Interview with Erik Backer, Co-Founder and CEO of Portal.chat

Erik Backer, Co-Founder, and CEO of Portal.chat
26 November 2018
Gordana Davila
Recently we caught up with Erik Backer, Co-Founder, and CEO of Portal.chat at the 24th Property Portal Watch Conference in Madrid.
The decade-old Netherlands-based Portal.chat offers online real estate sites an instant messaging app that also supports live video and audio chat. 
“We have a plug and play solution that allows real estate classified sites and marketplaces, anywhere in the world, to offer a live chat solution between consumers and the listings owners or between the advertisers (the agents) and the real estate site.
“In the past 18 months, we have noticed that there has been a significant increase in the use of chat and it can no longer be ignored as a communication channel,” stated Backer.
He also added that the use of chat is generational with the younger generations using chat as their prime method of communication with some never even answering the phone when it rings.
Backer stresses that Portal.chat can be used as a new income stream for online real estate classified sites and marketplaces as well as a communication channel. "With the implementation of our new artificial intelligence, a chatbot can take over all first point of communication and if the chatbot is unable to answer a query, it forwards it immediately to the owner,” stated Becker.
When asked if companies need to be convinced to use chat, Backer commented, “They know that somewhere down the line, they will need to use chat. It’s the same process as it was with email, some 20+ years ago. The challenge is to be at the top of their priority list.”
Simon Baker, the founder of the Property Portal Watch Conference commented: “classifieds sites and marketplaces have to step up their game and look for more ways to inject themselves into the real estate process. Portal.chat and other chatbot providers can bridge the communications gap between the renter or buyer and the agent, landlord or project marketer.  In this way, classifieds sites and marketplaces can become even more relevant to all parties involved in the real estate transaction.”
With over a dozen Property Portal Watch Conferences under his belt Backer said that “Being at the Conferences, Portal.chat has been able to increase our name recognition and generated significantly more business,” concluded Backer.
The above article was originally published on OnlineMarketplaces.com and can be found by clicking here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

REVIEW - Stomp '13

Image
Written by Gordana Andjelic-Davila    Friday, 23 August 2013 08:07   After two decades of impressing audiences around the globe, the Brighton, UK and Manhattan-based dance troupe known as Stomp has come back to Australian shores. My first exposure to the troupe was in the US back in 1997, at the Orpheum Theatre, by which time New Yorkers had already enjoyed numerous performances over the years. For me it was all very new. I was impressed by its originality and awestruck from the first matchbox shake. If you have never heard of Stomp , imagine a sort of post apocalyptic junkyard, where its inhabitants or workers have rummaged through the scraps and salvaged such things as large plastic rubbish bins, metal paint buckets, shopping trolleys, rubber tubes, newspapers, etc. After which, these overall clad scruffy individuals perform a mind blowing percussion symphony which varies from Spanish Flamenco-like clapping to Brazilian Samba ...
Read more

Why a flying gondola?

In a nutshell... When I was ten years old, my family went on a touristic excursion from my little city (Trieste) to the world renown Venice. No one prepared me for what my eyes were about to experience, or my soul was to absorb on that day, but the canal city made such a powerful impression on me that I fell in love with it, completely and totally. Yes, even the smelly garbage laden water which is everywhere, and its smell permeates the air... especially on a hot day. I have seen a lot of the world since then, but I still hold Venice on a pedestal, as my favorite city of all. Every time I am in its vicinity, I make a little pilgrimage to itt. Once I cross the bridge from the main train station to the city, it's as if I have crossed into another realm. Cars do not exist in Venice; the streets are substituted by canals, therefore the only means of transportation is by boat. Big, medium, small and extra tiny, you can see them floating like they have for centuries. The other way to...
Read more