AI Readiness Checklist

Web enquiries get a response within 5 minutes

Harvard research shows leads contacted within 5 minutes are 100× more likely to convert than those contacted after 30 minutes. Most agencies take 2–8 hours. If you can't do this manually, you need automation.

Leads are captured outside office hours (evenings, weekends)

40–60% of property searches happen after 6pm and on weekends. If your website just shows a contact form at 9pm on a Sunday, you're losing your highest-intent visitors to whoever responds first.

You measure your average response time to new enquiries

You can't improve what you don't measure. Pull your last 20 web leads and check the time between submission and first human response. Most agencies are shocked by the result.

Enquiries are automatically routed to the right person/branch

A vendor valuation request from Exeter shouldn't sit in a shared inbox until someone in head office notices it. Automatic routing by enquiry type and location eliminates delays.

You know your website's visitor-to-enquiry conversion rate

The industry average is 1–3%. If you don't know yours, set up GA4 goal tracking on every form submission and phone click. This is the baseline for measuring any improvement.

Your website has multiple lead capture paths (not just a contact form)

High-performing sites offer instant online valuations, area guides behind an email gate, mortgage calculators, and proactive chat. A single "Contact Us" form is a conversion ceiling.

You can track a website visitor from first click to instruction

Attribution matters. If you can't tell whether a vendor came from Google, Rightmove, or a local Facebook ad, you're spending blind. UTM parameters + CRM source tracking closes this gap.

You know your cost per lead by channel

Portal leads, Google Ads, organic, social, referrals — each has a different cost and conversion rate. If you can't calculate cost-per-instruction by channel, you're likely overspending somewhere.

Lead sources are tagged in your CRM

Every new contact should have a source: website chat, portal, walk-in, referral, etc. Without this, you can't measure ROI on marketing spend or identify which channels deserve more budget.

You review lead performance data at least monthly

Not just total leads — conversion rates by source, response times, lost lead reasons. The best agencies run a monthly "lead quality review" that directly informs marketing and training decisions.

Your CRM has API access or webhook capability

AI tools need to push qualified leads directly into your CRM in real time. Street, Alto, Reapit, and Dezrez all support this. If you're on an older system without API access, this is a ceiling on what automation can do for you.

Your property descriptions are detailed and consistent

AI assistants reference your listing copy to answer visitor questions. If descriptions are sparse, inconsistent, or missing key details (parking, garden, chain status), the AI can't give good answers — and visitors won't convert.

You have FAQ-style knowledge about your services documented somewhere

AI agents are only as good as the information they can draw from. Fees, process timelines, area coverage, EPC requirements — if it's in someone's head but not written down, AI can't use it. Even a basic internal document helps enormously.

You've defined when AI should hand off to a human (and who that human is)

The best AI knows what it doesn't know. A vendor asking for a valuation shouldn't be stuck in a chatbot loop — they need a negotiator within minutes. Define your escalation triggers before you go live, not after.

What are your fees? Do you do accompanied viewings? What areas do you cover? What's your average time to sell? AI tools ingest this to give accurate, on-brand answers. If it only exists in people's heads, the AI can't use it.

Every new lead has a named owner within your team

Leads that sit in a shared inbox get slow or zero follow-up. Whether it's round-robin, geographic, or by branch — there should be clear, automatic ownership from the moment a lead arrives.

You have a follow-up sequence for leads that don't convert immediately

Most leads aren't ready to instruct on day one. Do you have a structured 7/14/30 day follow-up cadence? Email drip? SMS check-in? The fortune is in the follow-up — 80% of sales happen after the 5th contact.

You track "lost lead" reasons (why enquiries don't convert to instructions)

Was it price? Timing? Went with another agent? This data is gold for improving both your human and AI processes. If you don't track it, every lost lead teaches you nothing.