Introduction

One of the most common questions out there regarding the Sales Agent is regarding exactly what the qualification process looks like. Though this process is constantly improving, this article outlines more or less the process that the Sales Agent will go through to work and qualify leads that enter your Lofty database. This article does not contain the exact scripts that the Sales Agent will use, as these are constantly adjusting as more and more scenarios are supported.

Summary

• How to monitor the Sales Agent
• Sales Agent + Smart Plans
• Text Message Qualification
• Website Chat Qualification
• Listing Recommendations
• Notifications
  • (1) Text message
  • (2) Standard Notifications
  • (3) Opportunity Notifications
• AI Segmentation
• Tagging
• Providing Feedback / Improving the Sales Agent

How to monitor the Sales Agent

The Sales Agent is designed to notify you when a conversation is out of their scope or is making great progress and ready for your involvement. If you want to make sure things are going well, you can monitor the active leads that the Sales Agent is working on, qualifying. 

A few notes regarding permissions: 

• All users have access to monitor conversations on the chat list and the lead detail page of leads assigned to them.
• The Team Owner/Admin and users with the “Access All Team Leads” permission (see Team permissions) are only able to monitor conversations on the lead detail page, but it is not visible on their chat list unless the leads are assigned to them.

To monitor conversations, click on the chat bubble in the bottom-right of the screen, then click AI

This will take you to the AI Sales Assistant Following conversations. 

In this section, you can:

• View all active text and website chat conversations the AI is having
• "Mute" the conversation (keep the Sales Agent from qualifying the lead)
• Type in your own message to take over the conversation

*IMPORTANT: Please note the following:

• When clicking the "Mute" option, you are stopping the Sales Agent. You can unmute the Sales Agent at any time by clicking on the ellipses in the lead's profile, followed by Unmute AI Sales Assistant.
• Please also note that any form of manual communication (making a phone call, sending a text message, or sending an email) will also take over from the Sales Agent. This does not include automatic content sent out via Smart Plans.

AI conversations can also be seen in the lead detail pages as [Site Message] or [Auto Text]

Here is a text message that was sent by the Sales Agent (formerly known as AI Assistant)

Here is a message that was sent to a lead on the website chatbox:

Sales Agent + Smart Plans

There is a banner in Sales Agent settings that can help you import Sales Assistant-friendly Smart Plans. 

When the “Check it out” button is clicked, all plans in the library tagged with “AI” will be imported as new plans. 

Import Scope:

• You can set the scope that the Plans will import to

  • If you have Company Plan permission, Company Plan will be selected by default

    • Otherwise, the plans will default to Personal plans

Text Message Qualification

The Sales Agent will nurture leads through text conversations. The following scenarios will trigger a response from the Sales Agent:

• Lead opens a property alert email but has not clicked on properties/links in the emails.
• Lead returns to the IDX website with incomplete search criteria.
• Lead returns to the IDX website and makes a request that triggers an opportunity.
• The lead profile has no "location" recorded in the search criteria (preventing auto alerts from being sent).
• No site activity is logged for 12, and then 28 consecutive days since the last time they were marked as "High Interest."
• Lead saves a search on the IDX website
• Lead views five different properties in 24 hours
• Lead is marked as "Back to Site."

The AI will combine the type of Trigger, the lead's current information, and historical conversation records to generate a personalized message that fits the current scenario.

If the trigger occurred on your website (such as saving a listing or a search), the AI will send the lead a message on your website chatbox. If it did not occur on the website (such as a lead being inactive for a certain number of days), the AI will send a text message.

The AI will also judge the interval between the current trigger and the last message based on the Engage Style to avoid sending multiple messages to the lead in a short time period and annoying them.

Website Chat Qualification

The Sales Agent will engage website visitors, new leads, and back-to-site existing leads by starting a conversation. It will attempt to get a visitor's buying/selling preferences and contact information to create a lead in the CRM. It will also engage with leads when they perform certain actions like saving a listing, requesting a showing, sharing a listing, or viewing a specific property more than 3 times within 7 days.

If the website visitor responds, the Sales Agent will attempt to qualify the lead while also requesting contact information for additional follow-up.

*IMPORTANT. Please note the following:

• If the number of available engagements runs out on either the "Starter" or "Accelerator" packages, the Sales Agent will stop sending out texts to leads, and the chat box on the website will revert to the standard website chat box.
• The Sales Agent will try to engage all website visitors and gather as much information as possible. If certain requests for a name, email address, or phone number are not responded to, the details of the conversation will be contained under a chat record titled "Visitor ####". The context of the interaction will be contained and traceable should that lead reach out again, and the system recognizes them.

Listing Recommendations

Sales Agent can help leads discover homes by understanding their preferences and recommending listings. It can also save those listings directly to the lead’s search portal.

