VoiceSage, the specialist provider of interactive voice messaging products, recently announced the launch of its new Click-To-Talk solution, which enables businesses to offer a quick and easy way for potential and existing customers to contact them via the company website.
Particularly useful for an estate agent, Click-To-Talk allows web surfers wishing to find out more about a property to simply click a ‘contact us’ link to automatically generate a call with the company, as soon as there is a live call centre representative available to speak with them.
This is set to improve an estate agents ability to pursue sales leads, by putting them in direct contact with an increased number of potential purchasers and vendors, while it also saves customers from waiting in lengthy call queues, or enduring 24-hour plus response times to email enquiries. These delays in responding can not only lose vital business, with customers likely to look elsewhere in the meantime, but also reflect badly on your reputation.
Click-To-Talk provides the call centre representative with the customer’s specified interest or any other available details via an agent whisper prior to routing the call. This not only cuts down call time significantly, but also means the employee is more prepared and better able to offer a personalised service – even if the customer does not have an existing relationship with the company. If a customer clicks on the website outside of the call centre’s operating hours, Click-To-Talk will generate an automated voice call back to them, while its interactive capability allows the customer to input a suitable time for an agent to call them back.
Mintel has just launched a report indicating that only 1 in 5 owners rent out their holiday homes which means £4bn is lost in potential revenue per annum.
In response to this Group RCI have just launched a new rental and exchange business model which is set the boost leisure property sales.
The credit crisis, with its rising interest rates and mortgage difficulties, continues to dominate the headlines and many consumers are shying away from property investment opportunities for fear of becoming another credit casualty. During this challenging economic cycle, it’s more important than ever for developers to attract purchasers to the second home and leisure property market – and to distinguish their offering from that of their competitors.
Group RCI has launched an innovative offering of rental and exchange benefits which can be sold by developers as part of the whole-ownership property sale. The Group RCI Rental and Exchange (R + E) Programme gives developers the opportunity to sell their properties with the add-on of the world’s largest rental service which will generate a reliable yield in rental income for purchasers. The programme offers the further bonus of the opportunity to exchange a period of unused weeks in the property for a holiday in one of the 4,000 quality resorts worldwide affiliated with Group RCI.
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Backed by the deep pockets of News International Globrix.com is set to take the property industry by storm. Working on a different revenue model from the likes of Right Move and Primelocation, Globrix doesn’t charge agents for listing properties on the site (phew!), instead they generate revenues from a limited amount of premium advertising around the search result (e.g. type in to find a property in Farnham and only Farnham agent advertisers will appear!)
This means that (a) its an easy decision for agents to get involved and (b) that they’ve been able to build a massive index of properties on the site very quickly. They now have the second largest index of properties for sale or rent in the UK.
The second difference is in the way you can search for houses on the site. Rather than restricting searches to just price, location and number of bedrooms, on Globrix you can narrow down your property search by features such as outside space, period features or even swimming pools.
The fat cats at the top of Right Move and Primelocation will surely be increasingly concerned and rightly so… it’s time for a shake up!
There are 5 key things that potential property purchasers wish to know about when buying or renting a property (see below). What’s the saying… “Fail to plan, plan to fail” – this is all too true when it comes to showing people round a property. Learn the information and discuss it with the prospect at the property (or even on the phone beforehand)… you’ll save bags of time!
As an idea, create a form for every property (and add it to the particulars if you want to) with 5 headings for each of the below. You don’t have to write that much and you’ll give them everything they want to know in one hit! A true time saver and another differentiator!
Typical cost of borrowing - give some clear examples of typical mortgage payments
Schools and Family Needs – highlight award winning schools
Commuting – How far to London or other major city?
Community Details – How would you class the neighbourhood? What are the community statistics? What is the average age group of the area?
Budget and Condo Fees – How much is council tax, typical bills
PocketSurfer2 gives Estate Agents the freedom of spending more time with clients - showing properties and closing deals, while assuring full access to Property listings, Email, financial calculators, mortgage rates, GPS, Instant Messenger services and more. They cost just £179.99 and you get 20 hours free surfing per month, however if you want unlimited surfing then be prepared to spend a further £5.99 per month.
Estate Agents can now see the complete data for each property listing, not just a select few fields, including photos, maps and directions - anytime anywhere in the palm of their hands.
PocketSurfer2 is an ultra-thin hand-held device that delivers the real web, just like at home or at work. Real web access at a guaranteed speed of less than 7 seconds a page allow access to any online content such as financial calculators and up to date mortgage rates.
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