Anyone with an ear to the ground on real estate brokerage platforms will tell you that, when it comes to the top trends for 2018, few innovations get people more excited than automated chatbots. And it’s not hard to see why — artificial intelligence has that sci-fi sort of future-word appeal to it. In more practical terms, in a real estate landscape where you’re four times more likely to qualify a lead if you respond to them within 5 minutes rather than 10 minutes, and 21 times more likely if you respond in 5 vs. 30 minutes, speed is the name of the game (as we discussed previously here). Setting up real estate chatbots to qualify a lead, whether it’s 3 a.m. or Christmas Eve, can put a brokerage ahead of the race to conversion before even leaving the gate.
When we talk about AI real estate chatbots, we’re really talking about one of two things. In one camp of this industry, you have what we refer to as “appointment-setting” bots. In the other, AI inside sales bots. Both are interesting in their own rights, and each worthy of its own spotlight. In this post, we will delve into the former; in my next post, we will continue in the series with real estate sales bots, which carry with them numerous benefits and potential hazards for real estate brokerages.
Why Use ‘Appointment-Setting’ Real Estate Chatbots?
The advantages of these “appointment-setting” bots are fairly plain to see. When a new lead comes in, before routing it to one of your brokerage’s agents, these bots begin engaging right away. Many of them, like Botplan’s Chatbot for Realtors (used by the largest RE/MAX franchise in the U.S., a TRIBUS client, RE/MAX Results), work across all sorts of messaging platforms, like SMS, website widgets and Facebook Messenger. Where these bots really come in handy is in figuring out the best way to handle a lead from there — sorting out highly motivated leads from those just dipping toes in the water. The bot can determine, based on this sort of information, where best to send the lead off to from here. All that time an agent would normally spend going back and forth with a lead, only to find out he or she is only looking to buy a home in the next year or two, is totally cut out from their process. Real estate chatbots can set up appointments to speak with the right agent, who is set up with the information they need for a dynamite presentation. Integration with your real estate brokerage CRM and detailed reporting, of course, typically comes standard.
Are ‘Appointment-Setting’ Real Estate Chatbots the Best Use of AI Tech?
The nature of AI is that it takes a lot of conversations and customers to learn how to sound as human as possible — and “appointment-setting” bots generally always let leads know upfront that they are speaking to a computer program. Still, though, despite all the advantages of these real estate chatbots listed above, I’m not entirely convinced this is the best use of this emerging technology possible. These sorts of bots have their strict limits programmed into them; any in-depth questions that the average real estate lead will have (“What is this home listed for?” or “What year was it built?”) simply prompt the bot to hand the phone over to an agent. In the broader scope of AI tech, it’s not quite “there” yet.
“Appointment-setting” real estate chatbots are, however, a safer bet when it comes to confronting some of the deeper issues that may turn their heads in more extensive uses of AI in real estate, which we will examine next time. Who knows where this sort of chatbot technology will be in five or 10 years? For now, these “appointment-setting” bots are efficiency boosters that make sure engagement starts from the moment leads raise their hands. Maybe that’s all they have to be, for now.
