SAN FRANCISCO, July 21, 2011 – Trulia.com, a leading site for real estate professionals, home buyers and sellers, today announced the launch of Trulia Instant Leads, a new online real estate lead notification system powered by Twilio (www.twilio.com), a leading communications provider. Trulia Instant Leads helps real estate professionals meet more clients by automatically calling the agent’s mobile phone when consumers leave their phone number, instantly connecting both parties live on a phone call. When consumers do not leave a phone number, or agents cannot answer the phone, Instant Leads will automatically send the agent a SMS text message with the consumer’s contact information.
Using Trulia Instant Leads enables agents to gain first mover advantage in responding to leads, increasing their chances of converting their leads into clients. Instant Leads is currently provided with every Trulia Pro subscription. To learn more about instant leads visit http://trulia.com/instant .
“Using Twilio, we’ve built what we believe to be a one-of-a kind powerful service that gives agents the opportunity to respond quickly to consumers’ inquiries, meet more clients and close more transactions,” said Georg Gerstenfeld, VP of Business Services at Trulia. “Twilio’s technology has allowed Trulia to create instant connections between consumers and real estate professionals. When consumers get a quick response it allows agents to build more relationships with potential clients.”
“Trulia has led the way in many aspects of connecting buyers to properties and agents in the real estate market, and Trulia Instant Leads is a great use of Twilio’s voice and text messaging products,” said Jeff Lawson, Twilio CEO. “We’re excited to power another transformative product from an industry-leader, and expect Trulia Instant Leads will re-invent how agents connect with consumers.”
Instant Leads Increases The Chance of Turning Online Leads Into a Client 100X
Agents who have instant access to their leads and respond to inquiries within the first five minutes have a greater likelihood of connecting with leads on the first call. Research has shown that the odds of contacting an online lead if called within the first 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drops 100 times, and the odds of qualifying an online lead if called within the first 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drops 21 times[1]. Using Instant Leads and responding to online leads immediately can allow agents to catch the consumer at the peak of interest—while they’re still searching online and near a phone.
Consumers often inquire about multiple properties, making a quick response time the single most important opportunity for agents to earn the consumer’s trust and business. Trulia’s research show that consumers associate online inquiries with immediate response. The California Association of Realtors has also published similar consumer behavior findings:
● 86 percent of leads considered response time to be “extremely important” when deciding on their real estate agent
● 31 percent of leads expected a real estate agent to reply instantly to their online inquiry
● 96 percent of leads expected a real estate agent to contact them within 4 hours of their online inquiry[2]
About Trulia Instant Leads
Trulia Instant Leads is an automatic lead notification system that helps you turn more online leads into clients. Agents using Instant Leads are immediately notified of leads they receive from Trulia though mobile SMS messages or a live call. When you receive inquiries containing phone numbers, Instant Leads will immediately connect you on a live call with the consumer. If the consumer doesn’t leave their phone number or if you are busy, Instant leads will send a text message to your phone with the consumer’s information. Instant Leads also tracks all phone lead information in your Trulia My Leads inbox so that the agent can view their leads’ contact information as well as listen to their phone conversations again in their My Leads inbox on Trulia. Instant Leads is currently included with all Trulia Pro subscriptions. To learn more about Instant Leads, please visit www.trulia.com/instant.
About Trulia, Inc.:
Trulia.com is the fastest growing online real estate site focused on empowering buyers, sellers and renters with smarter tools to help you find the right home. Trulia is headquartered in downtown San Francisco and is backed by Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital. Trulia is focused on helping you find the home that truly meets your needs, and delivers on what’s most important for you. Ultimately, we built a smart real estate search experience bringing together local information, community insights, market data and national listings all in one place.
About Twilio, Inc.:
Twilio (www.twilio.com), the cloud communications company, is reinventing telecom by merging the worlds of cloud computing, web services and telecommunications. Twilio hosts a telephony infrastructure web service in the cloud, allowing web developers to integrate phone calls and text messages into their web, mobile, and traditional phone applications. Twilio’s mission is to simplify the world of telecom by providing simple, powerful, pay-as-you-go infrastructure as a service that can be used by any web developer to build rich communications experiences.
[1] Study conducted by InsideSales.com and Dr. James Oldroyd of MIT, October 2007
[2] California Association of Realtors survey, 2008
