Members of the public are most likely to request valuations via live chat on a Tuesday in April.

This cheering nugget emerges in new research from Moneypenny which analysed all its live chat data for last year.

The organisation, which started off by handling outsourced phone calls but now also offers live chat for agents, looked at peak enquiry times for valuations, viewings and property details requests.

Altogether thousands of live chats were handled 24/7 by its team which includes ex-negotiators, with 53% of live chats taking place outside working hours and a significant number of customers getting in touch during the ‘commuter’ slot of 7am to 9am.

• Viewings

The ‘golden hour’ for valuation enquiries via live chat was noon-1pm, closely followed by 9am-10am during the week.

On weekday evenings the sweet spot fell between 6pm-7pm with 8pm-9pm proving the second busiest hour.

At the weekend the key point of the day was 10am-11am and 7pm-8pm out of hours. Overall, the most popular day for viewings chats was Thursday and the busiest month August.

• Property detail requests

The most requests for property details via live chat were received between 1pm-2pm, followed by 2pm-3pm and 6pm-7pm once the office door closed on weekdays.

At weekends, requests were particularly popular in the afternoon with 3pm-4pm seeing the highest volume of chats.

Monday accounted for the busiest day and March the busiest month. Does this chime with you?

• Valuations

The data found that house-hunters were most likely to get in touch via live chat between 11am-noon during the week.

In the evening, the peak period occurred between 7pm-8pm. At weekends the highest number of enquiries fell later in the day, between noon and 1pm, and between 10pm-11pm in the evening.

The busiest day overall was Tuesday and the busiest month April.

Samantha Jones, commercial manager for Property at Moneypenny, said: “These findings outline why live chat is no longer a ‘nice to have’, but an essential part of any agent’s customer service offering and marketing tool belt.

“We are seeing first-hand the significant upturn in leads it can generate for agents, and also the improvement it offers customers in terms of their overall experience.

“It’s not about replacing other means of communications, but the realisation that customers expect a richer experience with the ability to engage when they want, and in a way that suits them at that time.”

Moneypenny is predicting that small businesses – including estate and letting agents – will increase their use of live chat by 87% in the next 12-18 months.