What are the Agent Engagement Tools?
The Agent Engagement Tools is a turnkey solution with tools for developers/builders to add and manage their agent program.
The Agent Engagement Tools are an add on the community's website.
The Tools are added on by following the instructions below.
The instructions will add 2 main features to the community's website:
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Agent Portal
- Agent Tracker
What is Agent Portal (Portal)?
The Agent Portal is the central location where agents access the builder’s agent program. The Agent Portal is an add-on to the website where agents can access and download documents, images, floor plans, etc. to share with their clients. Below is an example of the Agent Portal:
What is Agent Tracker (AT)?
Agent Tracker is an add-on to your community’s website. AT will make the community's website “agent friendly” allowing agents to use the website as a marking tool while retaining control of their leads.
Agent Tracker is a passive technology. It stays off until activated. AT is activated when the user arrives at the website from a specialized URL. When AT is active, the following happens:
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Hide all contact info for the developer’s onsite sales team.
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Adds the referring agent’s contact information.
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Changes the contact forms to Agent Shield’s contact forms.
Example of Agent Tracker on a community's website:
Agent Tracker Not Active: This is the Abaco website with Agent Tracker not active. The onsite contact information appears. This is the reason why agents do not send their buyers to a new construction website.
Agent Tracker Active: This is the same page. When the traffic comes from a referring agent, Agent Tracker activates and changes the contact information to the referring agent and the lead from the email form is sent to the referring agent. Agents are now able to use the Abaco website to educate their buyers about Abaco.
Instructions:
Process for adding Agent Shield Code:
The process for adding the Agent Shield code to your development/community’s website includes 4 steps:
Step 1: Add included Javascript to each page.
Step 2: Add DIV to specific as needed in the site.
Step 3: Adding Agent Participation links to footer of the site.
Step 4: Inform Agent Shield that the site is ready for us to test.
NOTE: This standard method of certification involves the use of JavaScript and html div tags. Div tags with specific class names will cause various effects to the site. The div tags do not affect the layout or function of the site unless the script recognizes that the referring link is an Agent Shield link. There is no style or class associated with the class names given in the div tag; therefore, there is no effect or error on normal viewing of the site.
Guidelines:
There are 2 states of Agent Tracker: Inactive and Active.
1. Inactive: When a visitor arrives to your website, not from a referring agent, AT does not turn on. Your website will stay exactly the same.
2. Active: When a visitor arrives to your website from a referring agent, AT turns on making the website “agent friendly” (as described above).
Basic Rules & Principles:
When adding AT code to make a website “agent friendly”, there are the few basic rules and principles that you must adhere to in order to protect the referring agent:
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Sales Team’s Contact Information – The onsite sales team’s contact information should be replaced with the referring agent’s contact info. (You will use code in section 2.5 below.)
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Other Contact Information – Other contact information on the site must be hidden. (You will use code in section 2.1 below.)
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Contact Forms – All contact forms should be replaced by Agent Shield’s forms. (You will use code in section 2.2 below.)
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Linking – All links taking the user off the website should be hidden. (You will use code in section 2.1 below.)
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Location – The specific location or address of the development or sales center must hidden. This includes specific driving directions. (You will use code in section 2.1 below.)
How to test:
During this process, you’ll need to test your work. A few items that you’ll need to be aware of:
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AT is activated through “Agent Tracker Link”. The unique URL’s that contain data that AS uses to recognize who the referring agent is.
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Cookies are set on your website that keeps the last referring agent’s contact information on the website.
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To deactivate WS, that cookie needs to be cleared.
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Use the special links below for testing.
Agent Tracker Links to test:
The Agent Tracker Links that agents receive that allow them to link to your developments website are just links to your existing website, but with an additional query string variable added.
When testing, to activate Agent Tracker, add the query string “?as=demo”. Example:
http://www.yourdevelopmenurl.com/?as=demo
A cookie is set on the user’s machine when using this link that protects the agent. To clear the cookie and to have the site go back to normal, you can use this link:
When testing, to de-activate Agent Tracker, add the query string “?asclear=true”. Example:
http://www.yourdevelopmenturl.com/?asclear=true
Step 1: Adding Javascript w/ API key to each page.
Start by adding the Javascript code with API key to each page. Place this Javascript include at the bottom of the page just above the closing </body> tag:
NOTE 1: Each community/development will have its own unique API key. That API will be provided via email.
NOTE 2: This code needs to be added to every page of the website.
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://toolbox.agentshield.com/apikey/Replace_This_Text_With_Actual_API_Key"></script>
Step 2: Add Agent Tracker code to specific places as needed in the site.
There are different elements such as contact information, email forms, images, etc. that need to be hidden or replaced. Below are the different DIV classes that can be used. Please use your best judgment to choose the best class to use for each element. If you have questions on which class to you, please feel free to ask us.
Note: <span> tags can be used in place of <div> tags. Sometimes span works better in certain layouts.
2.1 - Hide Elements - Most Used
Use this to hide specific elements of the site. Any area where there is information such as a link or image that would cause one of the certification rules to be broken may be something one would want to use this tag for.
<div class="agentshield_hide" > … your code you want to hide… </div>
2.2 - Show Referring Agent’s Name - Most Used
When there is contact information for the onsite sales team, use this tag to hide the existing content and display the referring agent’s name instead.
<div class="agentshield_contactinfo_style5" > …Existing contact info or nothing at all if just inserting… </div>
2.3 - Insert Contact Form - Most Used
This tag can be placed around an existing contact form on the site. This code will replace the existing form with an Agent Shield form in which the referring agent directly receives the submission.
This fields in this form includes:
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First Name
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Last Name
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Phone Number
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Email Address
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Message
<div class="agentshield_contactform6" > ..code for your existing contact form…. </div>
2.4 - Swap Images
This tag can be used to switch an image which may contain contact information with another that does not. “/images/yourreplacement.gif” would be replaced with the name of the actual image you would like to use to replace.
<div class="agentshield_imageswap||/images/yourreplacement.gif"> …image you want to swap… </div>
2.5 - Restrict Links
Can be used to restrict links but to leave the image on which may be in the link. This is typically used on footers where a logo may be present.
<div class="agentshield_nolink" > ...a href link or image code… </div>
2.6 - Show Element
This tag is used to display elements that should only be shown when coming from and Agent Shield link.
<div class="agentshield_show" style="display:none;"> …element to show… </div>
Step 3: Adding Agent Portal links to footer of the site.
This code snippet adds the Agent Portal to the footer of the site. Please add to the footer of each page. This code will add an “For Agent” button (which pops open the Agent Portal) and Agent Shield Certified logo wherever the code is added.
NOTE 1: The buttons in the footer will appear at all times regardless if Agent Shield is active or not active. These buttons are for agents to access the Agent Shield tools.
NOTE 2: This code needs to be added to every page of the website.
<div class="agentshield_links"></div>
Step 4: Inform Agent Shield to test.
When you have completed adding the code to the website, inform the Agent Shield representative so we can test. If everything passes, the site will activated in the Agent Shield system.
NOTE: The Agent Engagement Tools will not be usable until the website is activated in the Agent Shield System.