As a real estate agent, time is certainly money. And, if there was some way to conquer both, you’d probably be a millionaire by now.
If you’re frustrated about the amount of money you’ve (potentially) lost out on, you are not alone. One of the greatest distinctions between teams that have loyal clients and those who battle to retain them seem to be the speed of customer service – or lead engagement.
After all, the need for immediacy spans across all verticals, but in our industry it’s just common sense. In fact, marketers around the world are tasked with various online lead generation goals and are then judged by both the volume and quality of leads they generate.
But, the lead quality deteriorates when we fail to respond in a timely manner.
Why is Slow Lead Engagement a Problem?
In general, leads may receive staggeringly slow responses from your sales agents.
Consider these figures from lead response studies conducted by Harvard Business Review:
- 42 hours – the average lead engagement time
- One hour – just 36% of companies respond to leads in an hour
- 23% – the number of companies that don’t respond to leads
To put it simply, the quality of a lead degrades the longer it takes you to engage with them. A good lead right now can quickly become a bad lead in three days’ time.
What’s more, people consume content differently these days thanks to the internet. With millions of website’s worth of information out there, your leads can spend hours online conducting research before they ever contact you.
According to a Google and CEB white paper, the majority of customers are almost 60% through the sales process before even engaging a sales agent.
If that’s not scary enough, we’ve outlined the impact of slow lead engagement in this post to give you an idea as to why fast response times are so important.
1. A Damaged Reputation
Warren Buffet famously said that it “takes 20 years to build a reputation and just five minutes to ruin it.”
Your real estate business, and indeed your reputation, is extremely valuable. But, it’s also the first thing that takes a hit when you’re slow to engage your potential leads.
Today’s customers are quick to share bad experiences or move on to the next agent that is willing to engage them then and there. Social media is further a hotspot for venting frustrations and spreading negative reviews.
2. Slow Engagement Kills the Conversation
Poor customer service along with slow engagement kills a conversation, and this includes interactions with leads and prospects.
Think about the times you’ve reached out to a business online and never received a response. Frustrating, isn’t it?
Now, just imagine what buyers and sellers are thinking when they request a callback, or are looking for more information about a property, and are forced to wait. Another agent will undoubtedly be right there to comfort them and they’ll quickly forget you even existed.
Fast engagement times and superior customer service leaves a sensational first impression and gets your potential clients excited about doing business with you.
What Can You Do to Increase the Pace?
Providing high-quality and speedy customer service is essential if you want to improve customer experience and turn leads into valuable clients.
But, it all starts with speedy response times.
Here are a few tips to help you speed up lead engagement:
- Be proactive: In a fast-paced industry, your customer service staff are likely juggling dozens of tasks each day. It can be a few hours before they even see a lead response notification. So, try auto-assigning leads for follow-up and cut down dramatically on lead response times.
- Set up alerts: Use social media tools to specify which posts ought to be escalated and help your team keep on top of things.
- Outsource: outsource lead engagement to a reliable third-party who has the skills and technology to respond to and qualify your leads for you, leaving you time to focus on motivated prospects.
Conclusion
The lead engagement landscape as a whole is changing as customer expectations progress. To ensure your real estate business effortlessly scales, be sure to think ahead about each and every aspect of your service, including speedy lead engagement times to reel in your leads and convert them into valuable clients.
Need help engaging and qualifying your leads? Get in touch with Verse today.