1 Very Good Reason Why you need an autoresponder (and how it makes you money)

What’s an autoresponder and why should you have one?

Briefly, it’s an automatic reply usually sent from a CRM system when an online form is filled in. It acknowledges the person’s request for more information and assures that person that someone will come back to them (thus setting up an expectation of help).

Have you ever filled in an online form (to get a quote on your car service, for example) and on hitting submit, you headed over to your inbox to check if you received a reply?

And if you did not get a reply within 5 minutes (even a simple acknowledgement), did you move on to another competitor and enquire there?

Chances a high that you did. And when the first company finally phoned you hours or days later, did you even take the call?

I’ll assume you didn’t.

And neither did I.

Why?

Because by not having a simple autoresponder connected to a company’s online forms, as a consumer I feel unheard and unrecognised…and that my request (which is important to me) is not important enough to the company I first contacted.

Stop for a second and think about all the missed opportunities you and your agency might have lost simply because you or your agency did not have an autoresponder when a seller requested a valuation or a buyer enquired on one or more of your listings.

Sure, you might have tried to phone,  email or Whatsapp the lead…but did they even take your call or respond to your message?

Or did they flat-out ignore you?

Your problem may not be “time wasters or tyre-kickers”…

Your problem might actually be tech related.

And the soul-destroying aspect here is it’s not even hi-tech…it’s the most basic tech in your agency.

An autoresponder may not seem like a priority right now, but I’m here to tell you that it should be.

Potential clients are online 24/7 and they choose when they want to make contact with you…whether it’s business hours or 2am on a Sunday.

And it’s vitally important to have a system in place in your agency that responds to them and buys you time and goodwill when they submit an enquiry online!

To put this into perspective, I submitted a home buyer prequalification request on a local bond originator’s website on Sunday morning. As usual I headed over to my emails and waited for the anticipated response.

After hitting refresh around 10 times I realised that I was not going to be acknowledged nor helped until the next day.

So, I searched for another bond originator, entered my details and headed for my inbox. About 30 seconds later I received a simple acknowledgement with a link to another form to complete (which I did).

Once I completed the second form I received another autoresponder thanking me and saying a consultant would be in touch with me.

On Monday I received a call from the second bond origination company around 8:30am which I answered and got what I needed.

At around 11am I received a call from the first bond origination company (the one that didn’t have an autoresponder connected to their online form) which I simply ignored. A minute later I received a Whatsapp from the consultant asking if she could assist me. I did not reply.

Now, the fact is this: if the first company had had an autoresponder connected to their online form, I would most likely have not continued searching. I would have been satisfied with the acknowledgement and waited until the next day to take the consultant’s call.

It’s really so simple…and so powerful too.

If you don’t know where or how to start, Property Funnels can help you plug these gaps and more:

Website forms

Portal enquiries

Facebook messages

Google messages

Missed phone calls

And more.

Stop losing potential business just because you have a low-tech problem. Instead, invest in these strategies and convert and close more deals.