GotoView will change the face of property marketing – not just during Covid-19
Back in the dark age of 2019, way before a deadly pandemic forced us all to drastically reduce our social interaction, NicheCom had the seeds of an idea to bring to market an accompanied virtual viewing service, combining Matterport’s state of the art 3D virtual tours with video conferencing functionality. We had been receiving feedback from agents that the number of viewings per offer was ever-increasing (prior to the pandemic it was on average 19 per offer), so were hoping that GotoView would improve the home buying process for all those involved.
Fast forward to Spring 2020, and our new ‘GotoView’ tool was barely out of beta testing before it had to be hurriedly rolled out post-lockdown to meet unprecedented demand from agents, vendors and prospective buyers/tenants.
If you’ve not yet familiarised yourself with GotoView, it allows an agent to present a 3D showcase tour of a property via a video call, to answer live questions and easily identify selling opportunities. Vendors don’t have to waste time on pointless tidy-ups and buyers can draw up a shortlist from the comfort of their sofa.
What makes GotoView different from other virtual viewings?
Since the government announced in May that all initial viewings should take place virtually where possible, there have been many players in the market with offerings of varying quality. Agents have had to think on their feet and where no other options available, have sometimes had to resort to presenting a ‘walk through’ via a shaky mobile video call.
Although there are a myriad of different types of virtual viewing, there are none that marry the quality of a Matterport 3D tour with the interactive video conferencing functionality. GotoView leverages crystal clear 3D showcase tours scanned by Matterport’s industry-leading Pro2 3D cameras.
Why GotoView will continue to make an impact post Covid-19
Covid-19 has caused digital transformation to accelerate across all types of industries and many measures put into place to cope with the worst of the crises will be adopted on a more long-term basis. Businesses have had a chance to think about restructuring in order to take advantage of the benefits of using more digital technology as part of their everyday working practices. Accompanied virtual viewings can be used as part of the sales funnel with forward thinking agents already reaping success in terms of managing volumes and resources.
Dan Dewar, Director at Curchods Estate Agents, who are now using GotoView across all 17 sales branches, has said:
“GotoView is part of our long-term strategy to pre-qualify buyers and keep key people in the office and at the coalface. It’s also been a really positive instruction winner for us. “
GotoView has also been widely adopted in the lettings market. Oliver Painter, Branch Manager at Alan de Maid explained why they plan to use GotoView for the foreseeable future:
“Since we started using GotoView, we have discovered we are far more productive than before. It allows us to filter out applicants quicker, means we can deal with higher volumes of enquires and spend more time with the proceedable people. When we return to pre-Covid-19 conditions we will look to keep virtual tours and push the physical viewings to a later stage. Landlords and current tenants are happier with the reduced physical visits.”
Since launching in May, we’ve been extremely grateful to receive constructive feedback from our regular users which has been helping us to evolve the product. We’ve already been able to roll out some technical updates including the ability for an agent to present several different properties in one sitting and to trigger emails requesting instant feedback after each viewing.
All of our (almost 100 strong) team of photographers are now kitted out with Matterport’s Pro2 cameras, enabling them to scan a 3D tour, take photographs, sketch a floorplan and complete an EPC on a single property visit.
Find out more about GotoView or to request a demo please tel 0118 977 0690 or email info@nichecom.co.uk.