Turning IVR Calls into Clients

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By: Darin "Sid" Cameron, CRS
Thu, Sep 13th, 2007 8:33 am

Here's how we handle IVR (1-800 Number Recording) call returns:

Currently we have a bored housewife that returns every call capture call (she actually reports to my lender partner and is shared with all of the agents he works with but I generate around 50% of her calls).

Most of the time she calls within 5-15 minutes of the caller hanging up the phone. She will call numbers back dozens of times until she gets them- she's very tenacious. Her job is to ask if they got all of their questions answered (flip the lead to us if they didn't or want to see the house) and if they don't have any questions she then tries to enroll them into our incubation system- call The Scouting Report which is like an IDX site.

She does not talk about real estate or the property as she's not licensed. I've spent a LOT of time going over what she can't do. We pay her $10 every time a lead she signs up logs into the system.

She is averaging 15+ leads a week for us at the moment and is nailing us showings and direct conversations with prospects around 1-2 times a week. Around 80% of the leads are logging in and using the system.

Prior to this I tried two professional call centers, in-house people at three different lender partners, my buyer's agents and did them myself for all of 2005. It's not easy work.

The best results we've ever had prior to this was 15 leads signed up in a week with maybe half logging in (those would generally be considered great numbers). We've had extended periods that were far worse (I don't think we captured a single person during the six months I had buyer's agents returning the calls last year).

Once we get people logging into our VOW system we've experienced that 1 in 15 will actually turn into clients. Keep in mind, these are not quality leads, they're IVR calls from Craigslist, Sign Calls as well as Internet Leads.

Also, leads generally take 90-120 days MINIMUM to incubate (and it appears Craigslist leads will usually take longer).