When a person is trying to buy or sell their home, they want to be able to reach a real estate company.  A realtor may not be available to take the call because they are meeting with clients or showing a home at an open house.  The inquiring caller doesn’t want to talk to an answering machine so he moves on to the next listing and a lead is lost.  In the real estate business, that is all it takes to lose a sale – miss one important phone call.

The most common complaint about real estate agents is their lack of communication and delayed follow-up.  As soon as a higher level of customer service can be provided, people are happier.  They don’t have to worry about leaving their information on an answering machine where they may or may not get a call back.  They are able to get assistance right away.

So How Do They Make Themselves Available 24/7?

More real estate companies are turning to an outsourced call center that offers a wider variety of services – including lead capture and customer retention.  Instead of making a potential client talk to an answering machine, the solution is to use a virtual receptionist to temporarily fill in for you when unavailable.  The agent is always a live operator, providing that necessary personal touch, as well as any information necessary to the person placing the call.  Real estate agents are freeing up their time and thus able to manage clients with more diligence by employing virtual receptionists to field incoming inquiries.  This can help with a significant amount of lead captures because people are more apt to leave their name and number with a live operator instead of moving on to the next listing.

“When I called, You answered me…” by Art4TheGlryOfGod, on FlickrThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

It’s all a matter of using a live operator that is based in the U.S. and is knowledgeable about the industry.  Answering services clients can also personalize their call scripts, and update accordingly as new information or events come up.  The operators can then answer basic questions about the real estate market because of having a knowledge base in front of them.  People are rarely able to distinguish the difference between a virtual receptionist and an actual realtor/receptionist in the office – and this is the whole idea.

Business Retention

Because of being able to offer a higher level of customer service, real estate companies are able to bring in more, and retain current business – and make the big bucks.  They have a higher level of client retention because of making their clients feel like they are always available for them.  Even if clients aren’t able to connect directly with their own real estate agent, they are still able to talk to someone.  Often this is all it takes.

Many people get frustrated when they cannot speak with a live person.  If they call a real estate company a few times and are sent to voice mail each time, they are ultimately going to find a different company to work with – and a potential sale is lost.

Peak Answering by Concorde Communications is one such business that has been going strong for many years – winning multiple service awards because of the high quality call center services that they’ve consistently provided.  Aside from 24/7 live answering, they also offer bilingual assistance at no additional charge.

One surefire way for a real estate company to increase business is by elevating their level of customer service.  The most cost-effective way to do this is not by hiring additional staff, but to obtain a call center service at a fraction of the price.  A little attentive customer service can go a long way.