How Rindle helped Windermere Real Estate save up to 30 hours per week

Alex Brown is the Director of Product and Brand for Windermere Real Estate. Today, his in-house marketing team supports more than 300 agents across 15 offices in the state of Utah. But that wasn't always the case.

Four years ago, we were less than half the size we are now. We only had about a hundred agents. They could just email us with any requests, and we would take it from there.

As the company rapidly expanded, their simple email system quickly became overwhelmed. They needed a project management system that could scale to match their growth. But their first attempt didn't work out as planned.

We started inputting marketing requests into Basecamp. But it turns out that wasn't the best solution. Projects and tasks were siloed, so you couldn't have the kind of collaboration that you need in the real world.

In such a fast-paced environment, flexibility is key. But the Basecamp system eventually proved to be cumbersome and time-consuming.

With Basecamp, you couldn't assign more than one person to a task. That presented a huge problem for us. Another issue was that you couldn't include tasks in other projects without creating a lot of duplicate work.

As time went on, they tried to create workarounds using Google Sheets and other apps, but the patchwork approach created more problems than it solved. As a result, they spent too much time inputting tasks and overseeing their entire project management system.

You couldn't have subtasks within a task. You couldn't have checklists. Those were big issues for us. It didn't work for us in the way that we needed to do things.

Brown tried a number of different project management systems, looking for a solution that could be customized to fit their workflow.

I tried Asana, I tried GoodDay, I tried every project management system under the sun. Then I found Rindle, and it completely changed everything.

Before adopting any SaaS product, Brown says it's always a good idea to dig deep into their literature. Not just to see what the product can do for you today, but to see what else it could do for you in the future.

I always look at the help center before I buy anything. The amount of detailed information that Rindle has in their help center and case studies is impressive. After seeing the philosophy behind how the product is designed, I knew that they totally understood our problem. I saw that it could be customized to fit us exactly.

The number-one reason why they chose Rindle was its unique mirroring function. It allows tasks to live in more than one process or board simultaneously. That allows anyone to have a task in their workflow at any time.

Now we can customize any view for any team member and have that same task live everywhere. Whether it's someone on a recruiting team, or someone on my operations team, I can have that task live there, and they don't have to worry about updating it in many different places. Mirrors were literally life-changing.

Automation is another crucial feature for the success of the Windermere team.

Automation is key for us in terms of using incoming and outgoing webhooks, because it worked with whatever system we wanted to work with. Rindle is a very open box. You can really push it to do anything.

Automations quickly eliminated tedious tasks and offered a tremendous efficiency boost.

With the marketing request system, I was using Gravity Forms and Gravity Flow, and it was so easy. It reduced all of that manual labor of inputting project details. It's just been amazing to see how automations have really helped us.

The more the Windermere team used Rindle, the more it streamlined every aspect of their business. Soon, they saw potential uses everywhere.

At first, I just saw Rindle as a project management system. Now it's completely changed everything for us, because I'm also using it as a CRM. We're tracking applicant leads. We're tracking processes within recruiting and onboarding. Today, I almost take it for granted because I forget just how easy it is.

Switching over to Rindle went quickly and smoothly, in large part because Rindle is so customizable. Every team member was able to set up their board their own way, which drove faster adoption and made the transition easier.

Everyone got in there and created their boards, and they were so happy with them. That customization is a huge benefit. Personally, I'm technical and process-driven, but some people don't care about every individual step and just want to know whether something is done or not. So it works great in that regard.

The way Rindle can sort, tab, and color tasks lets us visually see what's on the board, and watch projects moving through the workflow.

The time savings Rindle created made the entire project management process simpler and more efficient.

You can never get time back. And this has saved us so much time. Every week, it saves our team at least 20 to 30 hours. That's like hiring another person for free.

Flexibility is an important factor that often gets overlooked. Because Rindle is built on flexibility, it offers numerous options for solving any problem.

It wasn't like you had to do things a certain way. In fact, Rindle is so flexible that you can really do things however you want. That was just the cherry on top.

Greater accountability was another key benefit. The real estate business operates at a rapid pace, so it's crucial to keep projects moving forward. If something goes wrong, Rindle provides a log of tasks to help track accountability.

If something gets stuck, we're the first ones to get blamed. People tell us, 'I never saw this,' or 'This never got done.' Even if it actually did get done and the customer just never responded to it. Now we can tell them when we sent it and exactly how long it's been waiting, so we can be held accountable correctly.

Unlike the patchwork approach of other project management systems, Rindle combines everything his team needs into one package. For that reason, he says it offers tremendous value for the money.

Cost wasn't really an issue in terms of a project management system. If a project management system works, it's worth every penny. For us, it's been invaluable.

One thing that surprised Brown was just how much support he received from the Rindle team from the very beginning.

It felt like we were getting more than just a project management system. We were getting a project management consultant, too. That was essential.

Every step of the way, the Rindle team acted as partners, offering guidance and solutions that helped Windermere achieve more than ever before.

Rindle is not a big company, and that was important to us. We were able to work directly with Brian and the development team. Their openness to incorporating features and looking at the roadmap together with us actually changed our perspective. They genuinely wanted us to succeed, and you could tell. The warmth from their team has been awesome.

Today, Brown is quick to recommend Rindle as the project management system of choice.

I would recommend Rindle, hands down, no questions asked. After searching so long for a product that works, you know when you find the right one. And Rindle is exactly the right one for us.