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Zapier, I learned, should've been my first route, because it makes the communication between the two apps work in a cinch.
Jonathon Kerester, managing broker, Realty Investment Advisors
In the real estate market, it's not just location, location, location that matters. Good leads and a quick response are as valuable to a real estate agent as a prime location. A smart response strategy could mean you're the first agent they hear from, even if they contact your competitors, too.
With app automation tool Zapier handling initial follow-ups and lead management, Jonathon Kerester, Realty Investment Advisor's managing broker, found a way to reduce cold calling by 75 percent and connects with leads 90 percent faster.
The initial challenge: Connect email marketing and customer support tools
Jonathon needed Zendesk tickets filled out whenever leads subscribed to specific newsletters in Mailchimp or updated their profiles with RIA.
In Zapier's dashboard, he built Zaps—our word for automated workflows—that sent lead information from Mailchimp into Zendesk.
Create new Zendesk tickets for new Mailchimp subscribers
Create Zendesk tickets when a Mailchimp subscriber updates their profile
He kept exploring, and created more Zaps to share new campaigns on social media, create tickets from text messages, and manage new leads in Trello, the app they use for project management.
By automating processes with Zapier, RIA cut the time it took the team to follow up on leads by 90 percent.
Realty Investment Advisors is a group of real estate brokers and agents across northern Virginia, suburban Maryland, and the D.C. metro area. They collaborate with each other, sharing resources and infrastructure. Each agent or broker has their niche, whether in downtown DC for businesses or in suburbs for families.
For the folks behind RIA, making a fast connection with their clients increases the odds of closing a deal. The connections Jonathon created within Zapier fuel their business and keep him and the team free to focus on their clientele.
RIA's time-saving Zaps
From Zendesk ticket to project management
Once the tickets have been automatically created, other Zaps keep the leads moving through the RIA process.
Zapier adds a new Trello card to a specific list for new leads. Within that Trello board, the RIA team can move leads around depending on their current status—Open, Pending, Closed—and they can add comments and details as needed after showing off properties.
Keep the team up to date
RIA also uses Zapier to send Slack notifications for new Zendesk tickets, which keeps the entire team in-the-know about new leads, clients, and what type of property they're after. A quick glance at Slack and each agent and broker will know whose lead it is, based on location and property type.
Link text messages with leads in Zendesk
And with RingCentral, new text messages become Zendesk tickets, where they can be associated with existing leads. If the text is from a lead-generating service not connected to Zapier, the Zap still creates a new ticket, adding a link back to the lead source.
Create Zendesk tickets from new RingCentral SMS messages
More time on the things that matter
These Zaps, while simple, take the manual work off Jonathon's plate. That opens the floodgates for productivity: He spends more time showing off properties, meeting clients, writing contracts, and closing transactions—all the things he got into the real estate industry to do.
Zapier cuts my cold calling time by 75% and cuts my follow-up on old leads by 90%
Jonathon Kerester, managing broker, Realty Investment Advisors
Want to reduce the time it takes to follow-up with leads? Give Zapier a try for free.
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All images courtesy of Realty Investment Advisors.
