Solving a common real estate problem
One of the top complaints lodged against real estate professionals is a lack of communication, most notably via phone. NAR’s Second Century Venture Managing Director, Constance Freedman said that 65% of all calls to Realtors go to voicemail and 80% of failed calls end up calling competitors which amounts to major losses.
There are a variety of reasons for a Realtor not to return a phone call immediately, but what if there was a system that didn’t force you to get a special phone number for every sign and actually prioritized calls for you before even listening to messages? Enter BetterVoicemail.com which is preparing to launch in beta form.
A common problem for real estate professionals is juggling the phone while with clients and we hear a lot of complaints about agents with so many voicemails that they don’t even listen to them anymore, rather proclaim voicemail bankruptcy and start from scratch. BetterVoicemail.com will soon launch on iPhone, Android and BlackBerry devices to not only transcribe voicemails so they can be read in an agent’s palm rather than putting the phone up to their head in front of clients or while in the car, but offers visual indicator icons that tell the agent the number that called, which property they called about, and if they requested a tour. Obviously if a client requests a tour, they will be called back immediately, whereas someone who has general questions can be called when back at the office.
No tech savviness required- download and go
The technology allows for custom recordings from the agent to caller, but unlike competitors, agents don’t have to buy endless sign riders with endless specialized 800 numbers and complicated back end technology that requires messages be checked from a land line. One of the attractive qualities of this startup is that they offer a tool that relies on existing smartphone voicemail and gives prioritization which helps Realtors get to prospects faster without guess work.
AGBeat recently spoke with founders Steve Boknapp and Lyle Pratt who moved to Austin (home of AGBeat) from Louisiana in 2010 and discovered that rather than build a tool then consider which demographic it would best fit in with, they saw a need in the real estate industry that they wanted to solve. The approach is simple and streamlined which is very necessary in a world where agents are being bombarded with learning new technologies.
While there is no word yet on pricing, BetterVoicemail.com will be launching in beta in the next few weeks, so interested Realtors can sign up to get the app first either on their website or by emailing info(at)bettervoicemail.com.
Ben Goheen
August 22, 2011 at 1:20 am
Thanks for the info, I just signed up for the beta. Hopefully it transcribes voicemails better then Google voice
Trevor Torres
August 22, 2011 at 9:51 am
I'm looking forward to sharing this with my colleagues in the real estate business. This is a great way to be more efficient and manage voicemails. Also, I found their website, https://www.bettervoicemail.com/
Frank
August 22, 2011 at 12:51 pm
I have been using YouMail.com for years. It uses live humans to transcribe, unlike Google Voice which I tested and thought my grandmother was run over (ie the transcription was way off).
Roland Estrada
August 22, 2011 at 1:52 pm
This sounds interesting if only because geared towards real estate. There is a service similar to this called YouMail. I use it on my iPhone. It's not perfect but I do like it. I'm using the free version. The paid version has the transcription service. I'm told by another agent that it works very well.
I have a Google Voice account as well. I'm sure I'm under unitizing its potential.
That said, I do let most of my calls go to voicemail. I do that as a way of time management. Not every call needs to be taken so long as you RETURN phone calls.
Ryan Schattner
August 22, 2011 at 3:37 pm
Getting my copy now. I like the options feature. Hopefully there is a bypass for when a friend calls.