How Proptech Can Help Agents Improve Their Customer Service
Blog by Richard Murray, CEO, Veco™
The UK has been at the centre of the PropTech movement since day one and along with the USA, continuing to sit at the forefront of thought leadership, investment, and influence.
The UK PropTech market size is growing with London playing a significant role in powering the industry, and it has become one of the most technologically advanced cities in the world. Now there are close to 400 UK companies offering solutions for PropTech total addressable market in both commercial and residential real estate, a number that grows each month, and the market is only set to keep increasing over the next few years.
PropTech is important because it brings about a new digital age for real estate, providing benefits globally. From software, tools, platforms, apps, websites, and other digital assets, the latest tech innovations drive efficiencies and optimise processes, particularly around customer service.
PropTech can be used to harness and promote more efficient systems rooted in digital solutions and cater to new consumption patterns within the real estate industry.
So, how can PropTech help agents deliver a better service to vendors and buyers? Estate agency remains a people business in the traditional sense and PropTech can be used to free up time to further develop and nurture relationships. It can enable agents to automate repetitive business processes and regular communications, which can be personalised and give the perception that it has been manually generated.
Agents can use PropTech to their advantage and provide information, data and documentation to clients, via portals so they can self-service. Consumers appreciate the convenience and it is very common in many other areas of our lives. Software focusing on the customer and the properties relating to them, can deliver a CRM journey from enquiry through to client accounting.
Veco™ has put together some tips on improving customer service in your agency:
Invest enough time at the implementation stage
It is so important that investment in CRM software is not just seen to be a monetary one. Pick a time of year which suits your business best and allocate as much time and resource as you can to involvement in the project. It will reap benefits from data migration through to a smoother transition for users.
Use advanced functionality in your software
Once the implementation project is completed, it can be the case that if a BAU (business as usual) approach was taken that the real benefits of changing over your software are not yet realised. Constantly review your software with your Customer Success contacts and make sure that you are getting the best out of the software you are subscribing to. It’s worth having a quarterly or half yearly review meeting.
Invest in ongoing training
Whether you pay for training on an adhoc basis, or it is included in your subscription, it is important that you invest time in it. Often, knowledge is passed on from other users, or if you have a high turnover of staff, then it is crucial that you continually use training to increase knowledge of existing users and onboarding new users.
Maximise opportunities within your data
Within all CRM systems there is mine of opportunities. If your system can automate reminders, reports and anniversaries then there will be lots of reasons to contact your database of previous applicants, vendors and landlords.
Improve Data Entry
It is important that users work with their CRM software to minimise poor and / or duplicate data. Having a single record for every contact and property you deal with is important to ensure that all compliance, documentation, notes and related contacts are accessible.
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