This post is about how Readychat, a real estate lead generation chat software forced me to change my mind about chat software and rethink engagement strategies for agent’s websites. For those unfamiliar, chat software are programs that engage website visitors with instant messenger-esq conversations. Imagine a smarter version of the paper clip from Microsoft word. A few months ago I would have called these programs annoying. I thought at best they were only a little irritating while at worst they actively discouraged sales by increasing a site’s load time or just frustrating users into finding another agent. I would never have recommend installing one to a client, would have laughed at any competitors who did, and probably compared the technology to an overbearing poor smelling salesman whose inability to understand personal space or general hygiene drives customers to the competition or to give up on moving all together. Then I tried Readychat. More specifically a real estate agent I work for tried Readychat. Please believe me that this blog is not the result of one successful test case. After the agent I already mentioned experienced a few months of sustained success and others began to do the same, my opinion changed. Chat software is not inherently stupid. It can be an effective lead generation tool and for agents Readychat is the best way to get real estate buyer leads online.
Agents often tell me their business could triple in size if they had someone else who could sell like them. I find what they really want is a clone or a slave. Someone that not only sells houses really well, but does so in a way that reinforces the first agent’s personal brand or sales style, and works for free. If that’s what you’re looking for Readychat is the closest legal option. Every aspect of the software can be customized to fit your site and brand, essentially allowing you to build a digital salesman from scratch. This creates leads, gives you access to valuable consumer insights, and ultimately drives more sales. I’ll go through each one step by step to explain how Readychat changed my mind about lead generation.
It Makes Your Website Better At What It’s Already Doing – Generating Real Estate Sales Leads Online
Chat software has come a long way from Microsoft Word’s paper clip. Instead of trying to recreate a human’s ability to respond to things with context, emotion, and correct information Readychat uses actual humans. You write a script for common situations, decide when the prompts to chat appear, and configure the entire interface’s design to match your site. The chat operators are actual real estate professionals more than capable of answering general questions correctly should the conversation go off script. They also research more specific answers so users stay on your site instead of going to a search engine and possibly finding what they were looking for from a competitor. Most importantly talking to them feels natural. The power of chat software that actually simulates chatting cannot be overstated. Psychologically it’s much more enjoyable to get information from a person than a search engine or web page. Enlivening your site with a genuinely helpful voice builds trust in your brand and starts a relationship between your company and a potential client while you could still be in bed. Your website is there to display information for consumers and represent your company online. Unobtrusive chat software can make it more effective at both of those things by directing users to specific information in a voice consistent with your brand. Because this chat software will never detract someone from visiting your site or hiring you as an agent, it’s better not to think of it as software at all. The program acts like another salesman making your website a much more effective lead gen tool.
Merge Web Site Stats With Consumer Data To Make Better Decisions
Readychat lets you view real estate information or consumer data beside traditional website stats. For this reason alone I don’t understand why every agent doesn’t have it already. I’d almost put up with the paper clip for these kind of analytics. Even if no users actually interact with the chat software (virtually impossible) you’d still have access to more granular engagement and site behavior metrics than are traditionally available from Google Analytics. The program provides a weekly summary of chat activity acting like a focus group on your latest listings or blog entries by summarizing how users responded to your content. More importantly it lays out what types of buying questions are being asked, by whom, and at what time of day giving you the kind of real time demographic information that can be invaluable to growing you company and serving existing clients. This incredibly detailed and real estate specific reporting helps agents avoid tunnel vision when working on their website, keeping them focused on it as a tool for their business of selling property by merging to previously incompatible data sets.
Integration was one of the biggest reasons I used to hate chat software. I didn’t like how old versions slowed down sites because they did not fit well with other components and the valuable marketing data they were supposedly gathering was difficult to extract in any workable way. Other newer chat programs are likely comparable in their ability to integrate with existing sites and reporting tools but only Readychat has real estate specific metrics that can help you easily link site behavior to potential sales.
The Most Qualified Leads
Not all leads have the same likelihood of converting. Everyone knows this and looks for ways to clearly separate the might be interesteds from the definitely interesteds. Readychat is actually one of those things. Best practice it to set up the program so users have to choose to initiate a conversation. Of all the people who signed up for your email list, downloaded brochures, or RSVP’d to an open house, those that asked a chat question are more interested than those that did not. Why? Because they asked the question. It’s an equivalent to approaching a salesman in a retail store versus continuing to browse alone. Even if the conversation does not lead to a sale, engaging a company representative is normally seen as an openness to doing business with that company. Another analogy, if your website was an open house, clicking on Readychat lets you divide users between those that approached you after and those that just went home.
So there you have it. That’s how Readychat turned me into a believer in chat software. Updated technology that really integrates easily with existing sites, displaying real estate specific consumer data alongside general website stats, and most importantly, providing a positive user experience that actually enhances your site’s ability to turn leads into sales.
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