How are Chatbots & Messenger bots Effective for Real Estate Agents and Brokers

Are you a real estate agent or broker? Have you considered chatbots for real estate agents before? Are there general particular questions you get asked during every transaction? Well a chatbot or messenger bot may be for you.

Chatbots for Real Estate Agents

So what's all this buzz about chatbots? And what are they anyway? And what the heck are messenger bots? And...how can I make chatbots for real estate agents work for me and not against me?

The history of chatbots dates waaaay back into the 90's (oh the good ol' days) and trying to make communication easier. There were some pretty awesome bots that were out there but chatbots weren't that popular or widely accepted at that time. They were more for fun. Bots like Laurensbot and Mitusku are two of top ones to name a few. These were just designed to make the flow of bot conversation more human like.

But, Chatbots for Real Estate Agents? Really? Yep, absolutely. Let's dive in and talk about what chatbots are and how they can work for you. Basically, a chatbot is just an extension of you...or the company you work for...or the brand you represent...or the restaurant you own...you get the point. This bot talks to people just as you would. You can add conditions to any conversation, tags, intents, parameters, etc... I will get into a little more detail about that in a second. The key thing to understand is you design the bot to do whatever you want it to do. It doesn't matter if it is on your website or on FB messenger. You still have to design the conversational flow.

Let's say you want to ask a prospect if they've owned a home before or if this is their first time buying a home? You can do that easily with your chatbot. Want to ask if they are in the military and in what time frame are they considering moving? You can. Want to schedule a meeting with them or jump on a call? You can! Chatbots for real estate agents is honestly going to be everywhere simply because of the time that can be saved with collecting valuable information.

Now think about how much time you can save with getting these questions out of the way prior to you talking to them. You could be staging a home, or looking at new properties or talking to your broker...there are tons of things that come up during your day that call for your attention. When you have a bot working for you and with you, your time management is streamlined.

When you've correctly developed chatbots for real estate agents, we can take it one step further...how about adding particular listings to your bot so that it can showcase your portfolio. Why not have your bot give all the community information (schools, shopping, ratings, etc...) within particular neighborhoods and then share that information with interested buyers? What's even cooler is that you can map directions to that location, set up a meeting time or have the conversation transferred over to you directly if the party is that serious.

Should You Design Your Own Chatbot?

In all honesty, NO. I wouldn't suggest that at all. Now being there for designing the flow. Absolutely. This is where you work with your conversation designer.-Remember what I was talking about tags, and intents and flows above? Okay, now I'm going to go a little deeper to explain while you need a professional Conversational Designer like Bluoo Digital to handle this for you. The reason being is there is a particular flow that needs to be followed as well as the correct intents and entities being targeted in the conversation.

The conversational flow is an artwork. The key to making this work is to sit down with your conversation designer and go through your buying process. Think of every angle a person gives you for an answer, whether it's a yes, no, or ambiguous. The cool thing about when you design your chatbot's flow, you can guide the conversation wherever you want it to go. This will take some time, of course, but the goal is to make this chatbot an extension of you, not a generic bot that does what every other bot is doing. Spend the time on the conversational flow and you'll be rewarded handsomely.

Briefly let me explain intents. Intents consist of four main components that allow you to map what your user says to what your chatbot responds with. These components include the following:

·         Training phrases: Examples of what users can say to match a particular intent.

·         Action and parameters: Defines how relevant information (parameters) are extracted from user utterances. Examples of this kind of information include dates, times, names, places, and more. You can use parameters as input into other logic, such as looking up information, carrying out a task, or returning a response.

·         Response: An utterance that's spoken or displayed back to the user.

There is a lot more to this and I could explain this in further detail but this blog post would turn into a Wikipage. The main point to take away is to start incorporating chatbots and messenger bots that can be used for your real estate needs. The time it will save alone will be mind-blowing.

In closing, I want to mention that if you are on the fence and let's say you're still stuck in the olden days of "Email marketing".... times are changing. Email isn't as interactive, open rate on emails - well can we honestly say they suck, and one thing with chatbots, they are where everyone is at [in the phone]. One quick note as well, you can always program your chatbot to pick back up on the conversation where it was left off. Can't do that with email. Another interesting psychological fact is that chatbots can handle all the emotional cues and takes uninterested parties or responses and not take anything personal. They handle objections like a champ. We all know selling is a mental game. Think of how this can help alleviate any stress you may have with avoiding these situations completely.

I hope the information shared in this post at least gave you a better understanding of how chatbots can work for your real estate business... Or any business in particular. Please contact me if you have any questions or give Bluoo Digital a call to handle all of your chatbot development.