Digital disruption is happening in all businesses and sectors. Digital innovators are a threat to all established businesses which means traditional companies need to change. A perfect storm is happening in the property market with digital challenger eroding fee margins and stamp duty rising, leading people moving homes less over the course of their lifetime.
When we bought our new house we were very much in the traditional model. We appointed an estate agent, valuation is carried out, a price agreed and the property is advertised. We were very fortunate to sell our property in a short space of time but as you all know selling and buying properties is one of the most stressful experience people can endure. When housing chains break and process run longer, this uncertainty can damage the customer experience.
Now, housing chains will always exist but the slowness of lawyers to respond or even talk to their opposing solicitors hasn’t changed for decades. Digital technology is now making these tolerable norms less acceptable. The speed of technology and innovation is now allowing traditional business models and processes to be challenged and improved.
Telephone tennis quite often happens in the buying cycle of acquiring a new home. Vendors missing calls to law firms, and the estate agent is holding all of this together, being a skilled negotiator but also a councilor in certain instances to families!
Estate agents need to manage many locations and have to train their staff on the latest compliance and regulatory standards. This can be a challenge when busy estate agents are undertaking viewings, traveling between appointments or simply manning the phones. Making communication and indeed learning more efficient and effective will not only benefit your employees and your customers, but also you.
In the future, buyers of properties will be able to say, “Alexa What new houses are up for sale in my area?” or “Alexa play the latest Estate Agent News”. Voice controlled devices such as the Amazon Echo can make the customer experience delightful. For example, an elderly member of the public selling their property might be introduced to an estate agent’s voice before a face to face visit for reassurance. It could be playing back the voice message that your offer has been accepted by the vendor, so you can recap and remember what has been said.
Sound Branch is the first short form voice notes app to market and has particular advantages for estate agents.
- Voice messaging can be done on your desktop PC or Mac and using mobile apps or voice controlled smart speakers such as the Amazon Echo
- Voice messages can improve internal communication leading to less emails and less unnecessary meetings
- Audio can be played back in your CRM through integrations
- Alexa Skills can be built, so your company news and information can be played by customers on the smart speakers.
You can learn more about Sound Branch and how it can help you with internal communication and enhancing the customer experience by Signing Up for a free personal account here:
PS. Your very own voice messaging platform can be set up for your business, alongside branded audio sites on our business version of Sound Branch.
I hope you enjoyed reading.