The real estate, mortgage and title insurance industries have been on a mission for two decades to cut costs, improve the accuracy of their data, and speed up what has always been the cumbersome process of buying and selling real estate. More recently, businesses have turned to automation as a solution. Of course, we’re impartial to the use of RPA (bots) technology in the digitization process.
At the same time, we’re part of an industry that prides itself on the “personal touch” or working on a “relationship basis.” So while automating processes in a high-touch industry like ours is tremendously valuable and important, it can be tricky if it is not thought through carefully.
As a company owner, you want to make sure that the automation you are adding is going to improve your processes. But you also want to ask yourself – and your staff – how to best invest the freed-up time and energy to improve the very necessary personal communications with your clients.
Think of it as the Golden Mean in mathematics or the concept of the Middle Way in Buddhist philosophy. What you want to achieve is a balance, as Socrates himself suggested, to avoid the extremes on either side.
To be successful in our industry, it is important to find that sweet spot between tech and touch.
This is why RPA is such a valuable tool in our industry. Over the long haul, you want your customers to have a very fluid transaction experience that only automation can deliver. But quite frankly, that stuff happens behind the scenes and to your customers, these new processes or tools may not be blatantly obvious.
What your customers will remember is the human touch. They will come away with a clear sense of how responsive your staff was to your inquiries or concerns. The care and concern your show their buyers and sellers will also be apparent. That heightened, human experience can only happen when many of the repetitive tasks are taken off your staff’s to-do lists so they have the time to chat with a real estate agent about an upcoming closing or respond to an urgent request from a homebuyer or seller.
As you are contemplating automating processes within your agency, it is wise to look at the entirety of the experience you are trying to create for your clients. Make sure you are finding the Golden Mean of tech and touch to ensure you are not just taking an order for title insurance, escrow and closing, but developing a bond with your customers to build a business relationship that will last far into the future.
Photo by Eran Menashri on Unsplash
