Zillow Shakes Up Executive Suite to Increase Focus on 'End-to-End Customer Experience'

Zillow has promoted Jeremy Wacksman to Chief Operating Officer and Susan Daimler to President as CEO Rich Barton re-orders the company in an attempt to align all teams on the path to the company's stated goal of a seamless real estate experience for customers.

Computer Engineering graduate Wacksman who previously worked for Microsoft has been at Zillow for 11 years and has held the positions of Head of Marketing as well as President. In his new role he will report directly to Barton who said of his new COO:

"Jeremy has been an extraordinary leader and strategist over his 11-year tenure at Zillow, consistently achieving results and demonstrating Zillow's core values," Barton said. "I have full confidence that Jeremy and Zillow's senior leadership are now organized to deliver on an integrated customer transaction experience. I'm thrilled to continue leading this talented management team as we help customers unlock life's next chapter"

Wacksman will now lead Zillow's day to day operations with the firm's goal very much being the true end-to-end real estate experience that it has been zooming in on over recent months and years and which today's press release described as an "on-demand experience for selling, buying, renting or financing with transparency and nearly seamless end-to-end service".

In her new role as President, Daimler is promoted from heading up Zillow's flagship agent listing product 'Premier Agent' which she had done with distinction since 2018 (Premier Agent recorded 35% quarterly growth in Zillow's Q4 results released this month). Barton was also effusive with his praise for Daimler, saying that his newly appointed company President "has a track record of driving great results and keeping a relentless focus on our customers and our partners."

Zillow has rarely been out of the news since the turn of the year as the firm's push towards creating perhaps the first truly end-to-end real estate company continues to create headlines and ruffle industry feathers. Last week the company announced a new proprietary tool that combines 3d tours with floorplans, the week before that Zillow announced the controversial $500M acquisition of showing scheduling and data analysis firm Showing Time and back in January, after a great deal of work behind the scenes, the company announced a shift from MLS feeds to IDX feed.

Each move Zillow makes to drag its business model closer to real estate transactions is now accompanied by a considerable amount of agent lamenting and often a counter move or set of comments from fellow US real estate tech giant CoStar which has been manoeuvring into position to take on Zillow in residential real estate and releasing some punchy anti-Zillow soundbites. The fact that Zillow has decided to reshuffle its leadership and put out a press release to explain it as a move designed ultimately to benefit end-users shows that its intentions are now truly out in the open.