Chime is seriously beefy
Chime CRM’s tagline, “ring in the sales” couldn’t be more fitting as they roll out an array of new features that enrich their offering. The best part? They didn’t roll out a new “pro” version, but they could have with the massive suite of options and redesign they’ve crafted for all users. Nice.
In case you’re not familiar, Chime is like a CRM that swallowed a giant bottle of steroid pills – not too much to die from, but enough to be ridiculously beefy. They’re a CRM, IDX website provider, lead generation management suite, and a team management tool, all designed to make an agent or broker’s professional life infinitely more streamlined.
Still under a year old, the company has already undergone a major overhaul. What all has changed? We got an exclusive look under the hood:
1. A major aesthetic change
The first, and most obvious change to Chime is the user interface (UI) updates – it’s much cleaner, and better organized so your eye lands in the most relevant spots more quickly.
The dashboard puts your leads front and center, even offering a visual alert for how many new leads have accumulated since your last login. It has a separate breakout for your follow ups, which even pulls in consumers’ browsing behaviors which Chime’s Matt Murphy calls a “rich lead record.”
At a glance, users can now see the state of their business leads coming in, down to the individual team member. You can see appointments, tasks, and your automated action plan easily.
Murphy says the reporting interface upgrades were inspired by a napkin drawing that Kenny Truong, Fast Agent scribbled as he asked to be able to see the “health” of his business at a glance.
The new interface helps brokers and team leaders to better coach their agents – you can see that Agent A made seven calls last week which have yielded two leads, while Agent B made zero calls. Why? Instant coaching opportunity.
Murphy also let us peek at some of the new IDX website templates (like this one), and they’re actually pretty good.
2. Complete overhaul of settings
One of the newest functions is lead routing, wherein you can now “round robin” your leads so no opportunity is lost.
One of the most innovative functions is easily their drip campaigns which can be automated down to the referral source.
For example, you could set Chime up to email a welcome note specifically to any lead from Zillow, and send them weekly updates that feature your top picks from Zillow since they obviously prefer that source.
Real estate practitioners often say “hi, welcome from Zillow, now please go to my website and my website only, forever and ever, amen.” No more going against the grain and hindering your chances of speaking a lead’s language.
3. That new Open House app, though
There are already third party Open House apps that are amazing, but if you use Chime, it’s worth checking out their built-in Open House app.
Pop open an iPad, Open House visitors will sign in and be asked five questions (and they can see their progress at the bottom so they know you’re not bugging them for their blood type, mother’s maiden name, or infinite questions).
That data is then sent to your Chime dashboard and all grouped together so you can batch follow up notes effortlessly.
4. Integrations out the ying yang
We got a chance to peek into the backend, and we noticed a lot of new logos. Murphy confirmed that Chime integrations now include Zapier and MailChimp so they can all talk to each other to improve the real estate workflow.
We also got the scoop that later this year, they’ll be integrating services that send out handwritten thank you notes to clients, direct mail integrations, and even send out personalized videos in emails.
5. SMS campaigns sent from your dashboard
New to Chime is virtual numbers that allow users to drip market via text messages. Of course you don’t gain the same sort of click data that you would through an email campaign, but it is yet another way to speak a consumer’s language and meet them where they are.
Giving agents the steering wheel
By the end of the year, they’ll add a broker suite that will give multiple permission levels offer subdomains, users will soon be able to track the ROI of their ad spends, and reporting will get even more bells and whistles to give more insight into any pipeline.
Murphy summarizes the updates as improving your workflow management, which almost all other industries do flawlessly. “So why not real estate? They deserve amazing technologies,” the tech industry veteran asserts.
“We help to automate everything but give agents the steering wheel, allowing them to stay in control,” Murphy concludes.
#ChimeCRM
