Agents and brokers that have a live real estate chat feature on their website get 36% more leads than those who don’t, according to a report from Outbound Engine. REAL trends also show that the real estate lead conversion for these prospects is three times more (7.5%) than the average lead you’ll get online, which only converts at 2.7%.
It’s no wonder. Customers appreciate real estate website design that makes it easy to chat with a realtor instantly, especially now that property viewings and open houses have to be scheduled in advance due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Knowing this, instead of referring member agents to third-party apps that have no knowledge of the real estate industry or functions they may need, we at Web4Realty decided to build our own real estate live chat support tool.
Now you might think many agents communicate via text, Facebook Messenger, or emails already. So doesn’t this just add to the real estate marketing tools to keep track of and make your day to day lead generation more complicated?
Real Estate Live Chat, a Rising Communication Tool
At Web4Realty, live chat or live chat support is a frequently requested feature among members as it’s a way to chat with leads directly on their website.
“In only two months after launch, we already have 530+ agent members using the live chat tool on their real estate website,”
Kosta Panagoulias, Co-Founder of Web4Realty.
Chatbotslife’ 2019 report also shows that 28% of their most profitable users come from the real estate industry, specifically agents using their chatbot platform for real estate lead conversion.
Two Ways Real Estate Live Chat Helps Beyond Instant Replies to Website Visitors
1. Give Visitors the High Street Agency Experience
Nowadays, by necessity of the pandemic and by the convenience of the internet, everything is done online— even buying or selling a home.
In your agency office, you’d offer a drink and assist a prospect who comes in asking about properties in your neighborhood. It’s harder to do the same on your website.
The best you can come close is to hire a real estate ISA or real estate appointment setting service. But that would cost you hundreds of dollars a month.
A cheaper alternative is to give visitors a way to chat with a realtor via a live chat support window on your website. This way, you can answer questions they may have about a specific property or get your insights about the points of interest in your area.
Giving visitors a way to talk to a real estate agent online converts your typical real estate website design from a portfolio of properties to an engaging concierge experience.
2. Filter Leads before a Meeting and Save Time Building a Real Estate Pipeline
You can’t meet every lead that shows the slightest interest. A “chat with a realtor” option on your website will help you filter leads by gauging their interest in your area or hesitations in selling. Doing this will give you more time to meet with prospects more serious in their property hunt, while those still on the fence could be put on a real estate pipeline mailing list filled with helpful information about your local market so they can decide what to do.
Real estate live chat support tools like ours can also be loaded with canned real estate scripts, such as FAQs and your responses, saving you effort from having the same conversation again and again.
How Does Web4Realty’s Real Estate Chat Tool Work?
It works much like any live chat support or SMS tool but with additional functionalities for real estate agents, such as:
- Custom pop-ups: set the real estate chat window to pop-up after a visitor goes to a certain page, like a neighborhood page or the IDX listings.
- Roster or team assignments: allow visitors to chat with a realtor on your team, so the leads are distributed
- Custom forms: collect information about prospects before or after responding to their inquiry, such as their contact information, desired property type, or other information needed to follow-up
- CRM tie-up: build a prospect profile by storing their answers to the custom form in our custom built CRM for real estate, so you can send one of your personalized real estate scripts for follow-up later
- Offline notifications: Real estate chat messages received when you’re offline will be sent to your SMS or email.
Related: Here’s a video showing how the live chat tool works and how to set it up.
How can agents use live chat to build relationships with online prospects easier?
In this section, I’ll detail several ways you can use our real estate live chat support tool to convert more of the visitors that come to your real estate website.
1. Do what Zillow and the Other Giant Property Websites Can’t
Do you know what Zillow, Redfin, and the other prominent property search portals don’t have?
Live chat support!
That’s right, they don’t have a way for visitors to talk to a real estate agent online from the listings.
At best, you can only send a message to the listing agent of the property. But you can’t expect them to reply that instant.
