A new service has launched offering estate agents a manned ‘real people’ webchat service.
Chat Heroes says that webchat can convert 40% of engaged website visitors into a lead.
It is targeting smaller agents who do not have the manpower to offer webchat.
Chat Heroes provides web chat services interacting with website visitors from 9am to 10pm seven days a week.
The chat agents act as if they are employees, meaning visitors feel that they are engaging directly and positively with the business. This enables companies to engage with potential customers when offices are closed, or when staff are out of the office or very busy.
Chat Heroes is offering a free 30-day trial of its service and says the trial can be set up within minutes and the impact can be instant.
Paul Lawton, commercial director of Chat Heroes, said: “It’s a fact that companies without a webchat service are losing hundreds of possible leads every month, potentially costing them thousands of pounds.
“People now expect to do business online, and expect online interaction. So businesses without this service are simply being left behind.”
He said a webchat typically costs around 29p.
Users include Northgate Estate Agents, which has three branches in the Darlington area.
Russell Hartshorn says the firm got its first lead in the first two hours of going live, and its first valuation appointment on the third day.
He said: “People seem to be more comfortable giving their contact details to a person using live chat than filling in a form, and respond well to an invitation to chat.”
Comments (5)
We use the services of Chat Heroes , and have had fantastic 5* results – have left a review on their site.
If RM, Z and the ‘other one’ could include a button on the property description on their site that puts the user through to the live chat, then I think that would really help. Does anyone give out stats on percentage of viewings booked having seen the property on a portal rather than the agents own site? This may prove my point.
We use LIVE 24 hour web chat on our own site and have done for a few months – courtesy of Yomdel who have posted above.
I am totally amazed at just how effective it is at helping our site visitors. They really love it and tell us so.
It’s not for everyone, but I personally can’t believe we operated efficiently without it.
Yesterday evening, we had a visitor on our website who decided to use the web chat facility and we have now arranged to conduct a valuation on the property further to a subsequent phone call. This opportunity may have been missed altogether if we had not had a web chat facility available at the time the prospective client wanted advice when visiting our site.
Whichever web chat operator an estate agent uses,the key to success is the relationship between that agent and the web chat provider.
They need to really understand your culture and operating systems.
Chat can be extraordinarily powerful, but the key is in the execution. Chat is customer driven — people will chat at a time that suits them, from a place that suits them. If you are not available when someone wants to chat then it creates a poor customer experience. We handle many thousands of chats each month for our hundreds of estate agent clients (and yes, there is another company offering specialist managed live chat for estate agents and we are 24/7), and in our experience, a swift professional answer will quickly help nurture trust and a relationship that converts into new business.
It’s worth mentioning that 50% of all of the chats we handle come outside standard business hours, when your offices are closed. It is actually better not to think of being able to chat “when it’s convenient for you” as LondonR90 says, but to think how you can chat “when it’s convenient for your customer.” The two things are very different.
If you ask any business “Where are your customers?”, the answer these days is the same: “Online.” The web is now your virtual high street and your website is your office. That digital office gets far greater footfall than your traditional office, and you wouldn’t ignore people stepping over the threshold, so why ignore them online?
From an online marketers view, web chat certainly does work. Customers are more confident when they are hiding behind a screen and not having to ‘talk’.
I don’t see the value in paying for live chat outside of working hours…
In working hours, live chat is available free, unlimited chats and agents. A little line of code and you’re up and running. You can even chat to customers from your mobile phone app, for free, out of hours – when it’s convenient for you.
No one should be paying for live chat on their website…