The digital age has made way for a huge shift in when you are “at work” and when you aren’t. With emails on cell phones and text messaging, work hours blur into the evening, especially in real estate. This has caused workers in service-based industries to have to adapt – with employees “on” more hours of the day, these services need to be on, as well.
This, not coincidentally, has merged with the rise of businesses being ”24/7.“ But, what does that actually mean? For such a simple statement, it carries a lot of weight. In my mind, the purest version of 24/7 is 7/11 – no matter what time of day or night, time of year, or holiday, if you want a Slurpee, you can go get one. A less pure version might be the 24- hour news cycle, since you can watch the news, on a variety of channels, at any time of the day or night; however, you might not be getting a constant stream of new, useful, or even relevant information.
In regards to scheduling showings, there are a few major benefits to having a 24-hour appointment service. (By the way, we mean live operated, real people 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.) Firstly, having access to appointment specialists who are literally waiting to spring into action for you allows all involved parties to call, confirm, and schedule when it works from them. For example, an agent can call the ShowingTime Appointment Center at 11 PM to schedule a showing (far too late to call the listing agent or the listing agent’s office), which allows him to check that off the to-do list. Likewise, if the listing agent or seller were still up looking at their phones, they’d get a notification of the request and could confirm it immediately!
Not only does the appointment specialist – think of them as your personal assistant – provide more freedom to listing agents, showing agents and sellers, it also helps keep positive relationships between them. The seller does not need to be reliant on the agent’s availability to move forward, and vice versa. Good real estate etiquette and customer service means being attentive, but if you cross a line, the relationship with a seller can quickly sour.
One added bonus to using the ShowingTime Appointment Center is branded calls to sellers. Think of it as an added marketing benefit. After all, putting yourself forward as a professional is a very important part of your identity – and our branded calls to your sellers help present you in the best way possible.
Our company name is never part of the conversation; when we reach out to your sellers, we introduce ourselves the way you choose, for example, “Good afternoon, I’m calling from John Doe Realty to confirm a showing request,” rather than, “This is ShowingTime calling to confirm a showing request.” Appointment specialists are an extension of you; their goal is to get showing requests confirmed quickly, which not only makes you look great, but reduces the time you otherwise would have to spend on the phone managing showing requests.
It’s a simple solution that helps agents win listings and allows everyone to move on to other important parts of their day.
Do you spend too much of your day scheduling and confirming showing appointments? Learn how the ShowingTime Appointment Center helps free up your time to focus on other tasks to grow your business.