It's not secret that decreasing the response time on leads can have a huge effect on your company's bottom line. This is definitely true in the senior living industry and is becoming even more important as more competitors come to market. When a prospect reaches out you want to ensure your company is the first to get back in touch. One way to ensure this is by utilizing the latest available technology and senior living marketing automation tools. Below are a few of the best tools that you can use to improve your response times.
1. Facebook Messenger Automated Replies
One simple way you can reply quicker to prospects is to monitor your messaging channels on social media. It's free to do an allows prospects to contact you with minimal effort. However if you're like many smaller companies and can't actively monitor your social channels 24/7 we recommend using tools like the automated reply features inside Facebook messenger. This feature is easy to implement and can act as a great way to stay on top of leads by automating the initial response. Checkout this blog post about to setup automated Facebook messaging.
The speed at which you response to prospects has a HUGE effect on whether or not you can qualify and convert that prospect.
2. Live Chat Tools
Chatbots and other live chat tools are growing immensely in popularity and use. Think about it - would you rather connect with a prospect after they've submitted a form and have already left your website? OR would you rather start a conversation while they're still on the on the page on your site that they're interested in learning about? The ability to reach potential prospects while they're in research mode on your website is one of the many reasons live chat tools have become so popular.
In addition to the ability to immediately connect with prospect and answer questions live chat tools also give you the ability to qualify potential prospects immediately. No more wasted phone call time with your sales reps. Add all the this with the ability to create automated chatbots that can instantly negate any slow response time on leads and it's easy to see why so many companies are adopting these tools.
Despite all these benefits and data a recent study by drift stated that only 14% of the 433 companies surveyed have live chat enabled on their company websites. While this figure is sure to grow immensely it also means it's a great chance to get ahead of your competition by setting up a live chat tool.
*This chart shows the search popularity of the term "chatbot" in Google trends data over the past 5 years
3. Email Automation
Automated email responses are a must-have for any business looking to compete in 2019 and beyond. Once a prospect submits a form on your website they should at least know that their inquiry has been received. If you have marketing automation software in place you can also have form submissions trigger notifications to your sales staff to follow up. Or you can even automatically enroll the prospect into a series of automated emails depending on the subject matter of their inquiry. Bottom line is that you need some form of marketing automation in place so that nothing is left up to chance with new prospects and that no lead isn't followed up with quickly.
"78% of Customers Buy From the First Responder"
-Lead Connect
These are just a few of the available tools you can use to automated your sales follow up and decrease your lead response time for new prospects. The data is clear that response time is a huge factor in whether or not a prospect chooses you or your competitor. If you need help setting up marketing automation for senior living at your communities contact us today for a free 15 minute consultation.
