4 Real Estate Chatbot Options for Agencies
What do chatbots and the show “House Hunters” have in common? They both create a fun home buying experience.
Where do they differ? Chatbots actually sell homes — sorry TV magic ! These digital assistants are capable of pulling in potential buyers and finding hot leads on all main channels.
This post will take a look at chatbots you can use on your website, in messaging apps and with live chat. We’ll also make platform suggestions that suit a variety of businesses.
But first, let’s take a look at some key benefits you can expect from using a chatbot in real estate.
The four key benefits of using a real estate chatbot
Chatbots help make a good, lasting impression on new visitors: Chatbots can charm their way to a sale by welcoming visitors to your site and being helpful and easy to use. Chatbot builders like Chatfuel also make it easy to create multilingual chatbots so you can reach more customers in their native tongue.
Chatbots free up your agents’ chat slots and filter valuable leads: They can answer frequently asked questions to help steer the customer to the next stage of the buying process. Your chatbot can then forward these hot leads or their contact info to your agents.
Chatbots can help interested visitors find information faster: Chatbots are available 24/7 and respond quickly, features customers really like . If a visitor has a specific question and doesn’t know where to look, a chatbot can instantly send a link to the relevant page.
Chatbots can schedule viewings and calls: Services like Zapier offer an integration to connect your chatbot to Google Calendar for easy scheduling. Chatbots can even guide visitors to a 360° viewing of a home on your website.
Your real estate chatbot options
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Website bots
One of the most optimal solutions for generating more sales is to embed a chatbot directly on your website. Platforms like Botsociety and TARS offer out-of-the-box chatbots that are like building a Lego house. You piece together your conversation flows using pre-made elements, embed the chatbot’s code on your website and it gets to work.
Website chatbots can help welcome visitors to your website, answer simple questions, schedule appointments and share links relevant to the user’s request.
If most of your business is kept on your website, then a chatbot embedded on your home and contact page is ideal. A proactive chatbot can approach visitors outside of business hours and navigate them to the pages they’re looking for.
A lot of website chatbots work independently from your customer service team, but you can still monitor their performance in the platform you decide to use. Some, like Landbot , offer integrations so your chatbot can forward contact information to your agents.
There are many templates and pre-made solutions available that don’t require a developer to get started. Many of them are also affordable and ideal for small agencies that just need a little extra help.
Website bot platforms we recommend:
2
Messaging bots
If your business is thriving on social media or uses messaging (think WhatsApp or SMS) as its primary contact channel, then consider adding a chatbot to the mix.
If you have an active Facebook business page, then you’re likely aware of how quickly listings are seen and shared. If a customer is interested in a home you post, having a Messenger bot embedded on your business page will make it easier for them to contact you.
A real estate agency’s chatbot pre-sold three apartments in 10 days using a Facebook bot. The agency deployed the bot for tailored ad targeting and is now pursuing more bots after its successful run. This is a possible approach to take if you want to get an idea of how a chatbot can work for you.
Chatbots in messaging also help keep your customers up-to-date on changes and updates. If there are new homes on the market that meet a client’s criteria, a chatbot can ping the customer on their preferred messaging app.
Sometimes customers may message you outside of your business hours too. You can set up your chatbot to answer all incoming messages so it can attempt to answer them or forward them to the relevant agent.
This helps create a sense of dependability — chatbots foster an open line of communication for eager home buyers and sellers.
Messaging bot platforms we recommend:
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3
Live chat bots
If you already offer live chat then integrating a chatbot will help you approach customers at every stage in their home buying journey.
If you don’t already have live chat, check out this post on the benefits of using live chat in real estate and sign up for a free trial with Userlike.
Unlike website chatbots that work semi-independently and can only perform a narrow range of tasks, a live chat chatbot works together with your agents. In addition to answering questions, guiding visitors across your website and making property suggestions, a live chat bot can forward serious or difficult inquiries directly to your agents.
You provide convenience not only for your customers, but your team as well. Instead of giving the customer a boring form to fill out, a chatbot can ask the visitor qualifying questions in a conversational manner.
Your chatbot can then build a profile for the prospective buyer so an agent has an overview of their name, email, location and past conversations.
You can also monitor your bot’s performance from one central hub. Its conversational history is logged so agents can familiarize themselves with where a customer is in their journey before assisting.
Plus logs and metrics help with improving your bot’s performance — like finding and fixing recurring errors or revising your chatbot’s conversation flow .
Live chat bot platforms we recommend:
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The Userlike Logic Bot
Our chatbot options bring you closer to home buyers. We created a chatbot solution called the Logic Bot that combines website and messaging with human support as back-up. The Logic Bot is connected to our live chat solution, so you can keep all customer conversations and chatbot controls in one place.
We also provide a chatbot API that you can connect an external sophisticated chatbot to, like an IBM Watson bot for example.
Both the Logic Bot and the chatbot you connect to our API even let you send text messages and talk to customers in their favorite messaging channels like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
Userlike also offers several routing modes so you decide when your chatbot is active. Use it as the first contact for customers, as backup for your agents or outside of service hours.
In real estate, showing is often better than telling, which is why we created carousel and button options for displaying available homes or guiding buyers to listings relevant to their specifications.
The Logic Bot uses the Userlike Bot Language so you can write simple scripts for each customer scenario — buying, selling, renting or just window shopping.
That’s why we included our solution here — it combines all the good parts from the chatbot types listed above into one package solution.
Start gaining qualified leads with a real estate chatbot
The beauty of automation is that you can follow-up with site visitors if they leave your page without leaving contact information. Chatbots can pick up the chat where they left off.
The best method for keeping up with contacts and monitoring your bot’s performance is by pairing it with your live chat solution. Userlike can help you get started with its Logic Bot or get your pre-built chatbot connected to our chatbot API.
Sign up for Userlike to get started with live chat and learn more about our chatbot options 🤖
