Steve Jobs once said, “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.” It is critical for the marketer to understand and cater to the buyers needs, prior to mastering the technological side of their business. Before speaking on on technology, let’s focus on something far more important; Let’s talk about the customer.
After all, agents are constantly reading about the next new technology that promises to make their business more efficient, increase leads or make more sales — some technologies help, some don’t. The technologies that help, and are successful, are ones that focus on the customer. So when it comes to real estate technology, the best approach is to put the home buyer first, and that value naturally extends to the agent. The goal is to leverage technology to make the home buying experience as “friction-free” as possible for the buyer, which enables agents to build customer-centric brands and businesses.
What is the customer experience in real estate? Well, the buying process, as you know, likely starts with search online and ends offline, hopefully with a sale. Between online and offline, the experience for the home buyer can be frustrating, fragmented, filled with open house trips, unanswered questions and doubts about who to trust — the list goes on.
Consider this scenario repeated at countless open houses: A potential buyer enters an open house wanting to look around, the agent stops the buyer and awkwardly pushes a sign-in sheet to the buyer, who scribbles some illegible information. After a quick tour, the buyer leaves, feeling somewhat unsatisfied, and gripping a show sheet likely destined for the recycle bin.
Now consider this scenario: The buyer walks into an open house; their mobile device prompts them to register, and upon consent, their information is delivered to the agent’s inbox. As the buyer looks around, property details and agent contact information automatically populate the buyer’s smartphone without the agent having to do anything. Agent and buyer both get the information they need — everyone is happy.
Beacons make that possible. So, what are beacons anyway?
Without getting too technical, beacons are small wireless sensors that push information to smartphones through Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), which allows for micro-location marketing. As the name suggests, BLE uses considerably less power compared to previous Bluetooth technology and no longer drains phone batteries.
Beacons have two features that cater to the needs of the home buyer. They are mobile and location-based — key for younger, first-time home buyers.
Two facts help confirm this. Millennial real estate Web usage grew 30 percent from May 2013 to July 2014, and millennial real estate mobile usage grew 81 percent over the same period. Also, mobile queries for open houses grew 36 percent in June (year over year, 2013-2014), while desktop searches remained the same.
Beacons have already been tried and tested in the retail sector. Wal-Mart, Macy’s, Virgin Airlines, Starwood Hotels and American Eagle stores have all successfully used beacons, so consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable with this technology.
Home buyers are on the go, and technology solutions must be along for the ride as an essential guide. As we indicated, beacons can eliminate the need for sign-in sheets; they automatically deliver property information to the buyers’ mobile device; they make the open house experience as elegant and modern for the buyer as the open houses they are seeing.
As the next generation of home buyers are fast entering the market, it is essential to meet their needs, and manual sign-ins and elaborate paper-based property information are, frankly, out-of-date and annoying for these buyers.