**No Spoiler Ahead**
I’ll admit it, I am one of those people who will always root for the underdog.
Tell me a story about someone who was counted out, defied the odds, and succeeded, and you will capture my attention.
That’s why the movie of a baseball coach breaking records after being underestimated is one of my favourites.
If you haven't seen Brad Pitt’s ‘Moneyball’, and you are like me, it’s a must-see.
The critical thing about that movie is not that an underdog team “won” but it’s how they won.
The baseball team, Oakland Athletics, was running last in the league when they adopted a new scientific formula to build a team that could outsmart and better compete against richer competitors in Major League Baseball.
Similar dynamics are taking place within the real estate industry. Well-funded companies competing against smaller, more traditional ones with fewer resources.
Do a quick Google search of "traditional real estate brokerages" and you can see how they are being counted out.
But I am here to tell you that it is possible for traditional real estate companies to compete in the real estate league. But in order to successfully do so, they need to do what the Oakland Athletics did, adopt a “scientific formula” to help them compete.
In fact, a few companies are already doing so.
What’s this scientific formula?
Speed + Automation + Personalization + Integration = Intelligent Customer Experience
Speed
Speed is a crucial factor for many business activities, including customer service. Attending to customer inquiries quickly goes a long way towards a great customer experience.
Most, if not all, customer interactions are being pushed online. Even more so today, after the Covid-19 pandemic. So having a solid digital customer service infrastructure is a must. Yet, many real estate companies have to adapt.
One real estate company, for example, learned with the help of Roof AI, that 30.2% of customers' inquiries were not being responded to on time or at all.
This problem was solved by marrying AI and customer service:
- Customer self-service: Using AI bots to answer customer inquiries, fast and in real-time.
- Using smart, automated follow-ups with clients to make sure they are being responded to on time.
As a result, the company reduced the number of inquiries that needed human intervention and attended to 100% of inquiries without extra workload on their staff and agents.
Automation
Automation dates back to the industrial revolution. Then, just like now, people feared the impact of automation on their jobs. But it all turned out well. Automation created more job opportunities and helped create better, faster, and more efficient processes. Saving us, and companies, a lot of time and money.
By 2024, organizations will lower operational costs by 30% by combining automation technologies with redesigned operational processes. (cio.com) Real estate companies are using automation to improve their internal processes and power up their marketing efforts. Not only are they saving their staff and agent precious time but also enhance their customer experiences.
With tools like Roof AI, real estate companies are using AI to automate:
- online customer interactions in a smart and personalized way.
- basic and repetitive customer support inquiries.
- intelligent customer nurturing on and off their website.
- data gathering and user profile building.
- and the promotion of core-services to increase revenue opportunities.
Personalization
Providing every single customer with a personalized brand experience is the holy grail of marketing. A few years ago, this was unimaginable.
Today, such personalization can be achieved for each and every customer that interacts with a brand. Real estate companies are using AI to personalize the experience for home-buyers, sellers, mortgage leads, and potential candidates interested in joining their company.
This personalization happens in real-time, without the need for website visitors to create any sort of account on the website.
One Nebraska-based real estate company wanted to give its listing recommendations an edge over its competitors. They used Roof AI's recommendation engine to send home-buyers listings based on their browsing history and buying preferences.
What sets these property recommendations apart though is that they keep on getting more and more personalized. The engine keeps on learning from the home-buyer's interactions to tailor the experience further.
Listing recommendations open rates for Roof AI clients are 58% higher than the industry average.
The higher engagement rates translated into higher conversion rates, resulting in higher quality internet leads for the company and for its agents.
Integration
Integration is very important because of its wide-ranging venues and reach.
Integration with data sources. Integration with tools already in use. Integration between online and offline. But what is most important, is the integration between the different business silos of a real estate company.
By working with many real estate companies, I understood that, because of the nature of the real estate transaction and the internal dynamics between all entities involved, the process of home-buying and selling gets complicated. Agent leads, commissions, referral fees...when money touches a lot of hands, things become complicated. Yet, no matter how complicated business is internally, two things remain true:
- Customers do not care.
- Complicated internal processes result in clunky customer experiences.
Customers do not care how a real estate company operates, how leads are transferred from one entity to another, or how the dynamics between brokerage, mortgage and/or title departments work. What they care about is getting a seamless experience that will make their home-buying/selling process easier.
Traditional real estate companies are starting to implement this way of thinking into their business strategies. By providing a seamless experience for the customer and making it easier for them to have access to their core services, real estate companies are seeing their attach rates on core services skyrocket.
One real estate company, in particular, started using Roof AI to seamlessly promote their core services across the home-buying journey in two ways:
- Giving clients easier access to financing options on the company’s corporate website.
- Using Roof AI’s predictive capabilities to nurture clients with core services offers, at the right time.
Conclusion
Yes, having access to capital in business is important and advantageous.
But being a well-funded company doesn’t necessarily mean you are doing things right.
New technology is becoming easy to implement and very affordable to try. You don’t need millions of dollars in R&D or an army of developers to compete.
So smaller and more traditional companies can also have their place in an industry and compete if they use the right “formula”. I’ve laid one out in this post that you can start following, but you can also create your own.
All it takes is thinking outside the box, taking a risk on a new technology, or simply testing a different approach, just like the Oakland Athletics.
If you are looking for your 'Moneyball' formula, we can help.
Reach out to us to learn more about how successful real estate companies are using AI-powered technology to compete and win in the Real Estate League.