• When real estate bots only serve as an automated contact form, it could turn leads off and cause agents to lose business.

There has been a lot of talk about chatbots lately, so I tested one that came highly recommended.

What I found was that the chatbot could not answer any of my questions, and instead tried to push me to leave my contact information so a human could call me back.

Essentially, it served as an automated contact form.

What really bothered me, though, was that users might think they are chatting with a real person. Then, they might wonder why that person is so rude and ignoring all their questions.

Is this really the first impression we want to give a buyer or seller?

A user would most likely just disconnect and go somewhere else for the answer.

One way to prevent this is to be upfront — make it clear that users are chatting with a bot, and not a human. This way, they will understand why all their questions are being ignored.

Real estate is a complex business, and there are many different questions buyers and sellers have.

To try to cover them all with a chatbot is not doable at this time.

With a large commission on the line, each lead could be worth thousands, and we really do not want to risk turning off our next buyer or seller with a rude chatbot.

At my office, we currently have a real chat person available using Olark.com, and we do get some leads from chatting. However, our agent is never rude and always answers the questions.

This is why I won’t use a chatbot on my website at this time.

Bryn Kaufman is the creator and principal broker of OahuRe.com. You can follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

Email Bryn Kaufman

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