Here are two listings at Zillow. See? You can only send a message to the agent.
Trulia doesn’t have live chat either.
While these sites may have a big advantage when it comes to popularity, you can certainly get the upper hand in customer engagement. And in many cases with real estate, a quick response matters more than popularity or number of listings.
Related: Get more listings using Michael Hellickson’s strategy on how to get real estate leads. Listen in at our Top Agent podcast.
2. Engage Website Visitors Even if You’re Offline
Unlike other live chat tools that require you to be online or active to respond, our custom form functionality will allow you to customize a question-and-reply sequence that will feel like an actual conversation to any website visitor.
“Realtors need to be easily accessible. Instead of waiting for the prospect to find their contact info, the live chat support gives agents a way to proactively engage website visitors even when they’re offline, thereby giving a better quality service,”
Kosta Panagoulias, Web4Realty Co-Founder.
Related: Watch this video to learn what happens after a prospect fills out a form on your real estate website.
3. Show Off a Property Despite the Distance
Nowadays, it’s not unheard of for one buyer to make an offer without ever setting foot in a property. We have video to thank for that.
In a typical property marketplace, a buyer would select a few properties they like then contact the agent for a viewing.
It’s a tedious process that requires looking at several pictures, taking note of several agent’s contact info, and then updating the list with the information obtained such as the number of existing offers and house amenities. Sometimes, the buyer will get a reply in a day, sometimes it takes longer.
With a real estate live chat integration, a prospect doesn’t have to wait days to get their questions answered. You can even give faraway prospects a video tour of the property, so they don’t need to drive.
4. Enrich Your CRM and Build a Prospect Profile All in One Place
Like every prospect conversation, your chat sessions are filled with valuable data about your prospects.
Aside from a prospect’s contact information, real estate scripts programmed for a live chat sequence can ask about…
- Preferred number of rooms or bathrooms
- Special amenities required, such as yard, pool, 2 car garage, etc
- Budget
- Preferred neighborhood or areas
- Transit options
In the screenshots below, you’ll see how our custom forms tool can be programmed with any number of questions in different formats, including a multiple pick list option that could be very helpful in organizing prospects according to their preferred neighborhood.
Here’s a custom form with a custom field for “Areas.” Agents can use this to make it easier to filter prospects on their leads database, and send them the right area listings real estate scripts for follow-up without having to enroll them manually on the list.
Related: Learn how Sade Sanni uses email marketing to close deals and build her real estate pipeline at our Top Agent podcast.
Instead of this information being stored in a text or Facebook messenger, our real estate chat tool’s custom form function can connect with our LeadBank real estate CRM, so everything a prospect tells you is stored away in one place.
You don’t need to go through your texts or emails to hunt down these details in the future. And your clients won’t feel the hassle of repeating the same information on your next talk.
Related: Here’s how to create custom forms for better real estate lead conversion on Web4Realty
5. Distribute the Workload and Give Prospects a Local Expert
Sometimes, a buyer wants more than a good looking house with a decent view. They might be looking for an area with good schools, or a place with an artsy vibe. Whatever it is, giving them the impression that you can connect them to an agent with that knowledge will help.
With a live chat support tool on your site, you can route inquiries to different agents after getting a prospect’s preferences.
Conversely, this function can also be used to distribute inquiries evenly in a brokerage. Agents in your team won’t complain of not getting help building their real estate pipeline because all the leads are given in a sequence.
How does the option to talk to a real estate agent online compare to phone calls and emails as a way of communicating with prospects?
Real estate live chat support is less time consuming than talking to prospects one by one. Even without using pre-loaded scripts for real estate internet leads, live chat allows you to talk to 3 or more potential clients simultaneously, while you can only help one lead at a time via a phone call.
It’s also heartening to know that 73% of customers (surveyed via Invespcro) say they were satisfied with their experience using chat to talk to a real estate agent online, compared to email where only 51% and phone 44% respectively were satisfied.
