Have suggestions for products that you’d like to see reviewed by our real estate technology expert? Email Craig Rowe.
Daylite, by Marketcircle, is a small business CRM for Mac users.
Platforms: Mac desktop; companion app for iOS
Ideal for: Smaller independent brokerages; Mac devotees; new agents
Top selling points
- Native Mac UX/UI
- Designed to support work, not create it
- No marketing feature-bloat
- Affordability
- Easy to build follow-up automations
Top concerns
The overall user experience won’t convince non-Mac fans to switch to a PC merely to use Daylite.
What you should know
Mac computers, and Apple products in general, have long been lauded for their streamlined, visual elegance. Fan or not, its products are ergonomically beautiful.
Yet, I wanted more in that respect from a customer relationship management platform (CRM) developed specifically for the Mac OS.
But, the drop-downs, feature touchpoints, menu design and subtle visual elements that have come to define the Apple operating system are omnipresent in Daylite, which will surely level the learning curve for existing Mac users.
The software was conceptualized to drive work, not create more of it. This means that its developers want users to spend as little time as possible in tasks, data input screens and email compose windows.
Every project, pipeline, document and email are connected at every instance within the system, and “Activity Sets” can automate a wide range of tasks and lead follow-ups.
Relative to leads, Daylite leans heavily on Zapier to bridge your CRM and your accounts with outside lead generators, such as Zillow and Facebook.
People can be quickly categorized in Smart Lists, and I always look for the ability to “tag” each contact, which Daylite has. Tags, or keywords in this case, are more natural ways to relate to people. How you met them (Open House). Where (Soccer game). What they do (Dentist).
Pipelines are Daylite’s sale and project process tool. They can designed in stages, as you would for a typical real estate deal, and every stage has its own list of tasks and related people and documents needed to advance the project.
A couple of smart features I like include a small customer search and list filter tool that hovers over the primary menu command. You barely have to move the cursor.
The “Opportunity State Reasons” menu is not something I’ve seen very often. It’s a drop-down of possible reasons the person is no longer a good lead. Maybe it’s because they closed or maybe they’re not ready. This is commonly something left to a notes tool, where it provides little value.
Daylite instead makes it part of the record, and agents can use it to track what might not be working in their sales strategy. (Of course, you have to be honest with yourself about it.)
The “Activity” track is nice. It’s a left-hand, slide-out that scrolls through a person’s or project’s timeline with you, and every update is an active link.
Daylite’s overall feature availability and functionality is on-par with what most agents should expect from a customer relationship management solution.
It doesn’t give you more than you need on the marketing front. Daylite wants you to sell, not become a Madison Avenue intern. Whereas many systems let powerful social and content marketing features sit dormant in the hope your needs will scale to meet what you’re paying for, Daylite stays grounded.
Lists and menu options can be customized, mail accounts integrated by DMA (Daylite mail assistant), and you can get in-app notifications from team members when they’ve responded or updated a deal point.
Also, as a desktop app, you don’t need a Wi-Fi connection to use Daylite. That’s more useful than you probably realize.
The software gets super granular. Individual emails can be assigned keywords and viewing permissions, so they’ll land in the right place and be seen by only those who need to.
The screens can coagulate quickly though, especially when there’s four columns of data and a couple of contact pop-ups floating around. Sending a mass email opens up each message in a separate Apple Mail window, which is kind of tedious.
The primary left-hand nav can also be inundated with custom drop-down menu categories. Don’t let yourself “over-categorize.”
In short, Daylite doesn’t totally deliver on its promise to limit your interaction with it. The software ebbs and flows from CRM to business operating system; maybe that’s a good thing.
For Mac users in smaller offices and teams wanting to separate themselves with technology independence from their broker, this could be a very usable, completely productive option. There are advantages to its simplicity, interactions with other Mac apps, and its $24 a month seat price.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
