15 Reasons For Integrating Cloud Telephony into Your Real Estate Business
5 min
The real estate industry faces real turmoil at the moment. Competition is incredibly stiff, buyers’ budgets are constrained, and sellers are concerned about the market. To really stand out from the crowd, savvy real estate agents need to offer continuous communication and reassurance, excellent customer service, and display real knowledge about the homes on their books. An effective real estate phone system that can facilitate client inquiries, empower agents with the knowledge and allow teams to collaborate may be the key to winning the market.
Traditional phone systems simply can’t handle the high volumes of calls and need for automation and mobility that a virtual system can. A cloud-based or VoIP phone uses the internet. It doesn’t require any physical setup and can be a game-changer for agents that need to move around but can’t afford to miss a call. The real benefit of switching to a virtual system is its ability to pair with other technologies, like IVR and ACD, which can improve customer service and response rates as well as unlock marketing and sales capabilities, including targeting and engagement campaigns.
15 Reasons For Integrating Cloud Telephony into Real Estate
If you are still debating whether or not you should switch to a cloud telephony system
ONE. Professionalism
Keeping a professional image is critically important as it can make or break deals, especially when stakes are high. With a cloud telephony system, you are not only able to use a single (and even toll-free) number as a single point of contact for multiple offices, but you can also link all agents’ mobile numbers as well. Clients can call the office and get rerouted back to agents in the field, and if an agent is unavailable, their colleague can pick up and take over.
TWO. 24/7 Responsiveness
As a real estate business, you know that clients rarely call during business hours. If a client is in a different time zone or browsing through listings after hours, they might pick up the phone and get in touch right away. Fortunately, virtual systems are equipped with APIs, chatbots, and advanced routing options so that you can stay in touch and follow up with clients outside of regular business hours. Needless to say how handy it is for sales agents to remain connected while on the go.
THREE. Video Conferencing
The pandemic has meant that homeowners are moving further away from their current hubs or splitting their time between homes. Video conferencing has become the norm in many businesses, and real estate agents need high-performance video calling capabilities to meet prospective buyers and/or to supply virtual property tours. VoIP telephony can offer seamless, high-quality video conferencing to you and your clients.
FOUR. Mobility
Real estate agents can’t afford to remain glued to a desk waiting for calls. A VoIP phone system helps agents stay in the loop even when they are in the field. They’ll always have access to income calls, even on the road. They can also control their status, availability, and greetings to deliver the best possible customer experience at all times.
FIVE. The Ability to Make and Take Multiple Calls
A VoIP system can direct multiple calls to several phones using a single line. There’s no need to keep callers waiting. Ring groups allow you to handle multiple calls at once, providing the best possible service to your customers at all times.
SIX. Access to IVR and ACD
Interactive Voice Response Technology (IVR) ups the game for real estate businesses. IVR will greet clients, connect them to the right department, and play hold music while they wait. If you work with customers who speak different languages or are from different regions, an Automatic Call Distribution system can direct them to the right extension, e.g. by connecting all Spanish-speaking customers to Spanish-speaking agents.
SEVEN. Call Logs
Is there anything more frustrating than a client that calls but doesn’t leave a message? Your virtual phone system’s call logs will provide more information about who dialed, so you can give them a call back immediately. A great reason for integrating cloud phone systems is to centralize calls, text messages, voicemail and email, as well as their corresponding logs.
EIGHT. Increased Insight
Your business generates new data every day that can be used to improve operations, cut costs, and increase sales. Are you using it? Cloud telephony systems come with reporting and analytics that makes it easier to gain insight and visibility into your business performance so that you can make data-driven decisions at a moment’s notice.
NINE. Reduced, Flexible Costs
The cloud reduces your upfront costs because there’s no need to purchase physical equipment while the flexibility of SaaS pricing will reduce your ongoing costs over time as well. With cloud software, you only ever pay for what you use. And this also applies for telephony fees. You can scale up or down as demand grows or wanes in the company, and get rid of features you no longer use or need.
TEN. Rich Features
VoIP is easy to manage but comes with a host of exciting features accessible via a user-friendly dashboard. Some of the features you can access include call recordings (for training purposes), conferencing options, call transfers, queuing, monitoring and reporting, and call analytics.
Other features prominent forfeatures real estate agencies are dialers and voicemail drop, they help increase the volume of calls being made and detect when a call has gone to voicemail, so a prerecorded message can be automatically dropped into the customer’s inbox.
If you’ve selected Salesforce as your CRM, here you can find out more about the criteria to select a Salesforce-friendly Cloud telephony system for your business.
ELEVEN. Greater Control
Real estate teams need to collaborate with clients, one another, photographers, surveyors, lawyers, conveyancing companies, and more. Version control becomes essential. Your phone system provides centralized control over all business documents to ensure that everyone is working on the same document and have access to a single source of truth.
TWELVE. Collaboration
Virtual phone systems enable communication - anywhere, anytime, over any platform. Teams can connect by chat, collaborate with their teams on contract drafts, presentations, or even pull up information and figures before meeting or calling clients, especially if their phone system is integrated with their existing CRM.
THIRTEEN. Increased Security
Real estate businesses access vast amounts of highly confidential customer information. As custodians of that information, it’s important that your documentation is stored safely. By moving to the cloud, no one can gain access to business data without authorization.
FOURTEEN. Data Ownership and Disaster Recovery
Using personal smartphones and devices is a given in the real estate business, but if an agent leaves, a TON of information leaves with them. A virtual phone system records and stores data on secure corporate servers, which means that it can be retained and recovered even if employees leave or a natural disaster strikes.
FIFTEEN. Increased competitiveness
What does all of this amount to? A competitive advantage! By switching to the cloud, you can adapt and respond to changes in the market (or your own business) much faster than you would be able to with a conventional telephone system.
Takeaway
Switching to a cloud-based system may be exactly what your real estate business needs to grow. It’s not only affordable but infinitely scalable, enabling your agents to deliver the best possible service to your prospective buyers and sellers.
