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Estate agency

The AI knows the property: a digital phone assistant for Immobilien am Zoo

A call comes in, and somebody picks up: in the evening, at the weekend and during a viewing. For the estate agency Immobilien am Zoo in Hannover we are building a digital phone assistant that recognises which property is meant, answers questions about it from the released data, takes down a search profile and enters the viewing appointment in the calendar during the same call.

An answer about the property
the assistant answers questions about the property during the call, from the released data
A case, not a note
property, interest, appointment and documentation belong together in the same call
Always reachable
in the evening, at the weekend and during a viewing

The most important
call comes at
the worst moment

An estate agent's working day does not happen at a desk. A viewing, a valuation, a handover, an appointment at the notary: that is exactly when the phone rings, and exactly when nobody is free. In this business being reachable is not a side issue, it decides whether the first contact happens at all.

Anyone who does not get through rarely waits. They dial the next number on the results page. A call that is not answered is therefore not postponed, it is gone, and nobody in the office ever learns that it existed.

Voicemail changes little about that. It records a message, but it answers no question, sorts nothing and books no appointment. It only moves the work to later. This is exactly where the assistant comes in.

An estate agent on the phone outside a residential building, on her way to an appointment

A conversation,
not a recorded message

The assistant takes incoming calls on its own and holds a natural conversation. No menu, no keypad, no announcement. Callers say in their own words what they need, and get an answer in full sentences.

That, however, is where the resemblance to a switchboard ends. A switchboard puts you through or takes a message. This assistant can answer the question itself, because it knows the properties the office has.

The limit matters just as much. Whatever the assistant cannot answer with confidence, it says so and hands over to a person. A system that guesses when in doubt does more damage on the phone than voicemail does.

The AI knows
the property

If a caller mentions an address, a district or a property number, the assistant recognises which property is meant, and asks back when more than one could fit. It then answers, on the basis of the released information, exactly the questions that would otherwise have cost a callback.

It does not stop at the information. The answer turns into the next step: a viewing, the contact details taken down, the handover to the agent responsible. The information and the conclusion sit in the same call, not in three.

Caller

Does the flat have a balcony and a parking space?

Assistant

Yes, the flat comes with a balcony and a parking space. Would you like to arrange a viewing?

  1. Property information
  2. Interest in the property
  3. Arrange a viewing
  4. Documentation

What the assistant
knows about a property

The basis is the data the office releases. Whatever is maintained there, the assistant can state. Whatever is not on file, it does not claim, it passes the question on. That limit is deliberate, because a wrong figure on the phone costs more trust than a quick answer wins.

For the property itself that ranges from price and floor area through fittings and condition to availability. For the location it adds whatever the office has recorded about the district, the transport links and the surroundings. The assistant thereby covers the part of the first contact that repeats with every property.

About the property
  • Purchase price or rent
  • Service charges
  • Floor area
  • Plot size
  • Rooms
  • Floor
  • Year built
  • Energy certificate
  • Energy efficiency
  • Balcony or terrace
  • Garden
  • Parking space or garage
  • Cellar
  • Lift
  • Fitted kitchen
  • Underfloor heating
  • Step-free access
  • Condition
  • Modernisations
  • Fittings
  • Availability
  • Possible viewing times
About the location
  • District
  • Transport links
  • Shops nearby
  • Schools
  • Nurseries
  • Local amenities
  • Notable features of the area

The assistant states only what is on file in the system and released. If a detail is missing, it says so and hands over to a person.

A conversation
that holds together

The value does not lie in the individual abilities but in the fact that they follow one another within the same call. Separately, all of it has existed for years: an answer here, a form there, a calendar beside it. Connected, it becomes one case.

Each step gives the next one its reason. Because the assistant knows which property is meant, it can ask precisely. Because it knows the level of interest, it knows which appointment fits. And because it set the appointment, the documentation holds not just a name but a case with a beginning and an end.

  1. 01 Take the call
  2. 02 Recognise the property in question
  3. 03 Answering questions about the property
  4. 04 Establish the level of interest
  5. 05 Take down the contact details
  6. 06 Qualify the enquiry
  7. 07 Check a free slot in the calendar
  8. 08 Arrange the viewing
  9. 09 Document the enquiry and pass it to the team

When there is no
particular property yet

Not every caller has a property in mind. The open search is more common: a family that will need something bigger next year, a couple that wants out of renting, somebody moving to Hannover for work.

In that case the assistant takes down a search profile: buying or renting, the preferred district, the budget, the floor area, the number of rooms, any particular requirements and the timeframe. A non-committal call thereby becomes a search brief the office can act on as soon as a suitable property comes in.

For the caller that changes the experience. They do not have to ring again in two weeks to ask whether anything new has come up. The office gets in touch, because it knows what they are looking for.

Owners call
as well

Half the business is not in the listings, it is with the owners who are still weighing things up. Those calls sound different, they are more cautious and often shorter, and they are the most valuable of the day.

The assistant recognises them and asks the questions that prepare a consultation: the type of property, the location, the approximate size, how firm the intention to sell is, what timing is envisaged, how the owner would like to be contacted. It then offers an appointment for a consultation in person.

What it expressly does not do is value the property. What stands at the end is not a figure promised on the phone but an appointment the agent turns up to prepared. Judging a property remains the business of the person who has seen it.

The appointment is booked
before anyone hangs up

Booking is where most first contacts fall apart: a callback, a suggestion, a query, another callback, and at some point nobody gets back at all. The assistant shortens that chain to a single step.

To do that it takes account of the free slots from the calendar integration that has been set up, offers the caller suitable times and enters the agreed appointment there. That applies to a viewing just as much as to a consultation with an owner.

The calendar remains the single source. Whatever is taken there the assistant never offers, and whatever it books appears in the same moment for everyone in the office. Double bookings cannot happen, because there is no second list.

What reaches the team

Every call ends with a handover: the request, the contact details, the property concerned or the search profile taken down, and the agreed appointment, structured and in one place. Nothing hangs in a single mailbox, nothing sits on a slip of paper.

On top of that, what was said is recorded, along with the questions that stayed open. Anyone calling back later knows where things stand and does not start again at the first question. To the caller it feels like an office that remembers.

The assistant is therefore not a filter in front of the office but its preparation. It takes on the work that runs the same way every day, and passes on the conversations where experience counts.

A reception desk
that never closes

Calls do not only arrive between nine and six. The assistant takes them when nobody in the office is available too, and the next morning the enquiry is there in full: with the property, the request, the contact and, where it fitted, an appointment.

Nobody is being replaced. The assistant takes on the part of the first contact that repeats every day, and creates time for the part that matters: the conversation on site, the reading of a location, the trust between two people. Callers reach the office reliably, and the team gains time for advice in person.

The principle is not limited to property. Wherever the same questions about a stock of things are asked on the phone again and again, whether about properties, vehicles, procedures or free places, the same route is open: connect AI, telephony, subject knowledge, website, calendar and processes into one assistant, instead of putting a phone bot in front of them.

  • Every call is answered, outside office hours as well.
  • Questions about the property and the location are answered from the released data.
  • Callers without a particular property in mind leave a search profile rather than a note.
  • Owners intending to sell arrive as a prepared appointment.
  • Appointments sit in the calendar integration, checked and without a callback.
  • Every call is documented and the team can follow what happened.
The scope

What the assistant takes on.

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