The first theme I talked about was how consumers now compare experiences universally across all industries. In other words, if we jump out of an UBER with its stress-free and seamless booking and payment process, we expect all payment processes - whether it’s a hotel or a real estate office - to be of equal speed and simplicity.
I then introduced Greg, REA’s research guru, to the AREC audience who is REA’s research guru. Greg did some research for us in April 2018, where he spoke to consumers, and those who visit realestate.com.au every day. These consumers told us that agents who will stand out in 2020 will be those that master and deliver on three key themes: immediacy, personalisation and an online presence that demonstrates expertise.
In the context of immediacy, I showed this video on how Amazon was leading the charge to give customers immediacy, with their warehouses in the sky that deliver its customers’ orders in 2 hours! Greg’s research said that the real estate industry had some work to do as 25% of seller enquiries and 48% of buyer enquiries never got answered. Sarah gave examples of how her company, Place, were responding to giving customers how they wanted - fast service and quick turn around on enquiries.
To demonstrate how forward thinking industries were delivering on consumers’ demand for personalisation, I showed this video on how Adidas has used technology to give 30,000 runners at the Boston Marathon a personalised video of them finishing the race, and how Nike were using augmented reality to enable its customers to personalise their shoes. Again, Sarah gave examples of how Place were giving a personalised experience to its customers. The research highlighted a huge opportunity for agents as less than a quarter of buyers and sellers believed that they received a personalised service from agents.
