How you communicate with clients is key to winning more real estate deals. Fail to respond to a client's inquiry within five minutes or less and they'll bounce to one of the other 2 million active real estate agents who will.
But providing prompt, personalized client follow-up while you're visiting properties and managing various communication channels — calls, text, chat, form submissions, and more — can be difficult without the right technology. That's where having a unified business communications solution with softphone capabilites like Lead Center can help you stand out.
Not only does it enable you to quickly respond to incoming client inquiries by centralizing all interactions into a single inbox, but if you have a team, it facilitates agent collaboration so you can bring that deal home seamlessly across the transaction closing line.
In fact, it's why more and more real estate professionals are making the move to Lead Center. Read on to learn more.
1. Keeps up with you — not the other way around
There are more ways to connect with clients today than ever before and communicating with them the way they prefer is essential to nurturing a lead from a prospect and maintaining a good relationship. Add in client expectations around response time, and the pressure of trying to manage it all can be too much.
Lead Center simplifies your communication workflows by integrating all interactions into a single inbox — regardless of the channel the interaction originated from. And from this single inbox, which your whole team has access to, you can easily engage a client with a click.
So, if your client Anna left you a voicemail with her availability to see a property, you can click on that voicemail, and the interaction panel allows you to respond via call or text — immediately.
You can even stay connected to your team and clients while you're on the go via the Lead Center mobile app on your smartphone. So regardless of where business takes you, you have complete visibility into what's going on at any given time.
Instant notifications can alert you on your computer or smartphone home screen for any incoming communications. You can also set up automated responses when you're tied up with a client tour or appointment.
The same setup works for your whole team, which brings us to the next point.
Helps you work smarter and more effectively as a team
There are many parties involved in each real estate transaction. Making sure everyone has the information they need to close can be difficult if you’re counting on disparate systems to seal the deal. Lead Center fosters collaboration by centralizing all your interactions in one place.
So, if your financial analyst needs to start pulling sales comps for a particular property or putting together financials to run a cash flow report, they can get that information quickly by easily reviewing that customer's interaction history.
Let's say sales agent Roger is in a client meeting when a prospective client sends a text confirming they are ready to sell. Instead of waiting for agent Roger to reply with next steps after his meeting, agent Mike can see it in Lead Center and keep the transaction moving forward, creating an efficient and seamless client experience.
The best part about working with your team in Lead Center? It's both easy to implement and use. With its intuitive design and built-in softphone, getting your team up and running is a breeze — no need to get IT involved or wait several days to get your agents and staff set up.
Ensures you never miss another opportunity again
Since all your client interactions are centralized in a single inbox that your entire team uses, capturing every opportunity is easy. Lead Center also highlights all missed calls and messages so that the next available agent or team member can deliver on that client's expectation for a rapid response.
So, if agent Roger forgot to send photos of a property to the client, marketing coordinator Sally can jump on it and send it directly to the client via text. She can also easily click on the contact from the inbox to call them back and confirm that they got the photos.
Having the ability to respond quickly is essential in an industry where time is a vital component to moving a deal along and expediting closing, helping shorten your sales cycle.
4. Let’s you call, text, and more from your tracking numbers
Lead Center takes all of Call Tracking's capabilities and kicks them up a notch or two. An added benefit that has all real estate professionals raving is the ability to send calls, text, and more with your call tracking numbers. One benefit that stands out is the ability to use them to place outbound calls and send texts.
For example, when you use Lead Center as your business communications solution, it defaults to the number used in the initial outreach, so you don't have to remember which call tracking number your client used. You can return client calls and texts directly from the tracking numbers they come in from with just one click.
Why is that important? According to research, 97% of people regularly screen calls from numbers they don't know. That means using your call tracking number to follow up with leads will increase the chances of your clients picking up.
Another upside of using your call tracking number to make outbound calls is the ability to record them too. If you’re already using Call Tracking to track your inbound calls, then you know how beneficial it can be to help you train and coach your agents and staff. By recording your outbound calls with Lead Center, you can now get a complete view of every interaction. Plus, you get a better read of your call quality.
There are many more benefits of using your call tracking numbers to place outbound calls. Some are covered throughout this blog (like using them to send texts to your clients to shorten response time), but you can get a deeper read here.
5. Makes you stand out from the crowd with SMS text messaging
More and more people prefer text messaging over other forms of communication. In fact, 90% of all SMS text messages received are opened and read. Tapping into this communication channel is a great way to deliver on client's expectations for immediate responses. And you can send text messages today using your call tracking numbers from your computer or the Lead Center mobile app.
We covered this briefly in the above section, but it's worth repeating. Lead Center allows you to set up alerts to incoming requests either by desktop notification, push notification on your mobile phone, or email. You can also set up call routing so the next available teammate can lend a helping hand. Or use automated responses, so customers and prospects know you've received their inquiry and what to expect, when.
And if you're on-site for a property inspection for an apartment complex, you can text images to the team so they can immediately put in requests to take care of any maintenance issues.
Join your peers: experience the Lead Center difference firsthand
Real estate professionals who want to stand out in a saturated market need technology that enables the personalized and rapid omnichannel communication that customers have begun to demand.
More importantly, you need a solution that is not only cost-effective but flexible enough to grow with your real estate business. It's the reason why many of your peers have designated Lead Center as their business communication platform of choice.
Join them today and see what it's all about with a FREE 14-day trial.
