RealsuiteSM has released consumer insights and research in a white paper, “Shift Happens: How to Capture, Communicate and Close in Today’s ‘On Demand World,'” the Move, Inc. brand and business solutions platform recently announced. The research underscores the importance of finding the right balance between personalization and automation in serving today’s clients. To download the white paper, visit www.realsuite.io/research.
The white paper puts today’s best practices under the microscope, revealing new perspective around buyer and seller expectations at each stage in the journey. It also uncovers stark realities about some of the most common practices within the customer lifecycle, making the case that business-as-usual in today’s market is anything but.
The proprietary insight combines the findings from two research initiatives conducted in 2017 among nationally representative samples of consumers who purchased or sold a home, were currently searching for a new home, or submitted an inquiry on realtor.com®, together with data and case studies from business, industry and academia.
Among the insights:
- Just 14 percent of consumers are likely to respond to a communication they perceive to be an automated reply.
- Three of the top five qualifiers consumers use when selecting an agent cannot be replaced by technology.
- Consumers want more transparency every step of the way, and three out of four buyers want an online system to track the offer-to-close process.
- Agents’ insider knowledge, such as upcoming assessments, HOA fees and neighborhood detail, is just as critical to buyers as pricing trends, recent sales and days on market.
“This is a critical time for real estate professionals,” says Luke Glass, executive vice president, Industry Platforms for Move, Inc. “The emergence of technology and automation onto the scene has greatly improved the real estate process in some ways, yet these findings reveal that many agents are failing to leverage technology or to use it properly at key points along the journey, to the detriment of the agent-client relationship.”
At the same time, the research also underscores that the agent’s personal knowledge and touch remains a vital and irreplaceable part of the process. Together, the insights present the case for incorporating technology with personalized service, in order to meet the bar of consumer expectation and deliver optimal value.
“Finding the right balance between automation and personalization is critical to an agent’s ability to deliver an exceptional experience, yield more closed business and bring more repeat and referral business into the pipeline,” Glass says. The “Realsuite platform offers a single solution to help them with this balance and empower them to spend more time with their clients, doing what they do best.”
For more information, please visit www.realsuite.io.
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