Introducing Smart Cadence, by Verse
Introducing Smart Cadence, by Verse
With millions of conversations across the country and from every lead source and channel, Verse sits atop a mountain of valuable data providing us unique insights into what works best when communicating with leads. We also have the advantage of being able to continuously optimize our cadence, scripts, and workflows to create better engagements, and ultimately, more customer relationships for you, our partners. Most importantly, you receive the benefits of our continuous learning and automatically leverage our relentless optimization and improvements. We scale together, and therefore we learn and grow together.
Based on continuous learning, we are pleased to introduce Smart Cadence by Verse, a data-driven approach to texting and calling your leads in a way that greatly improves engagement with the consumer and betters your chance of closing a deal. Smart Cadence knows the type of communication that works best, the right frequency of communication, the best time of day, and best days of the week that lead to better customer engagement.
Does calling or texting work better?
That’s a trick question. It all depends on the lead source, time of day, stage of the customer, and more. This is where our data comes into play, helping us analyze and inform our decision how to best respond to each prospect.
Lead qualification is a science, and we have the formula.
As we test new formats, scripts, and cadence, our strategies and messaging will change over time, but we commit to maintaining our current standards and best practices here so you can always see what’s working best based on real-time data.
Texting
SMS messaging is the surest and most effective way to reach a customer within a minute, 24/7, so we always start with this. However, since we have a U.S. based concierge team who are professionally trained to make calls, we are able to use our first text message to offer a live phone call. We all know that most people don’t answer calls from numbers they don’t know, so by using a text message first, you give the consumer a choice. For example, our current default opening text ends as follows:
…is now a good time for a quick call, or would you prefer to text?
This creates two important effects:
- By offering to give them a quick call right away, the consumer doesn’t automatically assume it’s an automated chatbot or auto-reply SMS. It shows you’re willing to call them right away, so it feels real, and to the consumer, it is real. Most people can’t do this. Then again, most people don’t have Verse 😉
- We have given the consumer a choice in how they’d prefer to be communicated with. People might be at work, on a break, in their car, on a plane, or wherever, so it’s important to give them a choice. This increases the odds of making real contact, and creates a better environment for that text or phone conversation with the lead once you do start talking.
A whopping 91% of consumers who ask us to call them in response to our first text answer that call!”
We call all Proactive leads as soon as possible. Since we want them to answer the phone, we always start with a text to let them know we received their inquiry on XYZ property on whichever portal they were searching on and then we offer to call them or text. However, if they don’t answer our text within 2 minutes, we immediately put them in a queue to be called twice by one of our concierges – those calls typically occur within minutes. We aim to engage those consumers in as close to real-time as possible because we know they have spent the time browsing Zillow (or another portal), saving listings, are reaching out for more information and setting up showings, and more. These consumers are further down the funnel and we want to ensure we connect with them on your behalf so you can strike while the iron is hot! Reactive leads receive the same first text message offering a call, but most of them strongly prefer to text since they are much earlier in the process and don’t want to be pressured. If these leads don’t text us back, we continue to text and email, and we are able to reach almost everyone within the first few text attempts we send out. Remember, we’re always optimizing our scripts, so we are pretty awesome at getting people to engage (plus, texting has a 98% open rate, 82% of which are read within 5 minutes).
In the past we called reactive leads right off the bat, but without them asking for it, we came across too aggressive and lessened our chances of helping you build a relationship with these consumers. They require a softer touch and more long term nurture after initial contact since they are much earlier in the life cycle. However, if they tell us they want a call we call right away and we offer it from the start.
What about landlines?
No matter the source, we call all landlines right away unless it is after hours (before 9am or after 8pm local time). For any after hour landline leads, we email them right away (if we have their email), and we queue them up for a call in the morning.
Since we call all landlines, all portal leads, and all consumers that request a call, Smart Cadence results in calling a vast majority of leads. As a matter of fact, in the last 6 months…64% of lead qualifications were done on via text conversation
What about incoming calls?
So glad you asked. With CallConnect, Verse will answer all of your incoming calls 24/7 and make sure you never miss another incoming lead or call from Zillow, your for sale signs, your website, or anywhere, ever again. CallConnect’s inbound call answering service by Verse is a separate fee, and can be added to any Verse Plan.
A note from all of us here at Verse:
We love what we do, and we do this for you. Our mission is to create the best impressions and have the most authentic conversations for you and your prospects, so we can help you build trust with your future customers and build relationships that will endure.
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