The ChatBot Development Life Cycle Example — Real Estate Chatbot

For this article we will focus on Chatbot building for real estate. Let’s start with requirements gathering …

Step 1. Requirement Gathering

First lets try to find some pain-points of Real estate agencies:

1. Lead Generation: Real estate agencies often struggle to generate and qualify leads. It’s a time-consuming process that requires a lot of manual effort.
2. Customer Service: Providing immediate responses to customer inquiries can be challenging, especially during non-business hours.
3. Property Information Management: Keeping track of all property details and providing them to potential buyers or renters can be a daunting task.
4. Appointment Scheduling: Coordinating schedules between agents, buyers, and sellers to arrange property viewings can be complex and time-consuming.
5. Follow-ups: Regular follow-ups with potential clients are necessary but can be labor-intensive.

We next create the chatbot functionalities we need:

1. Automated Lead Generation: A chatbot can interact with potential clients visiting the website, gather their contact information, and qualify them based on their responses.
2. 24/7 Customer Service: A chatbot can provide immediate responses to customer inquiries at any time of the day, improving customer satisfaction.
3. Property Information Management: A chatbot can store and retrieve property information, providing it to potential clients upon request.
4. Appointment Scheduling: A chatbot can coordinate with the agency’s calendar to schedule property viewings, making the process more efficient.
5. Automated Follow-ups: A chatbot can send regular follow-up messages to potential clients, keeping them engaged without manual effort

Step 2. Design Phase

This step include two parts …

I. Design the Flow overview

I like using flow diagrams (you can also use Miro, or Voiceflow), it gives a better overview of the development process.

II. Framework to build - Conversational Marketing

What is conversational marketing?

Conversational marketing engages customers through dialogue that puts the focus on interactions with the customers through two-way communications in real-time conversations.

Conversational marketing includes:
— engaging website visitors,
— converting them into leads or
— being a vehicle for existing customers to continue engage with a company.

Here’s how the traditional funnel works these days:

MediaBuyers and customers don’t have time for this anymore, and the numbers show it:

• Only about 5% fill out lead capture forms
• About 53% of respondents find waiting too long for replies the most frustrating part of interacting with businesses.
• The demand for immediacy has grown by an average of 64% year-over-year.

The buying process has become cold, impersonal, and way more painful for the buyer than it needs to be.

The fix?

We need to make business actually feel personal again. Conversational marketing builds relationships and creates authentic experiences with customers and buyers.

It offers:

• Engage: Instant, personalized conversations replace traditional forms, leading to better user experiences and higher conversion rates. AI-powered chatbots ensure round-the-clock communication.
• Understand: Advanced technology qualifies buyers in real-time, ensuring salespeople connect with the right people. AI also helps disqualify those not ready for sales conversations early on.
• Recommend: Intelligent routing connects buyers to sales teams and books meetings automatically. This proactive approach allows businesses to guide buyers effectively, learning about their needs and suggesting next steps.

Step 3. Implementation Phase

If you need a no code AI chatbot solution and still not sure what to use, we suggest you to this article.

I’ll use Voiceflow for my development. Being using Botpress for some time and have moved to Voiceflow.

Voiceflow real estate bot

Step 4. Testing

Be careful, as many special situations can be missed if you’re not thorough. While a full testing guide is beyond this article, I recommend manually checking each path in your design.

If you’re building each part separately, your first step in this phase should be to combine all those parts.

Step 5. Deployment

The following step is to launch the built application on the website or relevant social media platform. In Voiceflow, you can locate the script in the integration section and directly insert the script into your website’s HTML header.

I use Hostinger, so this is what my script looks like in my website’s HTML. You can find the index.html file in the control panel of your hosting service.

Step 6. Maintenance

Maintaining your chatbot is an ongoing process that involves continuous monitoring of its performance. It’s crucial to stay vigilant, observing how the chatbot interacts with users and how well it’s fulfilling its intended functions. Regular updates are necessary to ensure the chatbot stays relevant and effective, incorporating new features or improvements based on user feedback and evolving needs.

Moreover, troubleshooting is a key part of maintenance. Any issues or glitches that arise after the chatbot goes live need to be addressed promptly to ensure a smooth and efficient user experience.

That’s all folks, just remember, even in the world of bots, laughter is the best code! Arrivederci :)

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