Stop chatting, start pivoting

I did a quick, informal survey of some real estate vendor and proptech websites last night to see how they are reacting in a time of real crisis for their clients. 

Some companies have. Moxiworks showed great empathy and has been creating a ton of great content. Zillow Group was fast off the mark and offered a discount to its best customers. 

But I also saw a lot of static offerings and lots and lots of Intercom and Drift popups, chat widgets and AI bots populated with fake employees and smiley face emojis, imploring me to sign up for demos.

I felt like I was wandering around another world, frozen in time. Even four weeks ago I would have said a lot of this felt phony. Today it feels downright out of touch. 

Our world has changed. The world of SaaS and tech needs to change too. 

What agents and brokers need today is not another shiny tech object. They need real solutions to real problems, right now. 

Serving them effectively means that your value proposition needs to be crystal clear. Your tone must be in tune. But your product and positioning should reflect reality too.

There’s no room anymore for cruft and empty promises of leads, deals or flows. 

Hit pause on all of that. This is an opportunity for reinvention.

Smart companies are spending a lot of time listening right now. They’re talking to their customers and adjusting their offerings. They’re revamping their product roadmaps to meet their audience where they are today.

Take inspiration from a company like Planomatic, which accelerated and rolled out a long-requested 3D tour integration.

Likewise, Realogy used this opportunity to sprint and try to meet changing agent needs. It may be hard to predict where the economy will land when this is all said and done, but your customers will still require a basic level of service that you can preemptively meet.

And listen, I get the fear of churn. I know many of you are seeing high levels of cancellations and feeling the gut-roiling sense that all you’ve built is at risk of unravelling. 

But don’t let that paralyze you. Now is the perfect time to adjust. 

Take that step.

And please, turn off the chat bots.