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Eric Alexander Chebil Speaks on the First Real Estate Digitial Concierge!
Each year there has been a growth in homeownership equity.
Businesses today are automating operations using AI-based tools to meet heightened client demands and improve customer experience. One such tool is the digital concierge.
Once a trademark of the hospital industry, the digital concierge has made its way into real estate and several other sectors seeking to enhance guest experience and guarantee increased customer satisfaction. An excellent model of a digital concierge in real estate is Eric Alexander Chebil’s Cher Realty.
Eric Alexander Chebil is a Marina Del Rey realtor and founder of Cher Realty, the first-ever virtual concierge in the real estate sector.
Eric Chebil and Cher help millennials and first-time home buyers with low and moderate incomes achieve their home-ownership dreams using an all-in-one artificial intelligence software that facilitates a shared ownership process where buyers co-own properties to build equity.
Eric Chebil joined us for the recent Icons of Real Estate Podcast episode and shared in-depth insights on how his company leverages The First Real Estate Digital Concierge to help clients co-own homes across the US.
Wondering how digital concierge software can help your business provide better services to customers? Head over to our latest podcast episode with Eric Alexander Chebil to discover the key benefits of a digital concierge system.
You can also tune into other Icons of Real Estate Podcast sessions to learn proven success strategies on rental property investment from property investment experts across the US. That said, here’s everything you need to know about digital concierges:
What Is a Real Estate Digital Concierge?
A digital concierge (otherwise called virtual concierge) is an AI-powered tool that provides homebuyers and sellers with real estate-related assistance, such as connecting clients with household service vendors, moving companies, etcetera.
Digital concierges can also provide homebuyers who are moving to a new city with local schools, restaurants, spa services, and other local amenities to facilitate the process of settling in a new community.
Think of a digital concierge as AI technology that works like a virtual assistant to intelligently communicate with customers to meet their needs and improve client experience.
Digital concierges are popular among hotels and other businesses in the hospitality sector. Virtual concierges in the hotel sector function as mobile apps with text messaging features or a website chat window to interact with guests and provide services beyond what you’d expect from a hotel staff or traditional concierge.
A digital concierge app in the hospitality industry could help hotel guests plan events, check flight status and weather forecast, book restaurants, and execute hotel check-ins. With these self-service tools, hotel owners can provide seamless services for their customers and guarantee an improved guest experience.
The result in terms of profitability? Reduced turnover, enhanced client loyalty, increased ROI, and positive word-of-mouth referrals to potential customers.
Digital Concierges in the Vacation Rental Market
Vacation rentals combine the business models of the property investment and hospitality industry. Holiday rentals, like hotels, serve guests who book these properties for short-term stays, especially during the holidays.
As such, they can leverage digital concierges to improve guest experiences in the same manner as the hotel industry. How can this new technology improve the services of vacation rentals? Here are a few benefits to consider:
Faster Customer Service Responses
Vacation rental guests have a boatload of questions and inquiries from the moment they book your property to when they move out. From booking restaurant reservations to requesting extra towels, your front desk or in-house staff could have a lot on their plate daily.
However, a digital concierge can provide most of the solutions guests typically require from your employees, including simple questions such as WiFi passwords and restaurant specials. As a result, your employees can focus on answering complex inquiries that demand hands-on expertise.
Save Money on Human Resources
Digital concierge technology can help you save significantly on human resources. For instance, instead of hiring a human concierge, you can leverage an AI-based tool to provide even better solutions to your visitors. Furthermore, with a virtual concierge handling basic inquiries from your guests, your staff can focus on the heavy lifting.
Communicates Like a Real Human
The text messaging communication platform on a digital concierge app features human-like conversational responses to provide guests with a seamless customer service experience.
Instead of robotic conversational patterns and keyword-triggered responses that constantly require your visitors to repeat their questions, a digital concierge provides custom support that makes it seem like guests are being served by real people.
The best part? For complex requests beyond the scope of AI technology, your virtual concierge will quickly connect guests to your in-house employees.
