Document workflow solutions can help manage the flow of necessary documents. Yet they don’t necessarily communicate what’s needed from clients in an effective way.

Emails sent to request additional information aren’t always read. Let’s face it, it’s easy to overlook that email and move on with our day. This means agents and their staff must personally get involved in tracking all that documentation while pestering clients to send the required information.

Text messaging changes that in favor of your clients and your staff.

The Best Real Estate Text Messages Simplify Every Deal

Advanced conversational text messaging solutions like SMS-Magic give real estate organizations the opportunity to simplify and improve their entire documentation process.

How? By using the best real estate text messages to remind clients when they need to supply information, sign a form, or provide other feedback. Since 99% of text messages are read within 3 minutes, and nearly 50% of people respond to these messages, you’ll get the documentation you need in a much faster and more effective way.

Here’s how it works:

Create automated workflows.

Just set up a simple workflow that shows all the documents you need. Then, set the timeframes for when those documents need to be returned, across the timeline of the workflow.

Add your message reminders.

Next, you can add text message reminders ahead of the due date for documents, as well as past due reminders.

• For example, you can specify that a message is sent to your client 5 days ahead of the necessary return date, the day before and the day of the return.
• If the information isn’t returned, you’ll be alerted. You can either reach out personally or trigger a new set of messages that lets the client know the escrow is in jeopardy.
• All these reminder messages trigger automatically, until the information is received.

Offer Personal Attention.

As part of your reminder messages, you can include an auto-response keyword (like HELP) that clients can text back to you to ask for help. When they respond, an agent or team member is alerted and can immediately reply via text and set a time to discuss how he or she can help your client.

The Bottom Line:

By using the best real estate text messages, automating reminders and the documentation process, you get all that time back to focus on doing what you want to do, helping your clients find the best property to meet their needs. You also assure that every contract process flows more smoothly and delivers on-time escrow results.
Which makes your clients love you even more.

Due to its growth in popularity, the 2017 Electronic Communications Compliance Survey^[1] found that 42% of responding firms reported employees have requested to use text/SMS messaging for business purposes this year in comparison to 21% in 2016. However, the survey also found that non-email communications channels (including text/SMS messages) are the top risk concern for financial services compliance professionals.

Which is why many financial services firms don’t allow text messaging between clients and their teams. They’re required by law to maintain a record of every interaction with a client – both inbound and outbound – and that’s next to impossible with text messaging from personal phones.

The thing is, clients text financial services brokers all the time. They do so via their broker’s personal device, forcing brokers to have to switch over to email to maintain the documented flow of interactions required by FINRA. The result: a fragmented experience for both brokers and clients that’s difficult to manage due to a lack of visibility across the entirety of the conversation.

Until now, most financial service organizations have outlawed any form of SMS messages. But that’s changing thanks to advanced messaging solutions like SMS-Magic. This is good news for the 83% of firms that allow employees to use personal devices for business communications as the Salesforce1 application for SMS-Magic integrates seamlessly with your CRM, updating every message exchanged with a client. So whether in the office on the desktop or on the go with smartphone in hand, your brokers can respond to clients quickly, in a compliant manner.

4 Ways Advanced Messaging Platforms Address Compliance

With advanced conversational text messaging solutions, financial services institutions can have the best of both worlds. Firms can allow brokers to communicate with customers as the customer wants via messaging and meet regulatory requirements for supervising and archiving all messages.

• 360° conversational histories. Every message is stored within the 360-degree history, whether it’s from the Converse Desktop or from Salesforce1. This history is available to anyone who has the ability to view the associated lead or account record within the CRM.

• Salesforce/CRM integration. Since all messaging data remains in Salesforce as the system of record, the interactive conversations are stored within the Salesforce database. When that database is archived, so are the conversations, meeting regulatory requirements for archival.
• Quick Restore or Search. You can use the same Salesforce tools to locate and restore conversations, just as you would emails.
• Security. The messaging platform also uses the permissions and security of Salesforce so all client communications are protected based on your pre-set security parameters.

Remove Compliance Concerns for SMS Messages

SMS messages enable brokers to communicate with and serve customers faster – in the way they prefer. Whether by sharing updates as interest rates change, answering questions or keeping clients updated about the status of their loan progress milestones, the personalized and responsive service will be appreciated.

Messaging is only growing in popularity – for both your brokers and your clients. Empowering them smartly via an advanced conversational messaging platform that meets your needs for supervisory oversight and archival provides a proactive approach to keep pace with the market.

Considering that 67% of compliance professionals report a gap in confidence that their prohibition policies for SMS are actually effective, getting ahead of the problem – before FINRA decides to examine your firm – is a prudent business move.

^[1] 2017 ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS COMPLIANCE SURVEY REPORT
http://www.smarsh.com/whitepapers/2017-electronic-communications-compliance-survey-report/