MAIN IMAGE: Candice Goldberg, Head of Sales & Marketing at The Virtual Agent (TVA)
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Higher interest rates and constrained economic activity are putting estate agents under even more pressure to manage their client bases and stock more efficiently and effectively. “In the current environment agents are having to focus their efforts where there is a greater probability of success,” says Candice Goldberg, Head of Sales & Marketing at The Virtual Agent (TVA).
The increased cost of borrowing is excluding many consumers from getting on the first rung of the home ownership ladder. “It means that they will tend to stay in the rental market,” says Goldberg. “But, with higher demand for rental stock, we expect activity in the buy-to-rent segment to pick up.”
Targeting buy-to-rent buyers would therefore be a good strategy. The ability to identify this type of property buyer would be very useful. “And that is exactly where The Virtual Agent comes in to assist real estate agents,” says Goldberg. “Drawing on vast amounts of data, we have used customised algorithms and predictive modelling to create six different property owner types.”
“In the current scenario, ‘Property Traders’ and ‘Property Investors,’ whose property ownership history indicates that they’re not buying primary homes will be worth focussing on. TVA provides a rating of each prospect’s predictive propensity to buy and/or sell which can save time and keep agents focussed on where there are deals to be made.”
TVA has been developed as an online portal to service all aspects of estate agents’ needs for the following:
- Get to know their customers and canvass their farming areas
- Communicate with and build profiles for customers through a CRM system;
- Keep track of stock, documents and sales in progress and
- Generate insights with property reports.
“Our vision is to provide an easy-to-use online environment where agents can seamlessly move through their canvassing, deal follow-ups and research in one integrated solution.”
Communicate! Communicate! Communicate!
Keeping in touch with clients and nurturing leads pays off handsomely. Agents often have great ideas and know what needs to be done, but they just lack the time and specialised skills to execute them. TVA’s CRM module is the solution, giving agents easy access to the tools they need to set up their own marketing campaigns.
“Our in-house engineers are constantly working on improvements across the TVA ecosystem,” says Goldberg. “Adding new features, improving functionality, making navigation easier, as well as developing new products. We are excited about what they have done with TVA’s email capabilities which are now comparable to any standalone email package.”
Agents can segment their customer base, schedule emails, track and measure email performance and customise ready-to-send template emailers with their logos, images and brand colours.
“By having all of this within the same digital ecosystem as their customer database, agents don’t need to export and import files, TVA pulls the required details across which makes it quicker and easier to schedule and manage.”
All agents who subscribe to the Prepaid package, at R80 a month, have access to all functions, nothing is kept behind a ‘premium’ paywall. “We have restructured our access protocol,” says Goldberg, “and, from May, all prepaid customers will have full access to CRM features.”
Moving ahead
TVA CEO Terence Sewraj held crucial meetings and extended the company’s international exposure at the PropTech Conference in London in February. Feedback was very positive and Sewraj says there are exciting future prospects. “Working with like-minded partners who are constantly innovating keeps us ahead in the global proptech space,” says Sewraj.
TVA’s subscriber base continues to grow month-on-month as new users discover what a powerful tool it is.
If you haven’t joined the digital revolution, don’t get left behind. TVA provides training and ongoing user support to assist agents make full use of all the portal’s powerful capabilities.
