As an estate agent, you know that responding promptly to enquiries from potential clients is crucial to generating new business. However, recent mystery shopper research by property lead generation specialists, Homeflow, has shown that 39% of estate agents are missing out on potential clients by not responding to enquiries promptly.
The study revealed that the average response time was 229 ‘business’ minutes, which is almost four hours, with the slowest response time being a whopping 2260 ‘business’ minutes, or almost five working days! Only half of the agents who responded to the sales enquiry did so within an hour, and just two agents were fast enough to acknowledge the opportunity within a 4-minute window.
Response times to portal leads on rental properties were better than to sales enquiries. 70% of rental enquiries generated a reply from agents, with 40% of all responses within an hour. However, the average response time was only marginally shorter at 218 ‘business’ minutes.
Homeflow Lead Manager provides estate agents with the opportunity to send branded responses to their prospective clients no matter the time of day, preventing possible leads from waiting for responses and ultimately going elsewhere.
The intuitive system allows for prospective clients to receive a response around the clock, and in turn generate qualified leads for estate agents to leverage and convert, without wasting time sifting through redundant prospects.
“Home sellers now place a higher value on response time than ever before” explained Nik Chotai, Homeflow’s Managing Director. “It’s the key to winning instructions in a competitive market, and it’s essential for building trust and loyalty in a digital age where time is of the essence. This is why we launched Homeflow Lead Manager. The software helps to ensure that
no enquiry is ever missed, potential customers are qualified and handled promptly, and our estate agents can maximise their instruction opportunities.”
Ross McGowan, Lead Manager’s Sales Manager adds: “The solution delivers an excellent branded experience to consumers, it’s not just an auto-response, it’s an auto-response that goes one step further. It allows consumers to have a quality interaction with their estate agent online, therefore delivering an offline process that is an extension of that quality. The technology sets agents apart from their competition: it’s a breath of fresh air for the consumer!”
With a current 60-day free trial of Homeflow Lead Manager, now is the perfect time to revolutionise your response times and gain a competitive edge in a market where timely interactions build trust and loyalty.