Real estate agents have always competed based on experience, network, and past success. Yet, no one can argue that having a good reputation for delivering a great client experience is one of the biggest differentiators.
Realtors who understand the importance of prioritizing the client experience are the ones getting plenty of referrals and succeeding in the industry today. One of the easiest ways to enhance client relationships is by using real estate technology to improve agent/client communication.
In this post, we’ll go over how real estate technology can facilitate stronger client connections and share examples of modern tools you incorporate into your business as a real estate agent to delight your clients and get more referrals.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Communication challenges of the real estate industry
- 3 examples of real estate technology to start integrating
Communication challenges of the real estate industry
Before we get into a list of real estate technology, let’s talk about just a few of the most common challenges real estate professionals and clients face regularly:
1. Trouble finding information
When relying on emails, realtors and clients alike can end up with very disorganized email inboxes. If several conversations or threads exist, they can have a hard time finding information when they need it or remembering where a conversation left off.
2. Chasing clients for information
Real estate professionals need to collect plenty of documents and specific information from buyers and sellers as they start to work with them. Too often, it can take clients ages to reply, meaning the realtor has to spend time following up until they get all the pieces they need to move forward in the process.
Related: How to reduce back-and-forth emails
3. Slow responses
The real estate industry is an industry that requires all people who are involved in the transaction to move quickly! When relying on a platform like email, responses and decisions can happen far too slowly for what’s needed.
4. Room for confusion
Real estate professionals have to deal with large amounts of legal documentation and industry jargon that can often be difficult for first-time home buyers to understand. Sending large paragraphs or documents to clients who aren’t familiar can be risky without giving ample time to clarify clauses and terminology.
3 examples of real estate technology to start integrating
Real estate technology can play a huge role in addressing the challenges mentioned above. Below are 3 examples of innovative real estate technology you can incorporate into your practice to help you improve communication to deliver an exceptional client experience.
1. Content Snare - for streamlining client intake
Content Snare is a data collection tool realtors use to collect all the information they need from sellers and buyers once they start to work with them. It works as a form or questionnaire builder similar to tools like Jotform or Google Forms, except with extra capabilities.
How it helps real estate agents
When building your questionnaires, you customize them to include your logo and brand colors to create a professional look as well as a seamless experience for your clients.
Content Snare is a valuable tool for real estate professionals thanks to the real estate templates it offers within the tool that eliminate the need to create questionnaires from scratch.
Related: How to create the perfect real estate client intake form
With various security features like data encryption and two-factor authentication, it ensures the protection of clients' sensitive information.
The tool also facilitates efficient and speedy communication by sending automated reminders to clients and allowing you to Accept/Reject/Comment on responses as you receive them to address any issues promptly.
Want a better walkthrough of how Content Snare works? Take a look here.
Why it’s great for clients
Content Snare streamlines the client experience by centralizing communication in one place, sparing clients from having to remember to respond to all your questions across different email messages.
Completing questionnaires with Content Snare is also a breeze for the client. The auto-save feature enables them to complete their questionnaires at their own pace.
Lastly, the platform's capability to handle large document uploads ensures that they can easily upload important documentation without running into file size limitations.
If you’re looking for a better way to gather everything you need from new clients before you start the buying or selling process, then Content Snare is a must-have.
Create powerful real estate client intake forms with Content Snare
With our powerful form builder and library of real estate templates, it’s never been easier to gather the information you need from new buyers and sellers.
2. DocuSign - to streamline document management & signatures
In an industry where efficiency and speed are paramount, DocuSign is another example of real estate technology that improves the speed of communication between real estate agents and their clients. It allows realtors to create, send, and sign documents like contracts electronically on the go.
How it helps real estate professionals
One of the standout features that makes DocuSign particularly advantageous for real estate professionals is its user-friendly interface, which simplifies the entire signing process for clients. Using it is as simple as uploading contract templates, identifying the areas that clients need to sign or input information, and sending them the document via email.
Why it’s great for clients
The intuitive design of the platform is equally important on the client side of things, allowing clients to view and sign documents in just a few clicks on any device be it a laptop, tablet, or mobile device.
Incorporating DocuSign into your real estate business can be a game changer when it comes to accelerating your transaction timelines as well as providing clients with a hassle-free and convenient means of completing essential paperwork.
3. WhatsApp - for real-time conversations
You might already be using WhatsApp as a chat platform for conversing with your friends, and maybe because of that, you might hesitate to rely on it for your real estate business. On the contrary, communicating with clients via WhatsApp can significantly help you improve communication, transparency, and the speed of delivering real-time updates on property status.
How it helps real estate professionals
What we like about WhatsApp the most is that it facilitates having a more personalized touch with your clients through features like video notes and voice notes, which often help clarify your tone and avoid any confusion as opposed to text messages and emails.
To tap into all the opportunities the app provides to real estate professionals, you’ll want to look at creating a WhatsApp Business Account or working with WhatApp Business API providers like SeekFlow or Respond.io.
Going this route unlocks plenty of valuable features you won’t find in your personal WhatsApp, like:
- Sending bulk messages quickly, should a new listing become available
- Automating conversations to deliver the most important things your clients need to know depending on where your clients are in the buying process.
- Adding more than one user to your account, if you’re working on a brokerage team.
- Setting up auto-reminders to remind your clients of their upcoming viewing appointments.
- Setting up a list of frequently asked questions and your customized answers that respond to client questions immediately.
For all these reasons and even more features, WhatsApp is a very popular tool used among real estate professionals.
Why it’s great for clients
There’s a reason why WhatsApp has over 2 billion active users worldwide. Connecting with clients where they’re already active is one way to make life easier for them.
Secondly, given that your clients are making one of the biggest purchases or sales of their lives, they’re going to want updates to come quickly! it guarantees more timely responses to your clients than conversing with them over email or trying to schedule a phone call.
It’s never too late to hop on new real estate technology trends
We hope this post has given you some food for thought on real estate technology trends you can follow. Not only will incorporating such tools make your life easier, but infusing these tools into your outdated processes is a sure way to demonstrate your commitment to modern, efficient practices that prioritize the client's easy experience throughout all your real estate transactions.
Make life easier for your buyers and sellers with Content Snare
With our powerful form builder and library of real estate templates, it’s never been easier to gather the information you need from new buyers and sellers.
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