How Ray White Drysdale are better finding potential sellers through Podium

Few industries are more saturated and competitive than real estate. For Ray White Drysdale, masters of their craft, staying at the top of their field meant finding a missing ingredient to modernise the business. For Director Travis Smith, that missing ingredient was Podium. Through Chat and Campaigns, Travis and the team in Drysdale have been able to revolutionise once-traditional marketing strategies, quickly and effectively identify new customers and revenue streams, and stay ahead of their competition.

Could you tell us a little bit about your business, its mission, your customers, and your role?

At Ray White Drysdale, we sell and manage real estate. We’re trying to identify more effective ways of communicating with sellers and buyers. One of the key components of our job is prospecting – finding new contacts and turning them into leads to grow our business. I’m the Director of a team of six, overseeing all aspects of the business. One of my big focuses in recent times, and the reason we turned to Podium, is finding a modern tool that helps the team work more effectively, efficiently and modernise our customer service.

What brought you to Podium? What challenge were you looking to overcome?

We felt there was a modern part of the business that was missing. Podium filled that gap in many ways. We wanted to deploy a chat facility online to communicate with people quickly rather than sitting on a phone for 40 minutes. We were also sending a lot of text messages, at significant cost, but we couldn’t actually see who was reading them. We wanted effective, targeted communication. We wanted a tool that would allow us to send material to, say, 500 people, and see who was engaging with it. So, if 200 people clicked the link in our message, we could target them in a certain way, and then take a different approach with the remaining 300.

What features within Podium do you use and how are they used within your business?

We use Chat and Campaigns. We’ve started doing a lot of micro campaigns to get a higher response rate. Rather than sending out to 1,000 customers, we send to 50 or 100. We want to incentivise a response from them. We can’t respond to 800 people in a day, but we can provide an incredibly efficient and memorable service to smaller groups. Campaigns have become a really important tool, as has Chat. Through Chat, for example, we use the ‘keyword’ feature to group people into segments like buyers or sellers. By understanding who each customer is and what service they need, we’re able to provide them with a better client experience that is timely and tailored to them. Ultimately, it allows us to be more strategic and encourages them to work with Ray White.

What measurable and numerical impact has Podium had on your business? (For example, ROI, revenue, lead generation and sales increases, consolidation, time savings, star rating etc.)

Podium has been brilliant in helping us identify potential sellers who we might’ve missed. We recently identified and texted 80 people in a local suburb that we hadn’t spoken to for a while. We sent them a message offering an updated appraisal – as a means of staying top of mind – and we got 11 responses. At an average of $10,000 per appraisal, that’s $110,000 of potential pipeline that we weren’t aware of. That all happened in a couple of hours. It’s an effective way of identifying who to speak to now and who to save for the future. The time saved is significant, too. With over 3,000 plus buyers in our database at any time, we need to know who are the 30 who can buy today. We’re currently experimenting with texting for open homes to see if we can generate more interest. Being able to identify those who are ready when making follow-up phone calls is huge. 

Has Podium provided additional benefits that you hadn’t considered or planned for when implementing the platform?

Merge templates have been brilliant. I cannot believe how many people still today sit there and manually type every name into every letter/text and every email and every text and do that 1,000 times for 1,000 people. Podium allows us to work so productively. For example, I can use merge templates to send out 1,000 messages and generate $100,000 worth of business in just two or three hours. That wasn’t the primary motivator behind our use of Podium, but it’s become very valuable nonetheless. 

Do you believe Podium gives you a competitive advantage over other businesses?

Yes, because we’re communicating with it effectively. We went with Podium because we could see who was and wasn’t engaging with us, or what content was and wasn’t resonating with them. It’s far more effective than traditional approaches like putting an ad in the paper or posting letterbox mailers. It allows us to analyse our data, which we believe gives us a competitive edge. We know who to talk to; which 10% need our services now, and who we can focus on another time. You can only speak to so many people in a day, but with Podium we know who to call today. That’s powerful. It’s effective and has a higher conversion rate. It’s quite amazing. 

Do you believe your customers enjoy your communication with them via Podium and why? Do you have any specific examples of positive anecdotal feedback?

Absolutely. We have lots of tenants who’ve used Podium to contact us at all times of the day or night if they have a crisis. Podium Chat makes us accessible to our current customers and Podium Campaign helps us effectively reach new customers. One lady, for example, was about to list a house with another agency when she got our text message. She was going to go with another business because she knew it and felt obligated, but she didn’t really believe in that business. We were there when she needed us, and she thought we were great. That’s business we would’ve missed if we weren’t using Podium. 

If another local business asked you about Podium, would you recommend it? And why?

I’d say go for it; you should be doing it. Business goes through cycles, and not nearly enough businesses have jumped on SMS messages, which have the potential to be so powerful. People want ease and convenience. Emails are slow and clunky, but texting through Podium is fast and efficient. We’re using Podium in so many ways, and we’re also experimenting in so many new ways too. The beauty of the platform is you can toy with new strategies and ideas. And if they work, it opens new doors. We’re turning an expense into an unbelievable return on investment. Traditional methods, like email or letterbox mailers, have such poor returns and no way to measure impact. That’s not something we have to worry about through Podium.