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Concerns over whether Ai technology could work in regional areas are very common across real estate agencies doing business there. RiTA Growth Specialist James McGregor tackled this topic by interviewing two Raine & Horne offices in regional New South Wales that increased their appraisals and listings with Ai and automation.
In a recent webinar about creating new relationships and increasing appraisal leads with Ai, Raine & Horne Batemans Bay Principal Adam Porteous explained that regional areas were not a huge marketplace and relationships were the key to growing business.
Knowing that it was humanly impossible to engage with every single person in his database on a regular basis while listing, selling and servicing current clients, it was a no brainer for Mr Porteous to implement an Ai solution like RiTA in his business to increase contact engagement activities, build trust and nurture relationships.
RiTA is an Ai-powered digital assistant that connects to a CRM, enhances and analyses the data and helps generate more consistent leads while cleaning data. RiTA prospects via automated, two-way SMS conversations and saves agents time by creating personalised call lists and engaging with contacts on their behalf.
Most people would assume that an older demographic do not engage well via SMS, however, Mr Porteous proved wrong by letting RiTA have SMS conversations with his contacts and getting at least 10 appraisals a day. In the last three months, Raine & Horne Batemans Bay generated 350 appraisals, of which 80% came from RiTA.
REB Top 50 Women in Real Estate 2022 Jacqueline Crapp had a similar experience. During her interview, the Principal of Raine & Horne Berry confessed that by leveraging RiTA’s Ai and automation solutions, she transformed the traditional mom and dad agency to one with the highest market share in town.
The office fully embraced digital employee RiTA and even changed their prospecting activities around her. It enabled RiTA to do her job and increase contact engagement, which led to listing opportunities.
Mrs Crapp recalled one of her vendors telling her that the reason why she listed with her was because she kept hearing from Raine & Horne Berry through RiTA’s automated and personalised SMS conversations.
While it is understandable that agents would be on the fence about letting a robot have SMS conversations with people in their database, RiTA actually knows when to hand over a conversation to an agent when she is unsure of how to respond. This ensures the conversation is authentic and doesn’t feel robot driven.
One of the learnings that Mrs Crapp shared with us was the ease of making a phone call and having a great conversation after RiTA warmed up the contact. She found the cut through much better with the phone call being a second touch point.
Fears over Ai solutions in regional areas not being as effective as in main cities should be brushed away. These two Raine & Horne offices in regional NSW have proved that no matter the size, location or demographic of the market, people are more responsive on their phones and SMS should not be ignored. Otherwise agents might end up losing opportunities to those who aren’t scared of trying it out.
For more information about RiTA, request a demo at getaire.com.au/meet-rita
