If you work in housebuilder marketing today, there’s no escaping talk about automation. And, with the digital advancements we’ve seen in the past few years (see: AI), all that talk is rightfully earned.
But, while we’re already spending lots of time (and let’s face it, money) investing in automation, the same cannot be said for the on-site experience.
According to Zendesk, 62% of customers believe that companies they buy from could be doing a better job of personalising their experiences. This comes at a time when all eyes are on the digital customer experience: A study by Adobe found that, in 2022, 75% of marketers reported seeing more customers using their digital channels compared to the previous year.
And with economic uncertainty continuing to linger, it’s clear that housebuilders can’t relegate their on-site experience to the sidelines. Instead, you need to make sure that your prospective customers are getting a five-star experience that is as thoughtful as the home buying experience.
So then, where do you start in unlocking a stellar customer experience? Well, for our team at CommVersion, the key lies within our own product.
Today, we’re peeling back the curtain on how CommVersion uses SmartChat to deliver a customer experience that not only delivers customer satisfaction but also drives growth for the housebuilders we work with. Let’s go ⚡
1. Offer More Than Support Through Chatbots
Just as buyers in the funnel expect sales reps to do more than answer questions about pricing or home features, your website visitors don’t only turn to you when they’re ready to buy. They also do so when they’re interested in learning about your developments, looking for tips in choosing the right home, or are on the fence about a new home and need some reassurance.
So, while an effective customer experience should provide fast, seamless support, it should also empower customers to get the most out of your brand. For us, the best way to do this is to build conversational experiences that are specific to our customers.
One simple (but effective) strategy we use is customising the initial messages on our targeted engagements. By using intent personalisation in our deployments, we can acknowledge a customer’s website journey and deliver a hook that sets them on a conversation path that’s tailored to their intent and needs.
In doing this, we invite homebuyers to interact with us beyond a simple support conversation. At the same time, these hooks allow us to offer relevant information upfront — whether it’s plugging a new development, inviting them to register their interest, or guiding them to a particular home listing page.
But that’s only the beginning. To add more flexibility to our homebuyer conversations, we lean on our expertly trained agents to accurately respond to any questions, around the clock. 24/7/365.
Together, our customised targeted deployments and human-powered conversations ensure that homebuyers find the information they need to convert confidently and leave your website as pleased as they would have if they’d had a face-to-face conversation.
2. Dive Headfirst Into Customer Intent
Similar to the way that sales teams use both inbound and outbound motions, your conversations with customers shouldn’t be limited to when they are on your website. In fact, if you truly want to wow your customers, you need to be proactively engaging them.
And we’re not talking about a catch-all pop-up — no, we’re talking about having productive conversations that address your customer’s ever-evolving needs. To do that, you need to know exactly what your customers are thinking.
Our team uses engagement and conversation data from our SmartChat solution to uncover customer intent. With SmartTargeting, we can see things like what pages visitors are browsing or have browsed, any chat conversations they’ve had in previous sessions, and whether they’ve already had a form submission (indicating they’ve already converted into a lead). With this information on hand, we’re then able to determine how we should be reaching out to them. For example, if we see a customer researching a development but haven’t already enquired, we know it’s time to reach out inviting them to register their interest or book a viewing.
While sales teams follow up with the customers we know have taken action on our website, we know that it’s even better to engage high-intent homebuyers during the moments they’re taking action — that’s where real-time conversations come in. Our trained agents engage and nurture identified, high-intent homebuyers with relevant conversations that match the visitor’s intent. This means that we can better engage customers on the fly, no matter the time of day. And with intent scores and interaction history data built into the solution, we can continue to further strategise our customer outreach - maximising the likelihood of turning website visitors into sales-ready opportunities.
By using tools like Smart targeting and human-powered conversations to hone in on customer intent, our team is better able to deliver messaging that is relevant as well as timely. As a result, housebuilders can have more productive conversations with their customers, always at the right time.
3. Deliver A Specialised Human Touch
With customer interactions, it’s not enough to just say the right thing at the right time. You also have to consider how you’re saying those things.
Remember: homebuyers are people who are making one of the biggest lifetime purchases and potentially entering a long-term relationship with your brand. That's why you want your communications to not only be productive but also authentic.
At CommVersion, we get the best of both worlds by using our InstantConnect solution whenever we can.
InstantConnect enables us to initiate inbound calls between high-intent, sales-ready website visitors and your sales reps. This allows us to engage with potential customers in a genuine way while saving the time it would take to schedule and attend real-time meetings.
By seamlessly connecting these high-value visitors with our sales team, We can immediately address their intent, provide them a fast lane to your sales team and help speed up their journey through your sales process.
InstantConnect converts chats to real-time inbound phone calls for your sales team to increase speed to lead, reduce the number of calls sales need to make to speak to a homebuyer and therefore increase sales efficiency downstream.
Additionally, sales reps are notified when a high-intent visitor is ready for a conversation, allowing them to engage in real time with all the context and information gathered during the initial chat at their fingertips. As a result, InstantConnect becomes another channel that allows you to be there when your customers need you — making for the ultimate human experience.
Final Thoughts
While it’s true that every website needs more traffic in order to grow, that doesn’t mean that more opportunities can’t be captured from your existing website traffic.
As this blog shows, CommVersion’s SmartChat solution empowers you to deliver the experiences that your homebuyers deserve — whether they’re at the consideration phase or ready to buy.
With these consistently tailored customer interactions, you won’t have to worry about your onsite experience feeling like an afterthought — and, as a result, you’ll be able to build lasting customer relationships that lead to less abandonment and more conversions.
So, don’t wait. Take this opportunity to optimise your website experience today.
