Technology and automation is playing an ever-more important role in homebuyer engagement thanks to changing buyer habits and preferences. No longer is “Model home open 8-6” the acceptable way to shop. No longer is email the most effective – or cost-effective – way to communicate. Buyers want to operate on their own time and through their preferred channels.
Today, automated chatbots and artificial intelligence allow you to reach more buyers, communicate with them more effectively, and close more sales in less time. Here are a few ways homebuilders across the country are seeing success with our chatbots:
- Lead generation: For many homebuilders, competition creates a very difficult market for generating and converting high-quality leads. With more choices than ever, and virtual browsing of model homes and inventory online, it’s becoming harder and harder to sift through all of the potential buyers to find those more ready to buy. Chatbots can be an invaluable tool for a sales team to automate the process of engaging and qualifying leads before your sales team gets involved. By automating this part of the customer journey, an inside sales team can focus their time and energy on higher-qualify leads ready to convert.
- Conversational home search: Imagine typing this in your website’s search box; “I’m looking for houses around $400k with 3 bedrooms on a golf course.” What do you think your website search results would look like, other than “No results found”? With an Atlas chatbot powering your website, a visitor can type any similar phrase into the bot and your website will return exactly the right homes to match their search. Plus, our platform integrates with BDX Live, Lasso and other database platforms for real-time access to your latest listings. Plus, when the prospective buyer wants to schedule an appointment, your sales team will have a complete transcript of their conversation in the bot, allowing your OSCs to personalize their engagement with the buyer, shorten the contact-to-contract time and increase their conversion rate.
- On-demand model home tours: Consumers no longer want to shop during “normal business hours.” They also prefer to shop on their own, without a sales person. Now, two of homebuilding’s biggest technology providers have teamed up for a unique partnership. AtlasRTX and UTour are creating the first fully-automated model home tour, allowing prospective home buyers to shop on their own schedule and stay safe through proper social-distancing measures. Shoppers sign up for their tour and receive automated text messages with their access codes, while your sales team receives notification of the scheduled tour. Once the tour has concluded, another series of automated text messages will gauge the buyer’s interest level and suggest next steps to connect one of your salespeople.
- Automated text follow-up: Connecting with buyers through their preferred method of communication is proving to be a highly effective strategy for companies in numerous industries. In fact, engagement rates are much higher than any other form of communication, and response times are a fraction of email marketing. A sales team that is set up to connect with buyers through text will have a distinct advantage over other companies. With the AtlasRTX platform, sales teams have the ability to engage with individual buyers through text, while allowing managers to monitor all conversations through a central dashboard for real-time training and feedback. No longer will your salespeople be texting from their personal phones where there is no accountability. Our automated text capabilities allow companies to instantly engage prospective buyers when they are most interested, while allowing your sales team to engage in one-to-one conversations via text through our online dashboard, our iOS and Android apps, or by simply replying to emails generated when a text message comes in.
- Customer Service: Want to keep your buyer up-to-date as their home is being built? Want to create an easy and familiar way for customers to request warranty repairs or provide feedback on their buying experience? An Atlas chatbot can be used by homebuilders to improve the post-sale customer experience and turn your buyers into promoters.
