{"id":9426,"date":"2017-03-27T17:41:29","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T07:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reuncut.com.au\/?p=9426"},"modified":"2017-03-27T17:41:29","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T07:41:29","slug":"do-real-estate-agents-really-need-a-robot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/channels.realty.com.au\/realtyuncut\/do-real-estate-agents-really-need-a-robot\/","title":{"rendered":"Do real estate agents really need a robot – Kylie Davis"},"content":{"rendered":"

3 Ways Robots can Rock the World of Real Estate Agents<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Kylie Davis<\/p>\n

If real estate is all about relationships, empathy and connecting with people, is there any room in the industry for robots?<\/p>\n

The overwhelming evidence from the INMAN Connect<\/a> conference in New York is yes. But we\u2019re not talking bots that look like Rosie from the Jetsons or the Robot from Lost in Space to replace the end to end experience of being served by an agent.<\/p>\n

It seems counter intuitive that bots can improve the level of human service, especially when we think of how much technology fatigue is out there. And you can insert your own Skynet<\/a> conspiracy theory here.<\/p>\n

But the new generation of bots will do single tasks quickly and efficiently, making delivering excellent service less frantic for agents and give you time back to focus on relationships and strategy.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what to look out for:\"image2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Chatbots<\/strong> \u2013 Chatbots sit on your website and pop up whenever someone does something on your website that identifies them as being interested in a property or making an inquiry. They pop onto the screen as a message and introduce themselves and offer to help you.<\/p>\n

Chatbots are programmed with artificial intelligence and keyword recognition to identify addresses and words such as \u2018looking\u2019, \u2018buy\u2019, \u2018sell\u2019 and they seek to assist the online user in the early stages of their inquiry and capture their email address to go into your database.<\/p>\n

Good chatbots identify themselves as bots \u2013 they don\u2019t try and pretend to be human but if you\u2019re a buyer with insomnia perusing properties at 3am, they can provide you with answers and assistance immediately rather than you needing to wait for a reply many hours \u2013 or days \u2013 later.<\/p>\n

From the agent point of view, you\u2019ve delivered a helpful service experience immediately and the bot has helped you identify the real leads from the tyre kickers and provides you with an action to follow up when you\u2019re awake. Check out Holmes from Structurely<\/a>. You can also quickly build a chatbot for your Facebook page at www.chatfuel.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Virtual assistants or taskbots<\/strong> \u2013 If your day is full of tasks that keep you busy and suck up your time, you probably need a taskbot.<\/p>\n

The new generation of virtual assistants are being connected to your CRM and other data sources (such as your property data) and are able to quickly carry out automated tasks. For example, you could train your taskbot to create a CMA based on the address you give it, and email that report out to a prospective client. Or you could automate the sending out of marketing material to all buyers in your database interested in four bedroom homes near a suitable property where you\u2019re holding an open house.<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t mean it has to be bot language \u2013 you can program your bot to automate as much or as little as you wish. Tell the bot you want to craft the message and then instruct him or her to send it to everyone who fits the criteria on the database. Or tell the bot to extract all the people in your database who have a property anniversary, create a property valuation for those properties, and then create a list for you to call them for a personal touch.<\/p>\n

To create a killer impression, when you meet a new prospect, instruct your bot to send out pre-listing information and a property valuation to their email before they\u2019ve even gotten back into their car with a quick text to your assistant.<\/p>\n

Check out Aiva<\/a> which is still in beta but has been tested on the developer\u2019s real estate mother (who was technophobic but now automates her marketing like a boss).<\/p>\n

Voice activated bots<\/strong> \u2013 Voicebots are the next generation of virtual assistants. They can carry out any of the tasks of the taskbots but do this using speech recognition. This means you can ask them to do a task rather than a text and they \u2018understand\u2019 your commands and speak back to you.<\/p>\n

Siri is a voice activated bot. And in the US, Amazon have a new bot called Alexa<\/a> (not available in Australia yet) which is a home service bot that turns on the lights, turns music or the television on and off, tells you the weather etc. (She sounds glamorous, but really she\u2019s a tube that sits in the middle or corner of the room.)<\/p>\n

There are some beta prototypes being built for real estate that do everything the virtual assistants do. The attraction for voice activated VAs is that you don\u2019t need to learn any new tech \u2013 you just ask the bot to do the task \u2013 and as we become more comfortable with devices such as Siri and Alexa in our lives, having them engaged with us in a business sense becomes normalised.<\/p>\n

Check out ROOF<\/a>. (ROOF stands for Realestate Office of Future).<\/p>\n