ZILLOW OFFERS VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS?
Zillow unveiled a new app and virtual assistant program the week of October 15, and it was met with silence in the industry. This is very intriguing to us, although the service has some mixed reviews across the industry. Let’s dive deeper and get to the root of impact this can have in our industry.
Zillow has a problem. Response time and the quality of engagement with their leads is obviously a sore subject for them. It makes them and real estate sales associates look bad. The average response time, according to the REAL Trends 2014 Online Performance Study was eight hours. With consumers expecting a response within 45 minutes or less, Zillow is at a crossroads. Its new virtual assistant (Premier Agent Assist) program is a potential remedy for this growing dilemma.
Many brokers are upset with this. They also have a valid point. Their concern is:
Do brokers really want Zillow to be the first point of human-to-human contact with the consumer?
Does Zillow think they can give an adequate level of service with an unlicensed assistant?
What are the long-term impacts? Does this make the consumer even more dependent on Zillow? What happens when he or she moves? Does Zillow now get the relocation business?
What happens if the lead doesn’t get the service he or she expects? Is it on the sales associate or Zillow?
How close are we to getting charged a referral fee for this kind of stuff?
While there are a plethora of questions, looking at the big picture from the brokerage perspective, there are equally as many from the consumer, sales associate and Zillow, such as:
If response times are poor, and Zillow can ensure a response within 90 seconds, isn’t that good for the consumer?
We all know that the quality of leads is diminishing. In fact, 140 million unique visitors are on Zillow and Trulia alone and nearly equal amounts of traffic on all the rest of the sites. We only sell around 4.5 to 5.5 million homes every year. What in the world are all of these visits and leads doing? More and more people are interested in real estate and kicking tires.
How do we sift through these leads? Would Zillow’s Premier Assist program help the sales associate get to the root of this problem by only delivering high-quality leads?
Let’s face it, sales associates are busy and asking them to achieve response times of 90 seconds is a daunting task.
We advise you to explore all of these angles when evaluating Zillow’s Premier Agent Assist program. Diligently track your ROI if you do participate. We would love to here from sales associates who may be participating in the service. If you need help, or want to seek an alternative, a new player in our space just launched. It’s called MyOutDesk and can likely solve some of your technology needs. In fact, it may even be the same company Zillow is using, as the MyOutDesk logo is on Zillow’s website.
