Changing your estate agents telephone system can be a daunting experience. Not knowing how to start or what options are best for your business is a concern for many estate agents.
A great option to look at is a hosted VoIP telephone system. VoIP uses your estate agent's existing broadband connection and our cloud platform to make and receive calls. This means your estate agency could see large cost reduction and better quality calls when compared to traditional, on-premise solutions.
But don't just take our word for it; here's our top 10 reasons why a VoIP phone system is the best option for estate agents...
1. No call charges
Call charges have long been a necessary evil for estate agents. Chasing sales, contacting solicitors and following house chains can mean that the monthly call bill is a bit of a shock.
With our VoIP phone systems, your estate agency will have access to 5,000 free UK minutes per user. Even with each of your negotiators on the phone making lots of calls, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll surpass these included call minutes. This means that you can wave goodbye to call charges for your estate agency.
2. Modern handsets
We know how important it is to present a professional appearance to customers. That’s why we provide top-of-the-range Yealink handsets to all of our customers.
They’re easy to use, and offer a great user experience for your whole team. Another great benefit is that they offer HD voice quality. This means that you’ll benefit from crystal clear voice quality with a VoIP phone system.
3. Mobile Apps for viewings
While your team are out on viewings and valuations, you can keep connected with them using the VoIP mobile app.
The free to download app connects your employees smartphone to your telephone system, meaning that they can make and receive calls as though they were sat behind their desk at the office. The VoIP mobile app also allows your estate agents to message colleagues and listen to voicemails while on the move.
As you can imagine, this feature offers great benefits to estate agents that need to keep connected with their team while they’re out and about.
4. Integration with Microsoft Outlook
We find that estate agents are some of the busiest people, which means that they need all the tools to make their workflow as seamless and as straightforward as possible. One great tool that we find benefits estate agents is Microsoft Outlook Integration.
Outlook integration connects your Microsoft Office 365 account to your VoIP phone system. This means that meetings, contacts and more are automatically synced. So if your agents are on viewings, they can have their phone automatically diverted to that of a colleague.
5. Call recording
With a busy office environment, it can be difficult to remember all the details of potential vendors and buyers calling your estate agency. Call recording removes the worry, allowing your team to listen back to important calls if they can’t recall details.
Call recording also covers your back when it comes to prickly customers. It gives you peace of mind that any issues can be dealt with swiftly and efficiently, using call recording as a backup for your business.
6. Ready for the ISDN switch off
In 2025, Openreach are scheduled to turn off the UK’s ISDN network. This means that any business using traditional telephone systems will cease to function. Moving your estate agency to a cloud-based VoIP phone system provides you with a better, more future-proof telecoms environment.
While we would always stress that there is no need to worry about the upcoming switch off, it is something to consider when you’re thinking of making the change to a new telecoms provider.
7. Better caller experience
We know that customer service matters to estate agents. Proving your vendors and buyers with a good experience generates a good reputation, leading to more sales. This all starts with their call experience.
It is so important to provide your clients with a great over-the-phone experience when they call your team. This means providing automated “Press 1 to arrange a viewing of a property, Press 2 to enquire about a valuation etc” to provide your callers with a professional first impression.
Using hunt groups means that you can have specific members of your team called simultaneously or sequentially. For callers, this helps them get to the person or department that they need to quickly.
8. Multi-office support
Many estate agents have multiple offices spread across a specific region. This means that you may get calls that are meant for another office to yours. A great way to streamline this is inter-office transferring, where your agents can quickly transfer calls to the callers local office without the risk of a call drop off.
Having all of your estate agents office on one, multi-office phone system provides a great, cost effective platform of inter-company communication.
9. No maintenance costs
A huge cost to any estate agency is the maintenance of their telephone system. When you change to a VoIP telephone system, you can say goodbye to telephony maintenance costs.
Using the cloud allows your estate agency to benefit from free upgrades and updates in real time. If there is an update to our telephone system overnight, there’s no installation or update required—just walk into your office in the morning and it’s all up to date.
Similarly, the lack on on-site equipment in your estate agency means that there is no physical maintenance required. New users can be added by our in-house team at the press of a button, with no on-site visit required—helping you reduce costs.
10. Free number porting
Keeping your telephone numbers is important. The hassle of changing telephone systems is daunting, but keeping your telephone number makes the process easier than ever.
We can port your estate agents existing telephone number over to our cloud VoIP platform, and continue to ensure that callers can reach you via your main phone number. If you’re looking to expand your offices, we can provide further telephone numbers for additional offices free of change too.
A hosted VoIP solution is a great way to streamline your estate agents workflow and help reduce your running costs. The built-in mobility provides your negotiators with connected viewings and the ability to get in touch with the office team quickly and easily. Other features such as auto attendants and hunt groups ensure that you’re not missing those all-important calls.
If you’re looking to upgrade your estate agent’s telephone system, get in touch with a member of our team today for a no-obligations chat about your telephony and how we can help.
