While delivering homes in the Nashville, Tennessee market, home builder Legacy South has set out to improve its sales process for future home buyers. Through a partnership with Shared Drive, which handles the builder’s online sales and marketing needs, Legacy South connected with Openhouse.ai, an artificial intelligence (AI) company in the real estate industry.
Offering a more personalized experience online, OpenHouse.ai’s AI assistant gathers and analyzes data on what buyers and aspiring buyers are looking for through a quiz involving needs, lifestyle, and budget. The generated information is then used to help buyers identify the right homes for their needs with digital show homes and ultimately connecting buyers with the Legacy South sales team.
"We're not just a builder; we're creating a unique and tailored experience for our customers,” said Bailey Neal, founder of Legacy South. “The combination of AI and a human touch allows us to connect with our buyers on a deeper level, understanding their preferences and guiding them through the home buying process more effectively."
BUILDER spoke to Shari Morton, a member of Shared Drive and Legacy South’s marketing team, for more details.
How can the implementation of AI help with the sales and prospecting process?
As we all know, your online sales concierge (OSC) and on-site new-home sales counselors cannot work 24/7. With the aid of AI through Openhouse.ai’s application, OpenConnect, we can allow our customers to find information about the home they are looking for wherever and whenever it is convenient for them.
What types of questions are included in the quiz?
It will differ from user to user, as our goal is to create a unique and personalized customer experience for our buyers. The first type of question serves to understand the buyer type (persona), the second type of question is used to guide the buyer toward the right home for them based on their needs and what they are looking for, and the third type is to show off the unique product that Legacy South offers our customers.
What are some data points you are hoping to gain through the partnership?
We hope to gain insight into what matters most to our customers and the quickest way to get them the information and content they need to make a buying decision.
Typically, once an on-site new-home sales counselor starts to engage with a new customer, the discovery phase of the first interaction takes a considerable amount of time. Implementing the OpenConnect quiz as the first point of contact has already started to speed up the process considerably.
It typically takes our team about 90 days to get a buyer ready for a qualified appointment with an on-site new-home sales counselor. So far, with the OpenConnect platform, we're seeing the lead-to-sales cycle shortened to approximately three weeks.
It's a bit early to say if this cycle will be standard, but we're very optimistic about the early preliminary data that is starting to form.
In addition to our goals to shorten the lead-to-sales conversion time, we are also using the quiz data to know what the buyer may want in the future that Legacy South doesn’t currently offer. With this quiz, aided by AI, the data points are endless.
Will there still be salespeople available for more in-depth questions?
Absolutely! OpenConnect is simply a tool in service of the sales team and the OSC. The end goal is always to get the customer to a caring human who will guide them through the home buying process.
OpenConnect helps us get through the awkward “getting-to-know-you phase” and right to the stage where our experienced on-site new-home sales counselors can help them make the right decision for their home purchase.
The digital showroom that is curated by the quiz results gives the buyer the ability to imagine their home not just virtually but in the exact layout and colorization that is unique to them.
These results also give our on-site new-home sales counselors a head start in the sales process.
How can AI integration help Legacy South reach the ‘thousand-home milestone’ within the next three-to-four years?
We aim to reach our goals through the added efficiency, insight, and problem-solving capabilities provided by the OpenConnect data.
One of the biggest challenges for most home builders is really understanding what their customers want. While we are using the OpenConnect tool to create an exceptional online experience, behind the scenes, we are collecting data that will help us make the road to homeownership easier and faster for future customers.
Furthermore, our team at Legacy South will be able to make informed decisions on future floor plans, plan developments, and community developments. It's a win-win for everyone.
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