For many homeowners, buying a house is the single largest financial decision they will ever make. The entire purchase process is a whirlwind that comes with a whole host of emotions: excitement, confusion, overwhelm, disappointment, and hope. As a real estate agent, you walk with your clients through each stage of this process to help them feel supported to take each next step and move into a new season of life with confidence.
It’s no small task, so agents need to have every possible tool at their disposal to make customer interactions simpler, easier, and more convenient. Whether you’re marketing your business or supporting homeowners day in and day out, digital tools like QR Codes are the perfect way to put your best foot forward as you open the door to homeownership for your clients. Let’s explore why QR Codes level up your customer service and how you can use them throughout your business.
Riding the digital wave in real estate
This wasn’t always the case, but much of the home search and purchase processes are now digital. From signing offer paperwork online to using apps like Zillow and Redfin to browse listings, buyers and sellers can complete many of the relevant tasks from their smartphones and laptop computers. This environment has heightened their expectations of convenience and immediacy throughout the process.
What’s more, when deciding who to work with, your clients have plenty of options, so real estate agents need to find new ways to keep raising the bar on their customer service and deliver the highest possible level of support. That’s how to retain clients and win referrals for future relationships.
Optimizing your customer service might mean using internal time-saving tools and processes that allow you to focus more energy on building relationships and spend more time with clients. In customer-facing spaces, digital tools can provide your clients with self-serve resources, streamline interactions, and simplify complex processes. That’s why QR Codes are a perfect addition to any real estate agent’s toolkit. They offer major flexibility with a light lift for your team. QR Codes make it easier for clients to get what they need and for agents to provide a helping hand every step of the way.
4 reasons to use QR Codes in real estate
Even if you haven’t started using QR Codes for your real estate business yet, you’ve almost certainly encountered them in everyday life—so you know how easy it is to scan and access digital resources in seconds. Beyond ease of use, here are some of the most convincing reasons to fold QR Codes into your processes and communications with homebuyers and sellers alike.
1. Customer-first experience
We’ve already noted how important high-quality customer service is for real estate—that starts with the small details and extends to every interaction. QR Codes are a user-friendly tool to ensure that current and potential clients can easily access any essential or helpful information within seconds. Rather than needing to type in a link, search for a site, or track down an email, they can scan a code from their smartphone without having to think about it. When homebuyers have a hundred to-do’s and concerns on their minds, that’s one more thing you can take off their plate to become their hero.
2. Flexibility
QR Codes are one of the most versatile tools you can use to stay in touch with clients or run your business. You can size them up or down from business cards to billboards. You can print them on paper, share them on a screen, or place them on branded swag. Once you start building them into your business, you’ll find countless opportunities to scan a code and interact with you digitally any time someone’s interacting with your brand. QR Codes are also an inexpensive addition to your processes. When you review scan data to track the performance of your marketing campaigns and see how many people scanned to learn about your team or a specific listing, you get top-dollar analytical capabilities at an affordable price.
3. Cross-channel connections
Most people won’t make the decision to buy a specific house overnight. They need time to mull over their options and return to information and resources you provide later on their own time. QR Codes create a way to connect with them via multiple channels (digital as well as physical) and across multiple sessions. When they scan to retrieve a link you share, they can leave the tab open on their phone to continue the conversation later, sparking convenience for them and higher engagement for you.
Plus, when you encourage potential clients to engage with you digitally, you open the door to more ways to get in touch with them after they’ve taken a tour or seen your ads. Especially when the housing market is competitive for buyers, they need to know about new listings that are a good fit right away—if you engage them digitally, you can encourage them to sign up for emails or texts that keep them in the loop.
4. Sustainability and simplicity
Real estate is a print-heavy business, but QR Codes let you limit your impact on the planet and save money on printing. Rather than printing a few pages of listing details that your client will likely throw away after a tour, show them a QR Code they can scan to review the information from their phone. If you’re the listing agent, you can do the same thing by leaving a QR Code to the detailed listing on the counter during open houses or scheduled tours. Share homeownership resources and other printouts via QR Codes to keep important information in a convenient format that your clients can still take with them without additional waste (or printing costs for you).
7 ways to serve your clients with QR Codes
Everything you do as a real estate agent should come back to caring for your clients in service of helping them find their dream home. That includes creating simpler and easier touchpoints at any stage of their journey. Here are seven opportunities to enhance your client experience with QR Codes.
1. Enhance your business cards
Your business card is an extension of who you are as an agent, so go the extra mile. Rather than just sharing your email, website, or phone number, offer a QR Code that potential clients or partners can instantly scan to connect via your preferred digital channels. After an event or open house, you can look for boosts in traffic to your QR Code to review your performance and potential connections made.
You could even link your QR Code to a customized landing page that offers multiple media types, including photos and videos, and multiple ways to take action with your team.
2. Invite them to reach out
However you want buyers or sellers to take action, a QR Code is one of the quickest and easiest paths you can offer them. Share a QR Code to sign up for a tour when someone passes a house that’s for sale, put an upcoming open house on the calendar, connect to a specific agent from an ad, or learn more about a recommended lender or inspector.
3. Share property information
The old way to share property details during a house tour is to print out copies of the listing—one for yourself, and one each for anyone attending the tour. Instead, provide your clients (or potential buyers, if you’re the listing agent) with a QR Code that they can scan to review the information digitally. This means a quick and easy process, no unnecessary paperwork, and a digital resource that buyers can come back to later.
4. Offer virtual tours
You can only communicate so much of a house’s charm and warmth in a few photos on a printed listing. But you can create an innovative and immersive experience by sharing a QR Code to an online virtual tour, such as a video or a 3D walkthrough of the home. For clients who aren’t able to tour in person or want to make sure the listing is worth their time before touring, this is an informative option and a powerful digital tool to visualize themselves living in the home.
5. Connect them to documents
The homebuying, selling, and even renting processes can be overwhelming, filled with tons of resources and information at every turn. QR Codes are an accessible way to make a complex process simpler. Use QR Codes to direct clients to:
- Register for any portals you use
- Access documents like comparative market analysis (CMA) reports
- View and complete rental applications
- Sign paperwork digitally
- Review their completed documents
Within seconds, they have digital access to helpful and essential documents to ease the entire process.
6. Request valuable feedback
Client feedback is one of the best ways to understand how you and your team are performing, capturing both areas for improvement and glowing testimonials to share as evidence that they should work with you. Provide a QR Code clients can quickly scan when they leave your office to write a review and share their experience in just a few minutes when their interactions with you are still fresh in their mind.
7. Provide homeownership resources
The best agents provide value long before and after the last signature takes place to complete a purchase or sale. Rather than printing out a book’s worth of resources on how to take care of your home, warning signs to look for, or recommended yearly maintenance, offer a few QR Codes from your website, in-office signage, or ads with these materials. They can take the information with them—and keep you top of mind for when someone they know needs a referral or when they want to find their next home.
Open doors to convenience with digital tools
When your clients walk through the front door of their dream home, they usually know it instinctively—and everything they see reinforces that gut feeling. The same goes for their relationship with their agent. When you offer top-notch support right out of the gate and follow through in every interaction, you’ll earn referrals, glowing reviews, future business, and even lasting relationships.
Create connections that are as seamless and convenient as possible with digital tools that make things easier for your clients and your team. With QR Codes, short links, and landing pages from Bitly, you can create authentic connections with your clients every day to make the buying and selling processes that much smoother. Sign up today to get started and help every client feel right at home.
