How social media is transforming customer relationship management

Written by Posted On Tuesday, 29 January 2019 08:21

The real estate search is moving online. In 2018, 44 percent of home buyers looked for properties online first. Millennials lead this move to online search. As most agents know, the millennial market is becoming a crucial one to tackle. Millennials make up the largest group of first-time home buyers at a whopping 65 percent. And 99 percent of millennials search online websites for homes.

A robust social media presence is a sound way to keep up with this growing market. Many agents are using social media to build relationships with these buyers and sellers.

Social selling is an increasingly popular tactic that uses social media along the sales funnel. But users do not want to be bombarded with sales messages on their social media channels. Instead, they want to take part in a conversation. This means agents need to take part in this conversation also, generating key touch points while doing so.

Buyers and sellers on social media

It’s not just millennials on social media. Of all social media users, 80 percent use social networks to engage with brands. And brands that use social media reap the rewards. For example, customers that receive a response from brands on Twitter are willing to spend up to 20% more and are 30% more likely to recommend the brand. More than half of social media users prefer to message a brand on social media rather than call them for customer support.

For real estate agents, these numbers mean a lot. Social media has become a tool to interact with potential leads. It also means agents need to have robust social networks that can meet consumer needs in terms of answering questions and interacting.

Agents also need to keep in mind that prospects want to interact on social; some might even prefer talking on social media than on the phone. Agents can set up Facebook Messenger bots to answer questions, as maintaining a live presence on social media all day every day is a daunting challenge.

While many agents have mastered social media use, what becomes difficult is integrating this use into an existing CRM.

CRMs to track real estate leads

A customer relationship management (CRM) tool manages customer relationships along the sales funnel. Agents can track prospects that are just beginning their property hunt, as well as prospects that are deciding where to take their business. There are many reasons agents use CRMs, including:

Track leads

CRMs make it easy for agents to stay in touch with past clients, which could then lead to a referral. These platforms facilitate the selling process and automate administrative tasks. CRMs also help agents use touch points to push prospects down the sales funnel. Agents can easily view at which stage in the sales funnel each lead is by looking at their CRM.

Marketing/Bringing in new leads

CRMs also help bring in new leads. Agents can use a CRM with an email campaign to bring in new prospects. The value is that the technology does most of the work. Though agents meet new leads offline as well, this makes sure online leads go into the sales funnel for nurturing.

Support

Agents also use CRMs to track customer support. Perhaps a customer asks questions about a certain home, or, more importantly, they ask ten questions about that home. Agents can track all of these to know that that person is probably a hot lead.

Touchpoints in the real estate sales funnel

While each prospect is different and numbers vary across industries, on average it takes six to eight touch points to generate a viable lead. Many agents use email as touch points, but social media is a viable way to keep in touch with prospects as well. All touch points need to be tracked in a CRM so agents can see how a lead is performing along the sales funnel.

According to the National Realtor Association’s report on real estate in the digital age, social media tops as the tool that gives the highest quality of leads. The top lead generation tools are as follows:

  • - Social media (47 percent)

 

- MLS site (32 percent)

 

- Brokerage website (29 percent)

 

- Listing aggregator site (29 percent)

 

- CRM (18 percent)

Agents that merge social media use and CRM use will clearly experience a surge in lead generation.

New technologies, such as PropertySimple’s Social CRM, combine the power of a CRM with the success of social media marketing. Using new tools can be intimidating. In fact, 48 percent of all real estate firms cited keeping up with technology as one of the biggest challenges facing their firm in the next two years. However, they are helpful in generating more sales.

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Adrian Fisher

Adrian Fisher is the founder of PropertySimple, a social real estate platform. 

https://pro.propertysimple.com

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