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Purplebricks farms out its customer service to Alexa

From today onward its vendors will be able to bypass any human contact and manage their home's sale via Amazon's digital voice assistant.

Nigel Lewis

Purplebricks has revealed that from today onwards vendors will be able to use Amazon’s Alexa digital voice assistant to manage many aspects of their property’s sale.

This includes playing back messages from their Purplebricks LPE, managing their viewings and finding out how many people have viewed their home and how many offers of interest have been made.

Purplebricks claims that a survey of its customer base recently revealed that nearly two thirds of its vendors would prefer to be updated electronically rather than via a phone call or face-to-face meeting, and that approximately 50% want regular daily updates on their home sale.

This, the company claims, is why it decided to add an Alexa capability to its system.

Its Chief Marketing Officer Ed Hughes says: “It keeps our customers in constant touch and frees up our property experts to get on with selling houses”.

Trevor Abrahmsohn, Glentree Int, imageIn comments to a national newspaper, North London estate agent Trevor Abrahamson of Glentree International (left) said that: “It’s a great marketing gimmick, but I don’t believe you will get an intelligent response.

“If Alexa says there are no viewings, for instance, you might think your property is unsellable. But there might be a good reason — it might be half-term.

“The problem with online agents is the lack of human contact. Are you really going to hand sale of your largest asset to an online agent?”.

Purplebricks is not the only agent to embrace Alexa. In April this year Hunters began using the digital voice assistant to generate valuation leads via the service.

December 9, 2019

One comment

  1. Will Alexa also be giving her thoughts on the financials that Purplebricks are about to release in the next few days?

    Which some cynics would say was timed to be buried amid election mayhem. What is a real shame is that this company has taken the human element out of the real estate process, and replaced it with a ‘turnip’ much like the solutions found in Black Adder, by the master of strategy Baldrick.

    Why do the c-suite at the mighty purplebricks including Vic, not reach out to the real solution solvers?

    A quick call to Eddie Holmes Co-founder at Unissu, would certainly get a better fit as a proptech solution, than Alexa or a turnip.

    So, Vic my advice, before those quickly disappearing millions are all burnt through, make that call and get some proper, free procurement advice on how best to solve your mounting problems.

    If you need Unissu’s number I am sure Alexa knows…

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