How proptech can help you improve customer experience

Buying property is the single biggest purchase most of us will make in our lives. Because it’s so important, the purchase funnel is particularly lengthy and involved, and that means you need to be available at every stage of the purchase journey to provide best-in-class customer service. The home-buying and renting process is a stressful time for people, so being available with the right advice at the right time is crucial to building relationships with your customers. 

This is where proptech can help to automate traditional processes and provide tools to ensure you’re always connected to your customers.

Customers want to talk to you right now

Your customers may have multiple ways in which they like to communicate. They might want to use WhatsApp on their phones, email when they’re at their desks. They might want to ask questions about properties on Facebook Messenger. You need to be available on every platform they use. And crucially, you need to be available when they want to talk. Getting back to someone quickly is key. Potential customers don’t have time to wait around for you to respond. They want answers now. And expected customer service wait times are shortening exponentially year-on-year. That means delivering 24/7 customer support. But, thankfully, that doesn’t necessarily mean hiring a new customer service team…

Here are just a few of the ways proptech can help you deliver great customer service and be there for your customers along their purchase journey:

Gathering information

Traditionally email and phone calls have been the way the real estate sector has done business. However, fielding frequent calls and emails asking repetitive questions about a particular property can take up vast swathes of your team’s time, leaving little room for relationship-nurturing, or following up qualified leads.

Much of that heavy lifting can be automated, leaving your team free to work further down the funnel and to push sales and rentals over the line without getting bogged down with customers at the start of their purchase journey. 

Chatbots are ideally suited to fielding informational questions and customer service professionals in other fields clearly value their contribution. According to CM.com’s 2021 Chatbot research, 98% of customer service reps believe chatbots enable them to provide better customer service and 58% say the use of chatbots has reduced their workload. 

With so much activity in the real estate sector and with estate agents under increasing pressure, it’s also worth noting that in the same research, 84% of customer service agents said they believe in the potential of chatbots to reduce workplace stress. Looking after the wellbeing of your team is essential to ensure they’re working effectively.

But it’s not just about chatbots, CM.com’s Conversational AI Cloud gives you a host of options you can use to answer routine queries, from AI chatbots, to knowledge bases, to fully conversational websites.

In addition, with CM.com’s Mobile Service Cloud, prospects can ask questions and collect information about particular properties found on your company’s websites across multiple conversational channels, including WhatsApp, Apple Messages for Business, Facebook Messenger, Viber, Telegram, Twitter, and SMS, as well as the scripted and AI chatbots we’ve already mentioned.

With Mobile Service Cloud and Conversational AI Cloud your team can:

• Collate all queries, from across all channels in one inbox, meaning conversations are easily managed and responded to efficiently.
• Work with colleagues to manage the enquiries by leaving comments, snoozing conversations or assigning them to the right colleague.
• Reduce workloads as common and generic questions can be answered by chatbots, leaving agents to focus on more difficult queries.

Booking viewings

Viewings are another area where automation can pay off. Rather than booking with individual agents, potential customers can book via a scripted or AI chatbot, saving your agents valuable lead nurturing time and removing the potential for human error from the viewing process. Chatbots available on multiple channels including WhatsApp, so your customers can ask follow-up questions or book a second viewing.

Post-purchase care

The customer relationship doesn’t end at a sale or rental; you’ll want them to think of you next time they’re looking for a property. If they’re a rental client, it’s helpful for them to be able to contact their landlord or property owner. Cross-channel messaging on WhatsApp, Apple Messages for Business, Facebook Messenger, Viber, Telegram, Twitter, and SMS, as well as scripted and AI chatbots mean your customers can use a wealth of methods to stay in touch and all of them can be collated into one dashboard using Mobile Service Cloud.

Equally, you’ll want to stay on home-buyers’ radars, too, so maintaining regular contact with useful information and just to check in from time-to-time, will keep you front of mind should they decide to move again. 

Finally, the reputational success of construction companies depends on easy access to contractors and lines of communication to keep things running smoothly. In an industry where communication is traditionally poor, being able to gather progress information to update buyers quickly is vital to ensure they go away from the process with a positive view of your company. Mobile Service Cloud also provides an internal chat solution, delivering seamless communication across your network of staff and contractors.  

With Mobile Service Cloud and Conversational AI Cloud your customers can:

• Ask questions about properties and viewings across any preferred channel, out of office hours, 24/7.
• Receive fast and detailed responses about properties and viewings.
• Ability to book viewings quickly online via chatbots.

If you want to find out more about how you can take advantage of proptech to grow your business, get in touch with our team. We can talk you through the ways our solutions can help your business.