As more pieces of the real estate transaction take place on the web, brokers and agents are finding themselves lost in a forest of acronyms and jargon – SEO, CRM, click-through and bounce rates. It’s probably left many old-school brokers used to converting leads with warm handshakes and smiles wishing they could reach right through the screen and tap their visitors on the shoulder.
Well, there’s one piece of web technology that promises a way to do something very similar – live chat for websites.
“[It’s] another way for [agents] to reach out,” said John McGeough, co-broker/owner of McGeough Lamacchia Realty in Waltham, whose site uses the tool. “Many [potential buyers] are at work or somewhere where a discreet chat with instant answers is perfect for them.”
The technology has been around for several years, with third party vendors including ProvideSupport.com, ZaZa Chat, Olark and Zopim offering solutions. But more recently it has become easier and cheaper to implement, with smartphones and tablets enabling on-the-go agents to be available for chatting without being tied to a desk, and for as little as $20 a month.
Lack Of Conversion
Most systems allow site users to simply click on a button on the brokerage site, launching a chat window. Some provide an alert to an agent when a visitor is reviewing their listing, allowing them to initiate contact themselves. The prospective buyer and agent can then type back and forth, allowing the agent to answer any questions – a conversation which often turns into a phone call or viewing appointment.
The advantage for agents and brokers is immediacy. A May 2011 study of 56 brokerages nationwide conducted by PCMS Consulting and online secret shopper firm One Cavo showed that nearly 75 percent of online leads aren’t converted. Almost half of agents failed to respond at all, and about a quarter responded eight hours or more after the lead was sent in. By that time, many site visitors have long since moved on, and are unlikely to get back in touch with the agent.
Live chat provides a way to establish a relationship with the user while they’re still on site, engaging with the listings and evaluating whether to form a relationship with a company – making it more likely they’ll stick around.
“We’re constantly telling our clients, the quicker the response time, the higher the closing rate,” said David Friedman, president and founder of Boston Logic Technology Partners, a website design and software firm which specializes in brokerage clients.
Friedman first ran into a customer who wanted live chat more than five years ago, but at that time most of the solutions involved clunky third-party software which required additional training and sometimes directed users to a separate site. But by 2009, his company was able to build tools to allow site users clicking on the live chat option to connect to agents through AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) on their computers or phones. Having the agent end come through an AIM client helped cut down on training costs associated with implementation, he said, since many people are already familiar with the service.
Staffing Issues
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t still logistical hurdles.
“The challenge with doing it is staffing it. If you were an e-commerce company and you’ve got a salesforce sitting all day long in front of their computers anyway, that’s one thing. But real estate agents are independent contractors and notoriously difficult to manage. So staffing them on instant messaging is a challenge for that reason,” said Friedman. Getting agents to adapt to the technology can be difficult, too. “Generally offices with a younger demographic of agents and clients are more likely to use it.”
That was the problem for Liz Provo, publisher/editor of Massachusetts4SaleByOwner.com. She had instant chat on her site, but discontinued it a few years ago during a site revamp. She found the tech itself easy to use, but for her one-woman business, making sure she was available during business hours proved difficult.
“In many cases I was not available to have the chatroom open. I don’t like sites that have ‘we’re away now,’ that have the technology but aren’t using it,” Provo said, adding that she felt that was likely to be true for her visitors as well. “So I took it off on that basis.”
Though it’s not necessarily right for everybody, Friedman said, more of his clients are willing to experiment.
“They’re willing to tinker [with their sites] and, dare I use the word, ‘optimize,’ to find out what works for them,” which he said he thinks is encouraging, since including online chat is “a no-brainer to us…there are all sorts of times I know I don’t want to wait on hold with a company when I can get someone on live chat right away.”
