Toll Free Hotline, IVR, Call Capture For Realtors

Have you been researching call capture systems for your real estate business?  Some call them IVR as well.  That stands for Interactive Voice Response.  Or a toll free hotline.  Whatever you call them, I love them because they act as your 24/7, never closed Open House providing instant information to your consumer, while at the same time capturing everyone’s phone number so you can follow up and make sure they got all the information they need.  

I found HotlineAmerica.com over a year ago and signed up with them immediately.  They have the best prices hands down.  And no loss of features or benefits.  Today I discovered that they just added another great feature and the cost is still the same (read on to find out what it is).  Additionally, their customer service is superb.  The company is run by a gentleman by the name of Tom and every time I’ve called to inquire about something, he’s provided prompt answers or called me right back if I had to leave a message.  Today I called, thinking, “it’s after 6:00pm on a Saturday.  I’m sure I will have to leave a message.”  I was wrong!  Tom picked up the phone, answered my question and even made me laugh in our pleasant little chat.  You can’t find lots of vendors these days with old-fashioned customer service like that!

 Wow.  Great product.  Great prices.  And great customer service?  This one’s a keeper!

 OK, so here’s what HotlineAmerica provides:

The new feature that was not there when I signed up is the automatic text messages to callers.  The system will automatically send them 3 custom text messages: 1 immediately following their call; another 24 hours later; and a third 24 hours after that.  These are custom messages.  You can make all three different.  You can use just one, or two.  It’s like having an assistant follow up on prospects without you having to lift a finger.  Of course, a personal call should be made by you within minutes of their call.  Historically that’s when you are most likely to reach them and have them be receptive to your message most.  But the automatic text messages are a great addition!  Because they’re new to me, I’ve not yet decided how I will implement that, but I imagine the first will be a thank you plus a link to the property website so they can see pictures and full details.  Not sure exactly what I will include in texts 2 & 3 yet.

 I used a bigger, more expensive IVR when I got into the business years ago.  It cost a lot more money and did not provide anything more than HotlineAmerica.  So what does HotlineAmerica cost?  It depends on your needs (number of listings really – all plans get the same features, just different amount of extension mailboxes).  I can get by just fine with the smaller plan of 25 extensions.  I pay $15.95 for that.  Keep in mind that each extension can have up to 5 tracking digits added so that you can track which advertising methods are working best for you.

 Let me expand on that a bit more.  Let’s say I have extension #025.  Instead of advertising #025, I advertise #1025, #2025, #3025, #4025 and #5025.  So if I decide to designate all extensions starting with #1 to mean sign riders, and #2 to mean Craigslist ads, #3 to mean Just Listed mailer, etc. I will know which advertising prompted the call.  That way you can best determine where to spend your advertising money and efforts.

 Extensions are not limited to listings, either!  I use my hotline for mailings I do to expireds, FSBO’s, First time buyers, etc.  When they call the number, I can tell which mailing is working.  I paid for advertising in a neighborhood newsletter last year.  I got a great deal and paid for the whole year upfront.  I designated a number to it.  The responses have not been good so I know I am not going to pay for that again when renewal time comes up.

 Back to pricing.  If you’re a solo agent or even a team who doesn’t need more than 25 extensions, you can get the service for $15.95/mo.  25 recordings go a long way!  If you need more, you can get 35 for $19.95/mo or 50 for $24.95/mo.  Even at 50 extensions, that’s less than half what I used to pay to that other hotline provider. 

 If you’re a broker and want to provide this neat benefit to your agents, they have you covered there too!  A broker can get 100 extensions for $29.95/mo and they can be assigned to any number of realtors.  There are 4 broker tiers, all the way up to 500 extensions for $99.95/mo.  That is a great benefit a small broker can add to increase the resources offered to agents, without breaking the bank.

 HotlineAmerica has no set up fee, no contracts, no hidden fees at all.  Pretty upstanding all around.  Disclaimer here – I am not being paid nor compensated in any way by HotlineAmerica.  I am just an agent who loves sharing great finds with her colleagues.  If you have any questions about my experience with them, please ask in the comments.