As you know, in the world of real estate, when it comes to inbound leads — paid, organic, or referral — speed matters. The first realtor to respond to a prospect usually secures a new client’s business. In the race for prospects’ business, every second counts. After just five minutes, conversion rates plummet eightfold.
Keller Williams alone is the world’s largest real estate franchise by agent count, with more than 1,100 offices and 191,000 agents — making it the #1 franchise in units and sales volume in the US. That’s why real estate teams like DUO, whose agents get 90% of their business from Realtor, Zillow, and Google ads, have a system in place that enables fast response times.
“Speed-to-lead is important,” says Jonathan Chvala, founder of DUO, a top Keller Williams office serving the greater DC area. “On platforms like Realtor.com, those leads are going to pass on to some other agent out there in the world if you don’t respond quickly. Whoever gets on the phone first wins.”
For The Jonathan Chvala Team, OpenPhone serves as a crucial system that allows their team to quickly and efficiently respond to leads. Here are three ways they use OpenPhone to follow up faster and win more business.
About 75% of DUO’s business today comes from home buyers, who typically find DUO through Realtor, Zillow, or the team’s Google ads. With each new lead, their response time goal is to get back to the prospect ASAP.
To make their response times as fast as possible, Jonathan set up his Realtor, Zillow, and Google Ads accounts to all text the DUO team’s main office line on OpenPhone with new leads.
Thanks to OpenPhone’s shared phone numbers, DUO’s entire team of eight has 24/7 access to the main line. When a new lead comes in, the first agent to text the platform back claims the lead.
“That text response doesn’t go to a realtor’s computer or anyone in particular,” says Jonathan. “But it allows everyone on our team to see who claims the lead.”
Routing leads through OpenPhone allows the DUO team to have eight Keller Williams team members ready to jump on new leads rather than having a single person responding to a text or email lead notification.
That not only speeds up DUO’s response time but ensures that DUO is making the most of its lead generation budget — since, after all, the team is charged for every lead sent their way, whether they respond in time to land the client or not. It also falls in line with Keller Williams’ initiative to use technology to enhance the quality of customer relationships.
2. Responding quickly to incoming calls
Every agent on the DUO team has their own personal number that they use when working with their clients. However, the team all share access to DUO’s main office line on OpenPhone, which means that when a new prospective customer calls in, they’re able to speak with someone from the Keller Williams team immediately.
“If a random phone number calls in, anyone on our team can answer the call,” says Jonathan. “Then they can either help them or reroute them to whoever they’re looking for.”
Once a customer is working with one agent directly, the agent saves their number as a contact in the shared OpenPhone line, which lets other DUO team members know that they’re an established customer. The Keller Williams agent also gives the customer their personal number, so that they can work together more closely and keep the main line free. But if a call or text comes in from an unsaved number, anyone on the DUO team can answer — ensuring that prospects get the help they need as quickly as possible.
3. Collaborating behind the scenes
The DUO team’s shared OpenPhone number also allows them to collaborate behind the scenes. They can use internal threads — which aren’t visible to customers — to comment on customer texts and calls and problem-solve with teammates.
Every teammate can also view the team’s activity across their shared number. That means everyone has full visibility into who has claimed a lead (and when), and they can keep track of every time a Keller Williams customer has texted or called the main line.
“My entire team hardcore uses OpenPhone,” says Jonathan. “Not only as an office line but as a way to ensure speed-to-lead with every prospect. It keeps it all centralized.”
The bottom line
OpenPhone allows DUO to make the most of their lead generation budget and ensure their Keller Williams agents respond to leads in minutes rather than hours — helping them increase their conversion rate, expand their customer base, and grow more quickly.
Looking to improve your own speed-to-lead? Find out how OpenPhone can help your team by signing up for a free trial today and testing out the platform with a temporary number. Then, when you’re ready, easily port in an existing phone number.
