If you run a real estate business, you know how imperative it is to grab a potential client’s first call — it can mean the difference of winning a new listing, or not.

“It’s a highly competitive market, so if a potential client’s call goes to voicemail, they’ll just move on and call another realtor who can help them,” says Rebecca Paduone, director of business field sales for Cable ONE.

According to the National Association of Realtors, most people will hire the first real estate agent they talk to, which highlights the critical importance of phone communications. Basically, there’s no room to play phone tag.

That’s one way a cloud-based office phone system like Hosted Voice benefits a real estate brokerage.

“With Hosted Voice, clients and prospective clients – they find it much easier to access you and your agents,” says Paduone, “and get the expertise and high level of customer service you want to provide.”  

How can Hosted Voice – a virtual, cloud-based business phone system managed and maintained by an offsite provider – work for a real estate office?

The Hunt Group – Keeps You and Your Team Producing

To keep producing – whether it’s bringing in new listings, finding buyers or servicing current clients – your sales associates rely on a high-level of communications to keep producing. And they’re doing it while on the move.

“In real estate, you won’t find an office full of people sitting at their desks all the time,” says Paduone. “Everyone’s mobile. And that’s exactly the kind of environment Hosted Voice accommodates – it’s a perfect fit for people who spend most of their time away from their desk but need to provide a high level of customer service to succeed.”

Hosted Voice provides a “hunt group” feature, which routes phone calls from a single telephone number to a group of several lines. It’s a process or algorithm that can select which line will receive the call.

“With the hunt group feature, you’re basically getting a very sophisticated call management system,” says Paduone. “It’s the kind of technology Fortune 500 companies get with their large PBX systems. But with Hosted Voice you get it without having to invest in the cost of PBX equipment.”

Using a Hosted Voice service also means you can save on hiring employees to answer phones and directing all the calls that come into the office, which isn’t always an effective method for a busy office anyway.

Mobility – Fitting the Real Estate On-The-Go Style

Real estate brokers and agents have to do business on the go every day, a necessity to meet the demands of a competitive customer service-driven industry.

“With Hosted Voice, you can keep doing your work wherever you are, sustain the level of communications you need with not just your current and prospective clients but with other stakeholders in the deal, such as to home inspectors and lenders,” says Paduone.

Using a software app, typically referred to as “soft client” or “soft phone,” Hosted Voice gives real estate agents the ability to seamlessly access features on any device – desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile phone. The user interface often resembles a traditional phone with a keypad and other phone controls, such as call, hang up, send to voicemail or a contacts list.

Being a real estate agent means a lot of work on the go but there’s also “real world” paperwork that needs to get done – whether it’s writing offers or reviewing contracts. 

“Hosted Voice allows you to keep doing your job, the paperwork, and still have the level of communication you need while in the field,” says Paduone.

For example, you can receive and forward faxes from your phone, or receive voicemail from your laptop.

Giving Clients What They Need

Because most buyers count on agents to buy a house (85 percent of all buyers; 90 percent of buyers 37 years and younger), agents need to be accessible.

Using Hosted Voice business phones can accommodate both the mobile work style and give home sellers, buyers and stakeholders immediate access to an entire team of people. Your business stands represented even if individual agents are not available.