The rapid rise in use of the Internet to find a new home is one of the most dramatic adoptions of new technology in the history of commerce. Just ten years ago, very few new home buyers in the UK used the Web; today more than 75% do so.
Homebuyers will often visit multiple property and housebuilder websites, before choosing a shortlist of properties to register for details. Typically the new homebuyer will now make fewer physical site visits before narrowing their selection. The speed and relevance of a housebuilders response to these early requests for information is more critical than ever. A buyer’s shortlist will often be shortened further by omitting housebuilders who do not respond to enquiries in a timely or effective manner.
This has significantly changed the dynamics of selling new homes. When the majority of leads originated from the housebuilder's own show homes, adverts and selling events they had more intimate knowledge and control over their leads. Today high volumes of leads arrive from disparate sources with varied levels of qualification. It is vitally important that the hottest and most valuable leads are identified and responded to immediately. Today’s prospective purchaser has much higher expectations of how and when they will get a response to their enquiries. It is unlikely that the traditional approach of converting an enquiry to paper or fax format, before sending it to site for an indeterminate response will make the grade. Paper-based leads quickly become un-traceable, or lost, wasting valuable marketing effort and with potentially huge loss of opportunity.
The proliferation of property listing web sites and the higher volume of leads needing qualification; together with a need to identify hot and premium prospects in a difficult housing market; means that traditional methods that worked in boom periods will no longer yield the best results.
The ContactBuilder Solution
ContactBuilder solves the problem by capturing, tracking and evaluating leads in a unified way, no matter how many sources they come from. ContactBuilder will ensure that each prospective purchaser receives a timely response to their enquiry in their preferred medium whether it is telephone, email, SMS text or traditional mail. The progress and outcome of every lead is tracked, from the sales office right through to sales completion. Task management facilities and records of all prospect interactions ensure maximum productivity for sales staff. Disciplined follow-up procedures mean that customer expectations and your own customer service targets will always be met. Real-time visibility of sales efficiency and performance is provided to your management team from site to company level. Extensive customer profiling details are available in a consistent form to support decisions on marketing spend, planning and site appraisals. ContactBuilder thus provides housebuilders with the real value, not just the quantity, of leads from competing sources.
ContactBuilder is the simplest possible system to access and use. It is a full functionality housebuilder CRM system without the overhead of installing and maintaining software on your own computers. Crisp and clear tabbed forms with drop down menus and options provide for fast and intuitive system navigation. We maintain the software while your data is held securely on a central server which is backed up daily. All you need is an internet connected PC with a web browser. With ContactBuilder your sales team can manage and report on all your prospects, buyers, contacts, tasks, and marketing campaigns in one easy-to-use system.