We talk a lot about online leads and the technology used to capture them--everything from broker websites, search portals, email newsletters, and beyond. Today, we're going to switch gears and look at how one brokerage automates their main phone numbers to capture leads at the moment of peak interest--right at the curb.

"It's the new point-of-sale," says Charles Hunt, General Manager at Hunt Real Estate in upstate New York. "Everybody for years has said that you've gotta have the best online presence.' Well, I think you just need the best lead capture tool for where people are."

Capturing Leads Right at the Curb

Hunt Real Estate has boosted their lead conversion rates by eliminating agent and broker phone numbers from all their yard signs. Instead, the firm's signs now offer only a single automated number provided by VoicePad—no small undertaking for a firm with 38 offices and over 1,000 salespeople.

This automation is an important factor in Hunt's lead conversion success. A recent study has shown that only 48% of leads are responded to and, of those, the average response time is over 15 hours.

By tying their yard sign number with VoicePad's Interactive Voice and Text information system, Hunt gives their leads an instant response and even the option to connect directly to the listing agent to schedule a showing. Consumers at the curb can either call to hear an automated audio recording with property details, or request a text message to receive a text with more information and a link to Hunt's GPS mobile site (also provided by VoicePad).

"Compared to the seven lead sources that we track, this one 'bucket' makes up over 52% of our lead generation," says Hunt. "It was really shocking to me to see that, when we really boiled it all down into one report, to see that the sign is the point-of-sale for us. We hypothesized that this was the case, but we didn't have a strong way to track those numbers. Once we began tracking it, we can see that for the consumer, even with all the information available on the Internet, they are still getting in the car and driving by the house and through the neighborhood. If they decide that that's a neighborhood they like, they're choosing to make themselves a lead 50% of the time right there in front of the house."

Lead Tracking Made Easy

Tracking is one thing that VoicePad excels at. Every time a lead calls or texts, VoicePad can then associate that consumer's name and phone number to property views on Hunt's mobile website. Using VoicePad's Lead Manager, Hunt can see the consumer's originating text, properties viewed, and even social media and email sharing activity.

All of this information allows an agent to get a more complete picture of a potential buyer before contacting them. An agent can go into that initial call armed with the properties a buyer is most interested in based on the data tracked by VoicePad.

The Mobile Option

This is one of the reasons Hunt Real Estate chose to go with VoicePad's mobile website over the mobile site offered by their desktop website provider. "It wasn't able to tie into the lead generation coming from our yard sign like the mobile site for VoicePad does," says Hunt. "It would have been an entire other lead tool, an entire other lead bucket that didn't tie-in to where the lead actually originates from, which is the yard sign."

Consumers don't need to be at the curb to use Hunt's mobile site, however. "We have a redirect set up," says Hunt. "So whether or not the consumer types in HuntRealEstate.com or .mobi, it still goes right to the VoicePad-provided mobile site. That gives them the full MLS search capability, but specifically if a consumer is looking at one of our listings, our agents get those leads directly at the same time."

The Ins and Outs of Agent Adoption

Speaking of their agents, Hunt tells us that the response to VoicePad's implementation has been positive. "They loved it. We white labelled it, so we call it the Hunt Hotline," he says. "We did a focus group and they wanted something that tied the service back to the company. And it wasn't just some generic name like Property Hotline. It was tied right to the company that they choose to work for."

He continues, "Our agents have embraced the benefits of the system. They understand that even when they can't answer their cell phones, they still get a text message and the lead's right there and everything works beautifully. We've seen just a huge number of calls. The last 12 months, we've received over 13,000 requests for property information by phone and 1400+ texts that have resulted in 15,000 property detail page views. Not bad for a yard sign."