Gone are the days, when realtors would rely on sticky notes and napkins to “keep track” of potential clients and customers. In present times, customer relationship management has remolded customer expectations forever and has become the difference between keeping your business or losing it.
As a consequence, an ever-rising number of real estate agents and brokers are realizing the need for a centralized database to manage their customers and relationships and turning to CRM platforms to generate more leads, close more deals, and satisfy existing clients. (In fact, over 50% of prospective CRM buyers are from verticals like real estate, consulting, distribution, and insurance, where effective contact management is pivotal!)
If you’re struggling with any of the above or looking for a way to up your game, going with a CRM is your best bet. Alternatively, if you’re already using a CRM, but it’s not giving you the results you were promised, maybe it’s just not the best choice for your particular industry.
With that in mind, we’ll be taking a look at how exactly a good CRM benefits the real estate industry or, more importantly, what features must it possess to help you succeed. Let’s dig in!
8 Features that Make a Robust CRM for Real Estate
1. Contact Management and Segmentation
Contact management is at the heart of any CRM, but some do it better than others. In the real estate business, you need a CRM that lets you effectively segments and organize your contacts around your relationship with them so that you can get the right message across to them.
Your CRM should let you create multiple groups of people based on how you want to market to them (i.e., leads, clients, referring agents, etc.) and allow you to put people in one or more of those groups. It should let you segment these groups into further categories (i.e., current and past clients, hot and cold leads, etc.) so you’re able to target them contextually.
2. Lead Nurturing Capabilities
The importance of nurturing long term relationships in the real estate industry can’t be stressed enough. As a realtor, your ability to make money is intrinsically linked to how effectively you follow up with the people you’re trying to serve.
Effective lead management and nurturing ensures you stay on top of all your leads, past and present, so that none of them slip through the cracks, and you don’t miss out on any opportunity to serve them. Your CRM should remind you if you’ve lost touch with a lead and also support automated follow-ups through text or call.
3. Lead Generation and Capture From Website
If you’re generating most of your leads online, the ability to create Web-to-lead forms is quite a handy feature to have in your CRM. There are several CRM options that let you easily customize your form’s layout, design, and color scheme, so it’s consistent with your branding. You can then embed these onto your landing pages, so visitors can use them to fill in their details.
The real magic happens once they hit submit as all their entered information is automatically mapped on to your CRM. Once your CRM acquires these new leads, you can even automatically assign them to an agent so they can be engaged without any delays.
4. Lead Scoring for Identifying High Value Clients
To help you better understand the value of your leads, your CRM should provide you some means of defining rules for scoring them based on their behavior and interactions with your brand. These could include different actions such as clicking on a link in your email, watching a video you shared with them or merely visiting the about us section of your real estate website.
Actions like the ones above are good indicators of how interested these individuals are in your services and how likely they are to convert if you reach out to them. By assigning these actions a score in your CRM, you’re able to prioritize high-value leads and do away with ones that’ll likely turn you down. Lead scoring also helps you spot leads that are dropping in value over time so you can take action to address them promptly.
5. List Management and MLS Integration with CRM
An MLS or Multiple Listing Service is essentially a database where real estate agents list the homes they have for sale. It’s just as vital to have MLS integration with your CRM as it is to have with your website. Your CRM should be able to handle listings flawlessly. You should be able to create and edit custom lists, attach relevant documents, and synchronize them with your MLS accounts seamlessly.
Moreover, having access to individual preferences and listing details under one hood in a CRM, will not only make it possible to engage leads in an informed manner but also enable your CRM to find matching listings for them automatically
You might be hard-pressed to find a CRM that offers a super-effective implementation of this functionality out of the box, and a custom integration that best meets your needs will likely be the way to go. Hit us up to learn more.
6. Solid Email Management
Email remains the preferred means of communication for most realtors. It’s reasonably hassle-free, not as intrusive as phone calls, and can provide some very insightful metrics about your recipients. Therefore, a robust email management feature is a must-have for your CRM.
You should be able to choose from existing templates or create your own, set up drip email campaigns, and send targeted content and newsletters to various groups of interest (i.e., leads, clients, agents, etc.). You should be able to configure automated email responses and leverage email tracking to see exactly how your recipients engage with your content.
7. Mobile Support for Agents on the Road
Considering real estate agents spend a great deal of time on the road, it makes perfect sense to invest in a cloud-based CRM with mobile support. Having a dedicated CRM mobile app that runs flawlessly on your iPhone or Android phone will give you access to the intel and tools you need to engage hot leads effectively and close deals regardless of your location.
Moreover, any activities you perform or notes you take on your CRM mobile app automatically synchronize over to the desktop view of your CRM, so that’s another thing you don’t have to worry about.
8.Workflow Automation
Now we’ve already mentioned various examples of workflow automation throughout this article, but they really do deserve a heading unto themselves. They help you cut down on duplication of effort, be more responsive, and boost productivity.
Your CRM should let you set up a wide range of automations to account for various scenarios, such as send an email when a customer accepts an offer on a house, notify you when a listing has been updated, and remind you when a payment’s due.
Intagleo Systems has extensive experience working with top-of-the-line CRM solutions as well as developing custom products for the real estate industry. Contact us today to learn all about our development services and what we can do for your business.
