AI digital assistants are rapidly growing in the home building industry, and for good reason. They offer the ability to respond instantly to potential customers around the clock while prioritizing a conversational engagement that builds long-term relationships through even the longest sales cycles. However, not every AI digital assistant is created equal.

For a tool so important to the sales process, thorough vetting of different options is vital. However, that type of vetting will also uncover the vast differences between solutions that can drastically change the way they impact your business process and your customer experience.

That’s why knowing what features to look for when shopping for an AI digital assistant is so important. As you begin to evaluate potential options, consider this list of features as a checklist to ensure you get your money’s worth with a solution that benefits both your business and your customers.

1. Advanced Natural Language Processing

A chatbot provides a conversational outlet for potential and current customers to ask questions and voice concerns. AI-enabled digital assistants take it one step further, learning from each conversation to become better equipped to understand the context, build on past interactions, and make their answers more relevant.

The key to making that possible is technology called natural language processing (NLP). It’s simple: chatbots without AI don’t have it, but AI digital assistants do. NLP is an algorithm that takes in the text, processes it alongside the data around it, and offers a response. But each response is also an opportunity to evaluate as extra context, ensuring that every subsequent answer is more relevant.

Think about it as the model behind your digital assistant that never stops improving. Over time, your digital assistant can even use NLP to better identify user intent behind a question, providing more relevant answers in the process. For AI digital assistants, it’s an invaluable feature to build a positive user experience.

2. Lead Generation Capabilities

While user experience is a key part of a successful AI digital assistant, it’s not the only component. Most interactions will come from potential customers who are exploring the home-building process. If you can get them into your prospect database, you can gradually nurture them toward becoming customers with follow-up messaging.

That’s why the best AI digital assistants offer natural lead generation capabilities. They ask for users’ contact information for potential follow-ups, making it easy to convert engaged users who have shown at least some interest in the process.

Better yet, some AI assistants can use the conversational data gathered through NLP to almost immediately qualify leads as well. In addition to gathering contact information, leads will enter the database with identified pain points that follow-ups can address. And, when they engage with the digital assistant again, that information can make any follow-up AI conversations more relevant.

3. Natural Human Hand-Offs

The best AI digital assistants recognize their limitations. They know when they cannot effectively or comprehensively answer a question, and pass the user in that case on to a human representative who can more accurately answer this.

For user experience, this is an invaluable feature. It significantly reduces frustration, enabling the user to get the right answer, even if it takes a little longer than originally intended.

But the feature is just as important for human sales and marketing agents on the other side of the equation. The handoff needs to be smooth, providing all necessary context about the user and their question. Look for AI assistants that prioritize this handoff as much as they do the technology that powers their automated answers.

4. Integrations With Other Tools

Chances are that your AI digital assistant will be far from the only marketing tool and platform you use to promote your homebuilding business. At the same time, it can become a core part of your marketing technology ecosystem if you can find a solution that integrates naturally with at least some of these other tools.

For example, the connection between your digital assistant and CRM should be smooth and comprehensive. Leads should be passed off naturally, while two-way information sharing should ensure that the assistant has all the information they need to be as relevant as possible.

But it doesn’t end there. Integrations can stretch across your entire marketing tech stack, from your website to call center software. The better your AI digital assistant integrates into that ecosystem, the more successful it can become in bringing in leads and customers over time.

5. Security Compliance

Anytime you have to manage sensitive customer information, security immediately becomes an important component. Put simply, you have to make sure that all information you gather about your customers can be securely connected and stored, without putting it at risk for potential breaches and malicious actors.

There is not a single feature that makes a digital assistant secure. Instead, ask about security in your vetting process. Pieces like multi-factor authentication and single sign-on ensure secure access to files, while encryption of data and secure data transfer into other systems can keep that information secure over time.

6. Digital Accessibility

Even the best technology is only as good as its accessibility. The most powerful AI model matters little if your audience can’t actually access it. That’s what makes digital accessibility such an important component of your search process for the right digital assistant.

That starts with availability. The right digital assistant can naturally integrate into text, websites, and more—going to the channels your audience is more likely to use. And of course, it’s accessible around the clock and seven days a week, always available to answer questions and address concerns.

But the concept goes further, as well. For those with disabilities, the right digital assistant can still accommodate a valuable conversation. Screen reading technology and voice-to-text conversion, for example, enable those with vision or tactile impairments to still get the answers they need in the homebuilding process.

7. Customization Abilities

Part of promoting your homebuilding business is making sure that you stand out from your competition. That extends to your digital assistant, which should be an experience for every user that is unique to your business, brand, and voice in every way possible.

Part of the customization is in the visual branding. Especially when integrated into your website or other digital channels, your AI digital assistant has to feel like it’s part of your brand and the overall experience users have with you. Logo, colors, and graphics all play an important role in creating that level of visual consistency.

But customization should also go beyond the visuals. Look for a digital assistant you can customize in terms of brand tone and voice, making sure that its responses sound like they come from you. The more authentic that tone can be, the better and more authentic the user experience will become.

Finally, look for customization opportunities within the content your digital assistant draws from. Ideally, you should be able to point it to the specific databases of knowledge, from your website to your knowledgebase and FAQ sections. But you might also want to keep track of questions it cannot answer, so that additional content can be added over time.

8. Advanced Analytics

The final feature to consider is the ability to measure the efforts and success of your AI digital assistant. That means a comprehensive reporting ability, complete with advanced performance analytics that measure anything from user engagement to lead conversions, conversation quality, and more.

These analytics allow you to become an active part in improving the performance of your AI digital assistant over time. Measuring the quality of conversations can lead to content and voice/tone adjustments. Meanwhile, comparisons to industry trends enable you to see where you’re falling short compared to your competition, and where your current wins are.

The best AI assistant solutions go even further. They leverage the reporting and analytics function to provide proactive recommendations for performance improvement. Rather than making your own guesses based on the numbers, these recommendations streamline the process and make improvements quicker to implement.

Find the Best AI Digital Assistant for Your Homebuilder Marketing Needs

Unless you’re a technology expert, shopping for an AI digital assistant can be confusing. Solutions go through buzzwords and make bold claims that are difficult to verify. Focusing your search on these eight features helps to prevent getting caught up in the moment, allowing you to rationally evaluate potential options.

Each of these features takes a unique role in the evaluation process. Some of them can be part of a demo, while others may need to be questions you ask during your evaluation. Combined, they provide a comprehensive picture of what each solution can actually offer.

As a result, your chances of choosing the right AI digital assistant for your homebuilder business increase dramatically. By the time you choose a solution and make the investment, you can feel confident knowing it will play a significant role in helping you attract and engage new customers to move your business forward.

Contact us to learn more!