Facilitate Visitor Interactions in Multiple Languages
Your vacation rental will likely attract diverse clients from different locations, several of which may be non-English speakers. That said, few things can heighten customer satisfaction like providing services in their native language.
With a virtual concierge, you can interact with clients in their own language, ensuring that there’s no barrier to offering top-tier hospitality products.
Trackable Visitor Information for Enhanced Marketing
You have access to conversation threads for each guest in your vacation rental with a digital concierge. From the moment they book the property and check in to other inquiries, such as laundry and driving directions, you can monitor everything in an organized thread.
Even basic requests, like a wake-up call or an extra pillow, are trackable. This in-depth data tracking could provide helpful insight into consumer needs that could hugely benefit your marketing campaigns.
Improved Online Reputation
Digital concierges can help your staff resolve guest problems faster. With your concierge system checking in on your visitors throughout their stay, your employees will discover issues and handle them long before a negative review of your rental finds its way to TripAdvisor.
With proactive customer service at the core of your enterprise, you can guarantee guest satisfaction even better.
Increased Onsite Spending
The hospitality industry has typically leveraged traditional methods, such as signage and email, to increase guests’ onsite purchases and boost revenue. However, while these strategies may be effective in their own right, virtual concierges offer an improved alternative.
A digital concierge can send guests timely texts about extended stay deals and reward/loyalty programs before they checkout. These targeted messages play a role in facilitating customer loyalty and increasing onsite purchase revenue.
What to Look for in a Digital Concierge
While a digital concierge can help you provide better and more automated hospitality services for your vacation rental guests, you should know that concierge tools vary in their offerings. Here are a few things to consider before opting for a virtual concierge:
Pricing Model
Digital concierges are priced differently. The most common model is tiered pricing. This pricing system will charge your company based on the tier of the product you pick. The available features and information depth may vary, depending on your preferred category.
That said, one benefit of the tier pricing model is that you can test-run the concierge product at a lower level/price and opt for a higher category based on performance.
The feature-based pricing allows you to pick and pay for the capabilities you want in the product. This way, you can opt for the relevant functionalities instead of paying for multiple specs you may never use.
Finally, there’s the pay-as-you-go pricing system. Here, your bill depends on the usage of the product. In other words, the more you use the concierge, the higher you pay.
Security and Customer Information Safety
Digital concierges often execute interactions that contain sensitive guest information. As such, you want to ensure the solution you opt for has the necessary security and legal protocols to guarantee customer data safety.
Look out for adherence to industry regulations and relevant operational certifications before paying for a concierge tool.
Analytics and Reporting
Digital concierges are excellent tools to record and track guest preferences across their stays at your rental. These bits of data are helpful details to improve your services and provide custom experiences for your guests.
The best virtual concierges offer in-depth information on guest needs and behavior to enable you to tailor your offerings to meet client demands.
Integration With CRMs
Your preferred digital concierge must be able to interact with your property management systems, payment platforms, and CRMs. This seamless communication with these systems will further enable greater accuracy in tracking customer data to help you to provide better services.
24/7 Customer Support
Ensure your concierge solution provides 24/7 online customer support. Round-the-clock and proactive customer service are crucial to guest satisfaction in the hospitality sector.
Conclusion
Digital concierges are making their way into the real estate sector. This trend isn’t surprising, though. Virtual concierges are top-tier tools to provide automated real estate-related assistance to buyers and sellers to facilitate the home buying/selling process.
They’re also excellent software solutions for vacation rental owners to enhance client experience and satisfaction. That said, while a digital concierge can help you improve client experience and increase revenue at your holiday rentals, it’s not the only box to tick for profitability.
Want to discover how to take your real estate business to the next level? Tune in to regular episodes of the Icons of Real Estate Podcast, the best podcast for real estate investing, to learn actionable strategies for property investment success from the very best in property investment.
Listen to Eric Alexander Chebil and other top experts share their success stories and methods, Including proven insights on real estate SEO, networking for real estate agents, and lots more!
