Just over a quarter of UK agents (26%) have adopted live chat, new industry research reveals.
This puts them ahead of a number of others sectors including IT and telecoms, financial services, and automotive businesses.
The same research also shows that agents are getting more phone calls, thanks to the property portals’ ‘click to call’ feature which allows consumers to ring agents at any time.
The number of phone calls is up 35% on five years ago, according to the survey.
Agents are also reporting that 40% of calls result in a valuation or viewing request.
The independent research was commissioned by outsourced communications provider Moneypenny.
Comments (10)
We had it… we had no one using it… we got shot of it. Maybe in the future it will be of benefit to us but the town we operate in is a bit slow to keep up with the latest inventions, hence us saying goodbye to it.
I am sure it will be good in some areas, just not for us.
Well, it’s about making it easy to buy from you using good, old customer service experience. Pushing valuations through chat really defeats the object. Our team use live chat extensively and, to be fair, they get amazing results. Why? Because they speak to real people in the same manner as they would over the phone. They focus on the client. The tool is great. It’s how people use makes all the difference.
Having a conversation with live chat takes longer than a telephone call and often cumbersome….. not efficient in time management for both parties.
The only beneficiaries, as with all such gimmicks, are the suppliers. They seek out agents with the greatest FOMO first, then sell to others on the basis your competitor has gained an advantage over you.
Thought Whatsapp was going to be the next big thing in this arena (subject to GDPR rules of course)?
Had it for 5 years, waste of time. Hardly anybody uses it and the ones that do really shouldn’t.
NO ACCESS TO THE SYSTEM IS THE MANTRA OF REMOTE CHATLINES
The problem is that live chat during normal business hours is still contracted to remote third party operaters who are unable to answer any question about a specific property .sometimes even worse
Stacey the same chatline operater wearing a number of different hats for different estate agents
They seem to be primed to answering the question say
Is the branch in Upper Wallop of Buggins still open as they are not answering emails ?
with
Can we offer you a free valuation?
Possibly -but can you answer my question is the branch still open?
Let me see what I can do to help
Long Gap
Sorry , I can’t answer that question as I have no access to the system
What -You don’t even know if an office is still trading ?
Anything else we can help you with?
I’m still very much on the fence in respect of the provision of “live chat”…we trialled the feature in 2018 and found it to be mostly time absorbent, without a huge merit.
The ability for these service providers to provide specific/helpful responses to specific questions, is negligible. Then on the other hand, we had general contact made by persons which rarely materialised into any meaningful/tangible business.
I’m still of the view (from a lettings perspective) that a prospective Landlord or applicant Tenant who is serious about engaging an agent will either call or visit the office during working hours, and those who are already customers, have the ability and contact details to approach us directly for whatever their requirements may be.
IMHO, “live chat” can still firmly be filed in the “gimmick” section of your tool box.
I’m not a big fan of live chat (specifically the way most agents use it – pushing a free valuation on everyone visiting the site surely has a negative brand impact).
But this kind of ‘they’ll do business on our terms’ thinking is exactly the right approach if you’re looking for early retirement in the next few years.
While you’re in work, most of your landlords and tenants are also, guess what, in work. Do you have the time during your day to pop in a half an hour call to, say, your bank?
“While you’re in work, most of your landlords and tenants are also, guess what, in work. Do you have the time during your day to pop in a half an hour call to, say, your bank?”
True
So the last thing they want to do is waste valuable time bashing away “chatting”” which is anything but .Thinking you are speaking to a branch direct but find out it’s just a gatekeeper with no knowledge of the property or even the area..
A simple phone call will do with an agent offering good service often more than likely to be put through to someone who has actually been inside a property
Jordanbrooks88…
Nowhere have I suggested that “they’ll do business on our terms”…
My view is based on real experience.
Letting/selling/renting/buying (or doing anything else for that matter) is not a matter of minutiae, it’s a very serious business, and one that will seldom be decided/resolved/b progressed by a generic chat box appearing at the bottom of your screen…
Thank you for your insight into early retirement…you seem like a young man with a lot to prove…I hope you do.
Have a successful day!