Background

You are the Director of Marketing for Yakima Properties, a real-estate company that employs 18 agents and advertises approximately 100 residential properties at any one time. The company advertises in the Saturday real-estate supplement in the local newspaper and on its own website, presenting photographs and a description of each of the properties. In addition, for properties that are advertised at a price of $750,000 and above, the company presents virtual 360° tours on the website. When Yakima Properties began offering the virtual tours on its website two years ago, it contracted with Edelson Custom Photography, a high-end photographic supplier, to provide both the virtual tours and the traditional photographs of all the company’s properties. Yakima’s contract with Edelson is about to expire.

In an attempt to determine if it is possible to cut costs, you have asked one of your agents, Rachel Stevens, to research whether it would be possible to have the real-estate agents take their own photographs of the properties they list. You ask Rachel to sketch out how she would research the topic: “Write me an email listing the questions we need to answer to know whether this idea would work, and how you’d answer them.” Two days later, she sends you an email (Document 5.1).

You leave her a phone message: “Thanks, Rachel. Good to know that the hardware is available and cheap. What I’d like you to think about now, however, is what our agents would think about being asked to take their own pictures. How many of the agents are experienced with taking digital photos? Do they have any preferences about the kind of camera to get? Would they consider it an imposition to have to take their own photos, or do they think the ability to shoot just what they want—and have the photos available right away—outweighs the extra work we’d be asking them to do? And keep in mind that, with 18 agents, you’re going to want to choose types of questions that let us quantify the responses effectively.”

Rachel sends you an email saying that she’ll get on it, and the next day you receive her response (Document 5.2). After studying it, you realize that you are going to need to become more involved in carrying out this research. You know that Rachel is a good worker who has a bright future with Yakima Properties, but she has little experience writing questionnaires. You ask her if she would like you to critique her five questions. She says yes.

Download the documents below, and then begin your assignment.

Download a copy of Document 5.1.

Download a copy of Document 5.2.

Your Assignment

Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the case background and documents, complete the assignment below. Your instructor will tell you how he or she would like you to submit your work.

1. Write an email response to Rachel in which you thank her for her work but explain the major flaw in each of the five questions.

2. Rachel receives your critique of her questions and asks if you wouldn’t mind showing her how you would frame the questions. Write her an email in which you present five questions meant to gather easy-to-quantify information about the agents’ experience and expertise using digital cameras and their attitudes toward your idea of having them take their own photos of their properties. For each of the five questions, include a one-paragraph statement explaining why the information the question is intended to elicit is important, and why the question is likely to gather the necessary information and be easy to quantify.

Reflecting on Your Work

Once you’ve completed your assignment, write a reflection about your work using the prompt below.

Question 5.4