate user
3. Go to the Privileges tab
4. Remove their rights to access:
5. If they have a role, click Change Role, choose No Role, then click Change Role
6. If they have custom privileges, Click the x next to any Privilege Sets applied to the user
7. Click Save Changes

If the agent ever tries to login, they won't be able to see any information in Rex - everything will appear locked.

2. Re-assign records to another user

Chances are, the agent who’s leaving doesn’t get to take their database with them - that means you’ll need to hand over those Contact, Property and Listing records to someone else. To re-assign Contact records:

1. Go to Contacts > All Contacts
2. Click Filter Contacts
3. Click Advanced
4. Add the Criteria: Record Meta - Owning User - is any of - (record owner)
5. Click Filter
6. Select all records
7. Click Mass Actions > Reassign Ownership
8. Choose the New Record Owner
9. Click Reassign Owner

To re-assign Property records:Repeat the above process, starting from Properties>Properties.To re-assign Listing records:Unfortunately, there’s no quick fix for Listing records. You’ll need to change the Listing Agent on each listing record individually.

3. Reassign Reminders:

This is something you’ll probably want to do the very same day the user leaves the agency - you don’t want any appointments or follow-ups slipping through the cracks, after all. Reminders are attached to Property, Contact and Listing records - so you’ll need to re-assign reminders three times.

1. Go to Admin > System Lists > Reminders
2. Click Filter Reminders
3. Choose the right Reminder User (the agent leaving)
4. Click Apply Filter
5. Select all records
6. Click Go To Related
7. Choose Properties from the drop down menu
8. Click Navigate
9. Select all records
10. Click Mass Actions > Reassign Reminders
11. Choose the Current Task Owner
12. Choose the New Task Owner
13. Click Reassign Reminders

You’re one third of the way there! Now, to re-assign the reminders attached to Contact records:

1. Repeat steps 1 - 6
2. Choose Contacts from the dropdown menu
3. Click Navigate
4. Repeat steps 9 - 13

And to re-assign the reminders attached to Listing records:

1. Repeat steps 1 - 6
2. Choose Listings from the dropdown menu
3. Click Navigate
4. Repeat steps 9 - 13

4. Deleting the user

Once you've completed the above steps, you can go ahead and delete the user.

1. Go to Admin > Users & Security
2. Open the User's profile
3. Click Delete at the top
4. Click Confirm Delete

After that, you’ll also need to terminate the agent’s access to company email, remove them from the phone system and update your agency’s website. That’s the nitty gritty bits taken care of. Now, you’ve got to smooth things over for everyone else.

Minimise the impact on other staff

How you deal with an agent leaving your agency largely depends on the specific circumstances, but the main thing here is to keep everyone in the loop.Let your agents know they’ll be reassigned the leaving agent’s leads. They’ll need as much warning as possible so they can sort out their workflow, and set up tracks for their newly acquired leads.  If a junior agent is stepping up to the plate now an old hand is retiring, they might need some training. Check they’ve got Pocket, so they can give customers a call on the fly - they’ll have loads more on their plate now, and every second counts. We could go on and on - the list is endless. Your best bet is to create a checklist of the exact steps to take when an agent announces his or her departure. It’s inevitable that every agent will, at some stage, retire and leave the world of real estate behind. If you’ve got a checklist in place, you’ll streamline the process.

Minimise the impact on current customers

It’s also a good idea to have a policy in place for what happens to a leaving agent’s listing and active buyer clients. After all, your agency is built on relationships. Ask the leaving agent to give all of their current customers a call to hand off to the agent taking over, and ease any concerns they may have. The point here is to reassure current clients that your agency is looking after their best interests - you don’t want them feeling like they’ve been ditched in the eleventh hour.  Once the agent taking over has had a chance to review all of the record notes in Rex, they should give those customers an introductory call to make sure everything is a-OK at their end. The agent can use this opportunity to let the customer know the next steps they’ll be taking - this shows the customer that the agent is on top of it all, but also gives the agent a chance to check that the record notes are up to date.

Minimise the impact on prospects

The leaving agent has likely already made a great first impression on their leads - now it’s up to the agent taking over to continue their good work. The agent taking over will need to repeat the steps above for current customers, but to a lesser extent. The key here is to let those prospects know that the agency as a whole values their business.

Minimise the impact on the leaving agent

People’s circumstances, expectations and aspirations are sure to change over time - so it’s inevitable that people will decide to move in new directions. Sincerely wish them well with the next step of their journey, and remember that even if it’s your top performing agent leaving, your team will pull through - there’s likely a junior agent in the wings just waiting for their big break!