How RateMyAgent Introduced Multichannel Communication With a Cloud Phone System

Selling a home with no experience in property is much like trying to juggle without any practice. A knowledgeable, trustworthy estate agent can make the process easier and help sellers reach a wider audience and secure better deals—in other words, they give the novice jugglers an extra pair of hands.RateMyAgent helps sellers find agents like these.

Eighty-nine percent of consumers globally use online reviews to inform their decisions, according to Canvas8. In the UK and US, the only source people trust more is family and friends. That's why today's estate agents need a strong online presence and a way to showcase all the positive feedback they receive from previous clients.

RateMyAgent's online platform offers referrals and sales statistics that property sellers can use when choosing an agent. While sellers are the end users, the company's mission is "to support great agents and help them boost their digital presence through the power of verified reviews."

That's according to Gregor Hartnell, Vice President of Operations in the US and Head of Operations in Australia. His role is to ensure RateMyAgent's customer support and sales teams have the best tools to drive sales and maximise customer satisfaction—starting with a flexible phone system that enables multichannel communication.

Here to Help

As with any review platform, trust is absolutely vital for RateMyAgent's customer-facing teams. To build and maintain that trust, they must deliver excellent service to both estate agents and end users. For Hartnell, success means "providing an outstanding experience," which requires the platform to be intuitive, support to be accessible, and customer needs to be met in a single call.

"Understanding and anticipating the next steps a customer will take is key. There's nothing worse than calling up to find out how to do one thing, then hanging up and realising you also need to know how to do A, B, C and D."

For the support team, anticipating needs means understanding what customers are trying to achieve on the platform and helping them get there. For the sales team, it means helping agents discover how to get more value from the platform. For both teams, the phone is essential.

Let's Chat

While RateMyAgent's teams use multichannel communication, nothing beats a productive phone call for keeping customers satisfied. As Hartnell says, "There's a really special connection you can have with someone over the phone."

Not only are phone calls more personal, but they can also be more efficient.

"We like to handle the basics over chat, but when we're dealing with high-value customers or more technical issues, we prefer the phone."

RateMyAgent's sales teams also rely heavily on phone calls, mainly for outbound prospecting. Salespeople identify which estate agents are getting the most from the free version and reach out to discuss how they could benefit from premium features, such as managing their social media and optimising their presence on Google.

The Perfect Fit

RateMyAgent's journey to a smooth-running phone system wasn't straightforward. It started with a rocky experience at one provider and a detour via a second before arriving at Aircall.

Hartnell said latency issues were common with the first provider. "There was a 1.5 to 2 second delay on every outbound call," he said. They then switched to a cheaper solution but, as Hartnell put it, "You get what you pay for. It just wasn't very feature-rich, and it didn't solve our problems."

Hartnell wanted a robust voice over internet protocol [VoIP] solution, but it needed to be easy to use, maintain and scale—without breaking the bank. He considered other providers besides Aircall but found they didn't offer the right value for money. As he put it, "The juice wasn't worth the squeeze—they were probably twice the price, and we'd be paying for features we'd never use."

The decision was made easier by Kelsey McDonald, RateMyAgent's Customer Experience Manager, who had already used—and loved—Aircall at a previous company. "I really liked the UI [user interface]," she said. "The dashboard, and setting up all the phone numbers we needed, was so much easier on Aircall. It was easier to onboard new people, and Aircall regularly releases new features and functionality."

Hartnell knew user experience was especially important for salespeople. If the phone system was too complicated, they'd find ways around it and do things their own way. However, thanks to Aircall's intuitive interface and dashboard, and easy user and number creation, the sales team has found it simple—and beneficial—to use.

"Setting up an IVR [interactive voice response] and arranging your call flow—you can do it in minutes," Hartnell said.

Flexibility Through Integrations

Between calls, estate agents are running all over town showing properties, meeting homeowners, and dealing with paperwork. They're busy, and they need flexible ways to communicate. Both sales and support need to be able to switch easily between live chat, phone, or SMS, depending on the customer's needs.

Aircall's SMS capabilities make this simple—something RateMyAgent's salespeople are "really enjoying." When an agent can't take a call because they're on the road or with a client, they don't need to step away to listen to a voicemail. They can just read a text. RateMyAgent also uses integrations to deliver a flexible, omnichannel experience for customers. For example, their Intercom integration (one of Aircall's 100+ integration partners) makes it easy for customers to contact them via their preferred channels.

"Intercom is on most of our website pages, so if someone gets stuck, they can reach us through the chat box. And when our team members spot conversations that would be easier over the phone, we can easily move those chats to a call."

RateMyAgent also previously used Salesforce. With Aircall’s Salesforce integration, all calls were automatically logged in Salesforce, and calls could be made from within the interface. However, RateMyAgent recently built its own custom CRM and wants the same functionality, so it plans to integrate it with Aircall soon. Aircall's Public API makes this straightforward, allowing users to connect Aircall with almost any web-based platform.

Grow With the Flow

Hartnell sees Aircall as especially important to RateMyAgent's increasingly global workforce and customer base. "I love that if I want to speak to a US customer, I can open my Aircall app, switch to a US number and make the call. We found that a really powerful feature before we officially had a team in the US and our Australian team was calling US customers. It made the process very simple."

McDonald said Aircall also makes it easier to onboard new hires as the team grows. She uses Aircall's call coaching features to train new starters, letting them listen to other team members before making calls themselves. This gets them up to speed even faster. Plus, getting new starters to use Aircall is easy.

"We just add a new team member and set up the number," she said. "If you know how to use a phone, you know how to use Aircall." Discover more ways Aircall is helping companies put their customers first.