Once saved, these homes are added to the lead's My Favorites section in their Lofty portal so they can easily revisit and compare.

Why does this matter? It also triggers the following actions in Lofty:

1. Triggers an Opportunity notification

2. Adds a timeline record with a link to the properties

3. Adds the favorited listings to their Properties section

4. Adds new suggestions to the Search Criteria section

5. Copilot summarizes the activity and delivers an actionable insight to the agent. 

Notifications

Notifications are an important part of making sure the transition from Sales Agent to agent goes smoothly. The following are the different types of notifications that Lofty provides:

(1) Text message

Lofty will send an SMS to the assigned agent’s phone number to notify him/her.

The Sales Agent will automatically text agents under the following circumstances:

• The Sales Agent could not understand what the lead was saying. "Your lead [lead's name] ([lead's number]) sent a message to the Sales Agent that cannot be recognized: [message]."
• A seller lead has accepted an appointment for a home evaluation. "_______ has
  accepted an appointment for home evaluation. Please call the lead ASAP."
• A lead has requested a phone call. "__________ is asking for a call. Please call the lead ASAP."
• A lead is interested in viewing a property in person, as suggested by the Sales Agent. "_____________ is interested in a showing. Please call the lead ASAP."
• A lead is on a short timeframe. "____________ is planning on buying a property in 2 months. Please follow up immediately."
• A lead asks for a showing. "______________ is requesting a showing. Please call the lead ASAP."
• A lead has requested to make an offer. "_____________ is requesting to make an offer. Please call the lead ASAP."
• A seller lead wants to sell their property. "_______________ wants to sell his/her property. Please call this lead ASAP."

(2) Standard Notifications

These are triggered in these situations:

• A lead is requesting more listings or asking for more property information
• A lead finishes the qualification process. "This lead has been qualified as a hot lead. Please call the lead ASAP."
• A buyer lead says they are "just looking" and provides his/her preferences. "Please review the search criteria and create a customized property alert for the lead."
• A lead has requested more information. "The lead is requesting info on a listing. Please follow up ASAP."
• A lead has financing questions. "This lead has questions on financing. Please ask your lender to follow up."
• A lead is requesting specific help. "This lead is asking for help. Please review its request and contact it as soon as possible."

(3) Opportunity Notifications

These are triggered when the Sales Agent finds a hot lead that matches the following situations:

• A seller lead has accepted an appointment for a home evaluation. "_______ has
  accepted an appointment for home evaluation. Please call the lead ASAP."
• A lead has requested a phone call. "__________ is asking for a call. Please call the lead ASAP."
• A lead is interested in viewing a property in person, as suggested by Sales Agent. "_____________ is interested in a showing. Please call the lead ASAP."
• A lead is on a short timeframe. "____________ is planning on buying a property in 2 months. Please follow up immediately."
• A lead asks for a showing. "______________ is requesting a showing. Please call the lead ASAP."
• A lead has requested to make an offer. "_____________ is requesting to make an offer. Please call the lead ASAP."
• A seller lead wants to sell their property. "_______________ wants to sell his/her property. Please call this lead ASAP."

AI Segmentation

All leads that are contacted by the Sales Agent will be added to a segment called "AI Contacted." This will allow a Lofty user to easily find the leads that have been worked by the Sales Agent and easily combine the results with other filters.

Tagging

Depending on the behavior of the lead, the Sales Agent will add tags to the lead. You can, in turn, use these tags to easily filter the leads after the conversations and/or trigger Smart Plans based on the added tag.

Providing Feedback / Improving the Sales Agent

A very useful feature of the Sales Agent is the ability to provide feedback. You can use this tool to submit feedback directly to the Lofty Product Team, which manages the Sales Agent, to help improve the types of messages that are sent and help the Sales Agent learn and grow.

To provide feedback, navigate to the lead profile where the conversation is recorded.

You can do so in three locations within a lead profile:

(1) Banner on Lead Detail Page

Hover over the Sales Agent and click on the option to provide feedback. This will allow you to provide general feedback on how the Sales Agent is performing.

(2) Lead Timeline

Click on the hyperlink to "Rate AI Response." This will allow you to provide feedback on that specific Sales Agent response.

(3) Chat Panel

When you are reviewing an AI conversation in the chat panel, you can click the link at the top to provide feedback as well.

Your feedback will be documented and reviewed by our team for implementation within the Sales Agent logic if appropriate. You will receive an email informing you of what action has been taken for your Sales Agent feedback, so that you are aware that your feedback is extremely valuable to the process of building out powerful responses to the variety of scenarios that the Sales Agent will encounter.

Questions?

If you have any questions regarding this topic or any others, please reach out to our Support Team via email at <support@lofty.com>, by phone at 1 (855) 981-7557, or by chat with us through your Lofty CRM.