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One of the industry’s favorite CRMs has rolled out a new bot-centric feature so agents can better manage leads from outside the system.
Contactually’s new bot enhancements work with Facebook Messenger and Slack. The latter tool is the superior team communication platform, but the former offers the most common user interface. (Slack is not as popular in the real estate industry, but should be on the radar of team-focused offices.)
The bots function similarly on either platform.
The Contactually Bot appears on the Slack contact sidebar — you can chat with it as you would any other co-worker. Asking it for help will return a list of commands it can handle. The list will grow with time, I’m sure, given the CRM’s deep capability.
Users can request to “follow up” with leads (and be presented with the most pertinent contact) and write emails from within Slack or Messenger.
Other features include:
- Adding notes
- “Bucketing” contacts
- A “who is” command — which is especially helpful, as it returns a tight summary of the person’s Contactually record, including notes, contact details and last communications.
- Proactive bot reminders to follow-up or rate recent contacts as important.
The beauty of integration
The greater good here is the idea of efficiency — that software products are coming together to facilitate an array of essential business actions from a single interface.
Companies like Contactually, along with a quickly expanding list of other business solutions, are able to leverage the reach of third-party tools like Slack and Messenger without having to invest in their own delivery infrastructure.
These “mergers” are a fascinating development that progressive real estate agents should be excited about, especially when it comes to the potential demonstrated for reaching consumers.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe.
