Why a virtual receptionist is a perfect fit for estate agents
As an estate agent your business relies on your ability to find and close deals as quickly and efficiently as possible.
It’s a busy environment, and often requires you to be out and about, not stuck to your desk.
Whether it’s assessing and evaluating new properties, taking clients on viewings, negotiating prices or creating new listings, there’s lots to do.
So it’s easy for phone calls to fall through the cracks.
But when missed calls mean lost business, or clients left in limbo wondering what’s happening with their sale or purchase, it’s important you consider how you could better deal with calls coming into your business.
Especially in the newer business model of some modern estate agents, which operate entirely online and use remote working. Without a proper call answering system, it’s easy for calls to get lost, and business along with them.
A virtual receptionist service is an ideal solution to the call answering problems facing busy estate agents, because they offer exactly the service they need, and can fit seamlessly into a remote or office based business model.
What is a virtual receptionist?
A virtual receptionist service is the front of house for your estate agent business, except they work remotely.
They carry out the exact same function as a traditional receptionist, taking and managing calls, rerouting them to the right person, or taking messages from customers for you to deal with later.
They can also be used to help with your diary management or booking meetings.
But because they’re not direct employees, you don’t have to worry about paying full or part-time salaries, or dealing with holidays, or sick pay, or benefits.
You just pay for the service you use.
So it’s easy to see how this can easily fit into a real estate business model, when you have agents out with clients at viewings, clients coming into the office, team meetings, or you are just in situations when t you might not be able to answer every call that comes in.
Plus, think of the extra time you’d have to go and get new business if you were free from always having to answer your phone when it rang, just so you didn’t send someone to voicemail.
There are lots of ways a virtual receptionist can benefit a real estate business.
Here’s a few.
Make sure you never miss a call
When you’re out on viewings or in meetings you can’t always be on hand to answer the phone.
And if you’re working remotely, there’s no way another member of the team can answer your phone when it rings.
If you have a virtual receptionist as part of your business, that’s no longer a problem.
They can answer calls for you when you’re busy and either help the customer or take a message for you, or possibly reroute the call to someone else who can help instead.
With this running in the background, you never have to worry about sending clients to voicemail or losing out on a new deal just because you were driving.
Plus, because your virtual receptionist operates as an extension of your business, they’ll deal with calls exactly as you want them to.
Operate longer hours
Estate agents don’t operate within the traditional 9-5.
Customers can’t always do viewings during the work day so out of hours work is a common part of an estate agent’s business.
But you do have to clock off at the end of the day, unwind and spend time with friends and family.
That doesn’t mean your business has to stop though.
Virtual receptionist services (the good ones at least) can provide out of hours call services so clients and customers can still get in touch with your business, even when you’ve finished for the day.
If you still want to be available for urgent or emergency calls, your virtual assistant can screen the out of hours calls coming in, and make sure only the high priority ones get to you.
Get time back to grow your business
Time really is money in the world of estate agents, and it’s a fine balancing act between getting work finished and being on hand to answer calls and deal with new enquiries.
Try as you might, it’s an impossible job to juggle all this work yourself and retain high standards of service that build your business’ reputation.
Getting a virtual receptionist service gives you all the benefits of a professional front of house, without the higher costs of salaries.
With calls being dealt with for you, you’ll have more time to find new properties to sell, promote your current portfolio, meet new customers, complete and finish listings, close deals and ultimately grow your business.
Or, you can sit back and watch missed calls cost your business customers, your reputation and possibly your business’ future.
Help manage your diary
Organising your diary is a critical part of running a successful real estate business.
You need time to evaluate new properties, organise multiple viewings of multiple properties during the day (potentially divided among multiple employees) all while avoiding conflicts and leaving yourself enough time to actually get to appointments.
Just managing all this can be a full-time job, especially when you’re busy and have clients asking to reschedule at the last minute or juggling different priorities when they come up.
Virtual receptionists can take a lot of this hassle off your hands.
By syncing your calendar to a virtual receptionist, they can handle all your meeting bookings and diary management for you, so you can just get on with your day.
Because your calendar is synced in real-time, there’s no worries about getting double booked because updates happen and appear instantly, whether you or your virtual assistant added the meeting.
With this task being dealt with for you, you can take more time doing the things that will make money, like attending meetings with clients and building relationships, creating listings, marketing your business and closing deals.
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