Every estate agent will know that knowledgeable, patient, efficient and friendly customer service is a prerequisite of any successful estate agency. However, communication is no longer as straightforward as it used to be.
Most customers will first engage with a brand on its website, which could be outside traditional office hours.
The ability to engage with customers when they are active in the market is crucial – this is where live chat for estate agents comes into its own.
Live chat services appear as a pop-up on your website. When someone opens the chat window, they can type a message to your customer services team. The conversation with the customer takes place in real-time in the chat window. Generally, a chat operator sets themselves as active to indicate that there is a real person ready to respond.
Many tools will convert the message to an email if a live agent is unavailable to ensure the communication isn’t missed. Also, live chat software with a chatbot can field common questions without involving a team member.
A live chat tool can either be managed by your in-house customer service representatives or outsourced to a company that provides live-chat handlers who operate as if they were part of your company.
If you already have a real estate CRM platform, you may find that a chat tool is provided as a feature or additional service. The alternative is a dedicated tool specifically for live chat services; these often have more functionality than a chat tool that is an add-on to another platform.
Real estate live chat services are no longer a nice-to-have but a business essential. In today’s 24/7 digital culture, customers expect fast answers when browsing your website. If potential customers can’t access the information they require, they may head over to your competition.
Live chat services for estate agents is a fantastic way to provide your customers with high-standard customer service and are a terrific lead generation tool.
Here are some of the benefits:
Here is our pick of the best providers of live chat for estate agents.
Chat4busines is a managed chat service designed for estate agents to drive online valuation enquiries.
Having managed millions of chat interactions in the property sector, chat4business have designed and developed c4b fusion – allowing their agents to focus on those valuable valuation enquiries and at the same time manage all viewing requests.
c4b fusion is a blend of human operators and artificial intelligence (AI). All valuation requests for landlords and sellers are fully qualified by a human receptionist and then paged directly to your team, who can then immediately appoint your client to a valuation.
Viewing requests for buyers and tenants, are handled using AI, with all relevant contact and property details collated.
So c4b fusion ensures you have a world class, managed sales chat service, focused on maximising your valuation enquiries at an impressively competitive price!
chat4business are offering Art Division clients and readers a special offer, where for the first 2 months, agents can pay a fixed fee and get unlimited number of chats under any services level, c4b connect, c4b fusion and c4b assistant.
To claim this offer, please quote ArtDivision in the Notes section.
Konversable offers a live chat integration solution tailored for the property sector. It combines traditional live chat with modern communication channels like WhatsApp and allows users to capture leads via chatbots.
There are customisable widgets for live chat, chatbot, or a hybrid approach integrating both.
You can also use GDPR-compliant client communication over WhatsApp and begin marketing broadcasts from there. Equally, their MediaFLO service options feature incorporates video within the chat widget.
CommVersion is driving revenue growth for ambitious brands through their 24/7 managed live chat solution, SmartChat.
Using SmartChat, CommVersion’s trained agents identify high-intent traffic and target them with messages tailored to their online customer journey. Their 24/7 team are proven to help increase online conversion rates and generate better qualified leads for your sales team.
Each chat is qualified as either a buyer, seller, tenant or landlord, and they are provided with relevant information in real-time to address their needs. New leads are instantly connected to a member of your team who can assist with their specific enquiry.
Yomdel provides a managed live chat service for a small number of sectors, one of which is real estate. Their highly trained operators are available 24/7 and pledge to respond within 15 seconds.
Every lead is sent to your team within 15 minutes of the Live Chat ending. Full details are provided so you can continue the conversation with your customer.
In March 2021, BriefYourMarket completed the acquisition of the Live Chat operator Yomdel, to bolster their digital offering. This means Yomdel is now part of BriefYourMarket suit of tools.
Moneypenny provides outsourced telephone and web-based communications to five different industries, including property.
Their Live Chat software is simple to set up and easy to manage. It is up to you whether you handle the chats in-house or outsource the job to Moneypenny’s qualified operators; you can also opt for a hybrid solution.
WhosOn provides AI-infused live chat software to empower your team. WhosOn has some of the most advanced features of all live chat software on the market. Including AI to speed up operator handling times and Chat Bot capabilities to answer common home buying questions.
WhosOn is multi-platform; you can transition into a video chat or a call without leaving WhosOn, and your operators can use the chat app to take chat requests when they are out of the office.
ChatHeros provide a manned live chat service with 100% of operators based in the UK. Their Chat Box is integrated into your website. You can choose the colour and opt to remove the ChatHeros logo.
For a small extra price, you can upgrade to a custom chat box window where you can add your logo and brand colours.
All leads are sent instantly to you via email with a full transcript.
LiveAgent is a whole customer support platform that also offers live chat for estate agents. It has excellent features like booking a viewing directly in the chat.
LiveWebChat provides live chat software that can be embedded into your website. You can choose either off-the-shelf chat windows and icons, or you can pay a little extra for a bespoke design.
Their flexible plans mean you can choose to answer your own chats or leave the management of chats to the LiveWebChat team. They can also offer a hybrid solution.
HubSpot is a widely-used marketing platform, which also offers a live chat and chatbot creator. You can customise the chat design to fit your branding, and craft automated chatbots without any coding expertise.
You can also fully integrate the chatbot with HubSpot CRM and eliminate all manual data input. HubSpot’s other tools allow you to use live chat, tickets, and automated emails to reach and engage customers more easily. Furthermore, the chat can be modified for return visitors to offer them a tailored and more humanised experience.
The chatbot/live chat feature (not solely a live chat for estate agents) is available through the free CRM package. However, you need at least need to buy their Starter Package (£18 per month) to use many of their other tools – and remove their branding from the chatbot/live chat.
Tawk.To is a free live chat service that includes optional AI chat assistance. It’s an easy-to-use and cost-effective chat solution, which is simple to install on your website.
The live chat lets you track conversation history, invite other team members to join the conversation, and provides ongoing analytics data for each interaction. It also has some handy quality-of-life features, such as a mobile app that lets you respond to queries on-the-go and translate messages into 45 different languages.
If you want to remove their small watermark from the live chat, you’ll need to pay approximately £15 per month to do so – but otherwise their live chat remains free.
PropertyJinni offers a generative AI chatbot specifically designed for UK estate agents. It leverages advanced artificial intelligence to handle complex client interactions based on your service information and offerings for different clients.
The chatbot includes 24/7 lead qualification and engagement, personalised property recommendations for customers interacting with it, and handling intricate property-related questions. It can do as much as you want it to, from contacting anyone on your database to nurturing leads to booking valuations and appointments for your agents.
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