Community Service: Sweda, Sweda & Associates

Why eye it: The company, which has grown from one office with three salespeople to two offices with 54 salespeople in six years, has a floor system so popular that salespeople have left meetings to sign up for floor time in tears, saying, "I didn't get enough floor time this month!" says Sharon Sweda, office manager.

Under Sweda's system, when consumers call about one of the company's listings, the lead goes to the salesperson on floor time unless the listing agent is at the office. And salespeople must have participated in the company's weekly caravan to be eligible for floor time. "If salespeople are allowed to take a lead or to take floor time but they haven't seen our properties, they haven't done a service to the client," says Sweda.

The result: According to Sweda, sellers like the company's floor-time system because calls from buyers get serviced immediately by salespeople who are knowledgeable about the sellers' property. And the company sells 62 percent of its own listings, in part, Sweda believes, because of the increased customer service provided by the floor system.

In addition, Sweda had to restructure the floor-time schedule to create more blocks of time for which salespeople can sign up. "My top producers want floor time as much as the beginners do," says Sweda.

Sweda's advice for other brokers: Think about whether the blocks of time you offer floor time fit salespeople's schedules. "Most offices have a shift from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.," says Sweda, "but that was the toughest slot for me to fill because it overlapped the time to pick up the children from school and cook dinner." By making her afternoon shift from 4 to 6, Sweda says, she's enabled her salespeople to make dinner or pick children up from school and still get to the office for floor time.