Inman

CRM LionDesk roars into voice-activated internet with skills for Amazon Echo

An Amazon Echo Dot | Photo by Amber Taufen

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Popular real estate CRM LionDesk has launched a skill for Amazon’s voice-activated-internet appliance, Echo.

Customers of the CRM will soon be able to ask Alexa to share their top three tasks and appointments for the day. It will soon be able to share information about new leads, too.

For those who own the Amazon Echo Show or Amazon Echo Spot, the list of tasks or appointments will appear on screen.

LionDesk CEO David Anderson shared the news of his product’s new features with Inman from the NAR conference in Washington, D.C.

“I was working from a home a lot recently, and simply wanted a faster way to know what I had to do,” Anderson said.

The skill was developed as part of a larger company initiative at LionDesk. Anderson shared that the CRM is evolving into an open platform that will encourage third-party developers to build features and apps that can function within and alongside the LionDesk environment to increase customer productivity.

“It’s recent, but we have about 30 developers working on projects. The Alexa skill was the first,” he said.

Not all of the third-party efforts are focused on voice-activated internet skills. For example, one developer recently shared a picture with LionDesk of his new lead alerts being sent to a Samsung smartwatch.

Turning his company’s primary product into an open network of innovation was always Anderson’s goal. “From the beginning, I wanted LionDesk to become a shared community of data and resources to benefit brokers and agents,” he said.

The new approach suggests that LionDesk may be on its way to becoming something beyond a CRM, such as something more akin an MLS that offers access to partner tools or a real estate-specific operating system.

The changing model allows LionDesk to offer users an array of innovations driven by industry players and stakeholders, which can quickly increase the value of what they’re paying for every month. Anderson didn’t disclose other exciting changes underway at his company.

“Inman will be the first to know,” Anderson said.

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