The Future Is Now

Written by Acme Mag

Technology is a forever growing industry that has propelled its way into each and every sector worldwide. There is a real relationship between tech and teams, with people leveraging off tech to complete basic tasks such as contacting a client or more advanced projects such as keeping track of and analysing data.

The real estate industry has seen a similar surge in the use of technology, with CRM’s, digital proposal systems and video inspections being leveraged across the country. However, one that stands out remarkably bright from the rest is real estate tech company, AiRE. Creating an AI system that provides a human voice combined with the smart nature of data, the company has developed digital assistant RiTA – and she is absolutely breathtaking. 

RiTA exists to help real estate agents find and connect with the best people in their CRM, using her powers of data science and AI. Her job is to do things that humans aren’t typically great at, like managing data and connecting intelligence from many different data sources.

Sarah Bell, Co-founder (RiTA’s mum) says that her and AiRE CEO Ian Campbell (RiTA’s dad) both understood the capacity struggle agents were experiencing to provide the customer experience they truly wanted to. 

“RiTA is framed as a digital employee because she is capable of producing intelligent work outcomes on her own,” Sarah says. “We wanted to solve proven problems of scale by giving agents a tool that felt more like an additional resource they could collaborate with, rather than another tool they had to learn how to use.” 

The technology of RiTA is one that is unique to the market that embraces personalisation and uses intelligence to create a profoundly more human experience. This service answers the problem of dehumanisation that comes with automation. Businesses should always continue to improve their services and the implementation of AI technology and other programs is one of the ways they can effectively drive growth and positive change. 

AI – learning, growing, problem-solving.

So what exactly is AI or artificial intelligence technology and why is it different from other options in the market? AI essentially learns as it is implemented, growing with the user and can leverage data to problem solve. For the real estate industry, technology like this is invaluable, particularly as databases are built with all types of leads. 

AI like RiTA gives businesses an added resource, with a ‘robot’ to manage data and connect intelligence from many different data sources. It means agents are left to focus on what they need to be, actually connecting with clients and providing them with unparalleled service. 

For a technology that learns, the benefit in business is simple; it can be implemented as a part of the team rather than ‘just a program.’ This style of relationship with tech can help a team flourish by providing an added staff member to collaborate with.

For RiTA, growth and learning is a big part of who she has become today. Sarah suggests AiRE takes on feedback from agents to see what exactly they needed help with and implements this in her updates. 

“We ask people what they would want a robot to do if they had one to help in their team, it ensures we are always solving problems of value,” Sarah says. “RiTA can respond in an intelligent and human-like capacity, she will tell agents who to call and when and will clean, organise and segment data so it is primed for use.” 

Also learning from their own research, the team at AiRE have started gamifying parts of RiTA in response to learning more about team motivation. Sarah suggests this makes the idea of prospecting more engaging. 

“The aim of gamification was to make prospecting fun and even competitive,” Sarah says. “The behavioural tooling has been a big part of helping agents to stop procrastinating, to stop worrying about data being ‘perfect’ and to instead focus on the opportunities that RiTA has identified.”

Creating better opportunities.

So, how can you create better prospecting opportunities? According to Sarah, there are two main aspects to consider in the industry, involving segmentation and optimisation. 

“The first is segmentation – which can be done using rules in the CRM but it is a task of high cognitive demand and it takes time and expert knowledge for agents to master,” Sarah says. “Each day all agents face the same issue in the CRM – all this data but who do I call and what do I say?” 

Sarah suggests that you may have 10,000 people in a database but if you were looking for a specific subset, you would use the CRM to create a segment of data. If for example, you were wanting to speak with property owners in the Sydney suburb of Wahroonga, you could segment the data down to a list of 300. Segmentation can be performed effortlessly by RiTA’s automation functionality but that is only

half the story – because 300 phone calls is still too much data to work through and there is no possibility of finding your perfect client within an hour of calling.

“The second element is optimisation, which is where the data science and artificial intelligence of RiTA really shines,” Sarah says. “If we take that segment of 300 property owners in Wahroonga, RiTA is able to use data from multiple different sources to rank all of those people into a list of who you should call – and she can even find something to talk about based on relevant market activity that is happening in similar properties close by.” 

It is obvious that agents can’t make 300 calls a day, but most would have time to call 20 or 30, which is what RiTA’s optimisation algorithm can give.

“Through segmentation and optimisation, connection rates are higher, conversations are richer and more relevant, and these are the leading activities that build pipelines and create appraisals, listings and sales.” 

Tips from the techies.

Sarah and her team are always looking for new ways to help the industry make better choices when it comes to technology and implementation. Sarah has provided some tips on tech and how businesses can better their service in the long run: 

01

Be mindful of the strategic impacts of adopting new technology: The term disruption was overused and everyone jumped onto the bandwagon – implementing a lot of digital tools at great effort and expense. What should have been asked is why these tools were being implemented and what impact they were going to have on the way real estate was conducted.

02

Make sure you are comfortable with sharing your data with the tech:  Data is a powerful tool and you don’t want it in the hands of the wrong people.

03

Personalisation is key: Engineering the right experience for your clients, keeping in touch with potential buyers and making sure they feel as if you are taking the time to reach out to them personally is key. 

04

Stay productive to be competitive: Time is money, so when you are making decisions that can improve productivity and efficiency, you are putting your brand in the best position to be a competitive voice within the industry. Who can do more out of the same amount of hours in a day are the ones who will be able to eclipse the ones who have failed to adapt to the pace of business in 2020.

Where is real estate tech heading? 

While the real estate tech market is one that continues to grow exponentially, Sarah suggests that we will see a larger divide between businesses that use AI capabilities and those that don’t. 

“We will see a divide in productivity that data science AI can provide to professionals and those businesses who do not bridge that gap.” Sarah says. 

This comes down to effectiveness and efficiency, which are two things that tech companies tend to focus on. This leads to increased productivity and competitiveness in the industry. Overall, the real estate tech industry will continue to grow and those brands who adapt to the right kinds of technology will stay ahead of the curve.