Editor’s note: This article was first published on the Roof AI blog on August 29, 2018. It’s been left almost entirely unedited to preserve the full context in which it was written, and to highlight just how forward-thinking it was at the time.
Back in 2018, concepts like natural language search and AI-driven conversations were still far from mainstream in real estate, yet Roof AI was already building toward that future. Reading it now, you can see the early foundations of ideas that have since become industry standards: from instant, conversational guidance to automated qualification and agent-ready handoff.
I hear you. You may still be skeptical about this new technology.
This is normal – it’s how things have always been.
In fact, Geoffrey Moore discusses this phenomenon in his book “Crossing The Chasm.” In it, he talks about the technology adoption lifecycle and how 5 segments are involved:
- Innovators
- Early adopters
- Early majority
- Late majority
- Laggards
I think we are crossing the chasm. Why?
Because two of the top CRM platforms just introduced bots: Intercom, the previously live chat- only company, and most recently, CRM giant Hubspot.
The aim?
To have personalized conversations at scale.
What are bots?
Some bots are more complex than others. Some automate form filling, others have some intelligence to them. The most advanced ones are powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
AI helps bots understand complex requests, personalize responses, and improve interactions over time.
Why bots?
It's all part of a larger shift we're seeing in consumer behavior.
During the home buying/selling process, people want the information they need right when they are on your website.
If you're able to provide that information right where they are and when they need it, that’s value. That’s good customer experience.
All that any consumer wants is the most direct line between their problem and a solution.
The new way
We can now say that bots are helping our customers grow their real estate businesses in much faster and more efficient ways.
Our real estate bot runs on your website to help guide your website visitors to the right outcome without any manual human intervention.
Let’s say a buyer lead lands on your website. The bot will engage them in many different ways.
Here are a few examples:
Match them with listings
Schedule showings
Personalize the experience
All this done right there and then inside the Roof AI messenger.
For a seller lead, the bot can guide them to a home valuation page where they can see real-time data about their home’s value. It can also engage with potential recruits that want to become part of your real estate brokerage!
Consumers are defining the next generation of business communication. Here are three reasons why real estate businesses need to pay attention:
1. Messaging is the primary way customers want to connect with businesses
Messaging has taken over our personal communication so fast. It’s now taking over the business world as well.
Customers expect modern businesses to have a chat option on their website, which makes communication fast and easy.
This brings with it a host of new opportunities compared to static old tools like email and forms.
I myself have closed and communicated with many clients via our web messenger. Many of them prefer communicating via chat rather than by email or phone.
2. Integrations will give consumers endless opportunities
This technology is evolving fast, bots are getting smarter, and integrations with other tools and apps are becoming easier.
Integrations with third party data providers will give visitors access to important information – without having to leave your website.
Your website visitors will also be able to perform more actions through this window. Using different app integrations your website leads can have access to complementary services such as mortgages, titles, and insurance.
Consumers are becoming more comfortable with taking actions (such as buying) online. We see it with the growing popularity of iBuyers. So it is important, now more than ever, to empower your customers with information that helps them make decisions faster.
Visitors now can stay on your site, get things done right there, and move faster towards that closed transaction.
These integrated experiences result in much higher completion rates. More conversations, better quality leads, more deals closed.
3. Chatbots have come of age and are helping businesses grow faster
Yes – at the beginning of the chatbot hype, the technology was very basic and primitive.
Things have changed considerably.
Looking at Gartner’s hype cycle below, you can see the five key phases that new technology passes through.
The good news is that chatbots are over the hype. We have now learned how to use bots efficiently and design them in a way that can help real estate brokerages grow and scale.
How chatbots deliver value
A. Bots can automate repetitive work: Chatbots can easily handle the repetitive and time consuming work your e-team does, such as manually qualifying people or scheduling meetings. This gives your team time to talk to people and close deals with those high quality leads and focus on what produces huge efficiency gains.
B. Chatbots operate 24/7: They collect qualified leads and book meetings while your sales reps are asleep. It’s only during off hours that online real estate activity peaks, so rather than making leads wait until the next morning to get a reply (and a lot of the time not even get a reply ever), your real estate bot will service those inquiries and prepare a set of qualified leads for your team to start their day with.
C. Chatbots can scale: No more “waiting for representatives” and no more queuing – chatbots can handle thousands of inquiries at once. You don’t have to worry about this live chat limitation on your site now that dealing with volume while maintaining quality is now possible. With chatbots you can have an infinite number of website visitors interacting with the messenger and getting qualified without having to worry about scaling up your sales team.
Every day, thousands of leads land on your real estate brokerage’s website only to be welcomed with outdated and static tools that make communication nearly impossible and are responsible for very painful lead response times. Only 7% of real estate brokerages respond to their leads within an optimal timeframe, while 40% of those brokerages don’t even reply to their leads.
Real estate brokerages today are ignoring website visitors. Not because they want to, but because the tools they use don’t enable them to reply in time. In the best case, there might be live chat, which many of our clients have confessed to turning it off because they were worried about not being able to reply.
Why do leads go to listings aggregators such Zillow vs. a brokerage’s website? It’s because Zillow provides a better customer experience. Consumers will go where it’s easy and fast to get answers.
With messaging and bots, real estate brokerages can get back into the lead generation game. They’ll be able to drive huge business growth through new customer acquisitions, without having to scale up their e-team or change the way they do business.
A new era of business communication and customer experience is upon us and real estate brokerages need to embrace that change. Join the top real estate brokerages using Roof AI.
