A new chatbot service is set to improve the real estate customer experience by acting as a concierge when it comes to buying, selling, renting, providing suburb information and managing properties.
Known as ‘Ding’, the AI chatbot was recently launched by Local Knowledge Property Group and has the ability to cater to a range of tasks in real estate.
Co-founder Graham Chee explained that the bot allows agents to enter common questions and answers, and could be used to provide immediate, interactive information about individual listings, an agent’s general services, suburb information or to prompt people through the buying, selling and renting process.
As the chatbot incorporates artificial intelligence it also starts to learn once in operation, picking up the nuances of how people ask questions.
“It’s very flexible in terms of what you want to do,” Mr Chee noted. The service is designed to complement the human interaction of real estate, allowing potential clients to access simple information easily.
It works with eight messaging services already, so questions can be posed and answered in the medium of the agent’s choice, whether that’s Facebook Messenger, Slack or Viber.
Mr Chee explained how Ding can be applied to a website or incorporated into social media, catering to a range of commonly occurring customer interactions within real estate.
The chatbot can sit on the agent’s home page or social media profile, allowing an interactive service that responds to frequently asked questions like what time the office opens, how to file a rental maintenance request and so on.
It can help direct buyers to properties by incorporating an agency’s current listings.
Ding can be applied to individual listings to offer further information about a property by inputting questions and answers on how many bedrooms a house has, whether there’s off-street parking or what size the block is.
Meanwhile, it can also be used to answer general information about suburbs or regions, like how many schools are in the area, what public transport is available and more.
Each scenario is as simple as entering potential questions and providing the relevant information to answer it.
Mr Chee said that Ding has the potential to transform the real estate customer experience, allowing agencies to be available 24/7 in a more personalised way.
The group’s research found most internet search activity and chat occurred between 8pm and 12pm and 6am and 8am, indicating people were often researching and seeking information outside traditional office hours.
“If you aren’t there to answer questions, people move on to find the information they’re after somewhere else,” Mr Chee said.
Meanwhile Ding takes the heavy lifting out of answering the same questions time and again but still engages a personal touch.
“Traditionally, organisations have depended on old age communication mechanisms such as telephone, email, SMS and staffing human functions to handle various channels for customer relationship managements, with minimal automation in this crucial process. They continue to struggle to effectively handle interactions.”
Ding is set to launch in the coming weeks and has already attracted particular interest from the development sector when it comes to land releases and property sales.
The initial Ding AI chatbot launch includes:
- A real estate and property concierge
- Money and financial services education
- Answers to fundamental lending questions on borrowing.
