Enquiries

Alto receives leads (portal leads) from customers who enquire via the leading web portals which publish their statistics; Zoopla and Rightmove, or your website hosted by TechnicWeb.

This article includes: 

• Enabling Leads
• Enquiries from the Main Dashboard
• Portal Leads
• Market Appraisal Enquiries
• Viewing Enquiries

Enabling Leads

First, leads need to be enabled on your Alto account: 

1. Login to Alto
2. Click Tools on the main toolbar
3. On the side menu, under System Tools, click System Administration
4. Click Branches
5. Click Edit next to the relevant branch
6. Search for Leads Enabled (on a PC use Ctrl + F and type leads, on a Mac Cmd + F)
7. Tick the Leads Enabled tickbox
8. Scroll down and click Save 

Enquiries from the Main Dashboard

A summary of your leads is available from the Enquiries widget on the Main Dashboard. It summarises the number of leads received from portals, general website enquiries and viewing requests.  

Click any of the icons to access Enquiries on the Home screen side menu and view the enquiries in more detail.  

Portal Leads

The Portal Leads tab provides a logo indicating which portal the lead came from and an indication as to whether the lead already exists, with a visual indicator of whether a Duplicate is likely, possible or new.  

You can filter by Branch (from the top), filter and/or sort by Intent to separate sales and lettings data (using the Buy, Let, Rent, Sell tickboxes) or sort by Date, Source, Name, Address, Postcode, Phone and Email (by clicking on the relevant column).  

You can inspect each lead if you click on the magnifying glass.  

Duplicates

The Duplicate column shows any possible duplicates using colour coded circles:  

• Red indicates a duplicate lead. This lead will have matched on a number of items (phone number, email address, name etc). These can either be merged with the existing applicant, or dismissed to create a new contact
• Orange indicates a possible duplicate, matching on 1 or 2 items (phone number, email address, name etc). These can either be merged with the existing applicant, or dismissed to create a new contact
• Green indicates a new contact.  Click the tickbox at the start of the row and click Accept

Accepting or rejecting applicants 

Applicants can be imported in bulk or individually.  

• To individually import applicants, click the tickbox at the start of the row and click Accept
• To accept in bulk, click the top tickbox above the rows to select all, (tick which applicants you wish to accept) and click Accept
• To reject applicants, click the tickbox at the start of the row and click Reject

Ensure with each of these processes that you are selecting the correct Negotiator to assign the applicants to. 

Following up the imported leads

• Leads that you have imported as non-duplicates will have created a new contact record. These leads can be found if you:
  1. Click Contacts on the main toolbar
  2. Click Groups in the top left
  3. In Default Groups, click Converted From Leads
  You can go through this group to follow up any new leads. A saved change to a record in this group will remove it from the group as it is assumed you have followed the lead up
• You should make a note of leads that you have merged into an existing record as you merge them, as these don't go into the Converted From Leads group. Use the note you have made of these to follow them up in the existing contact record

Identifying recently imported or merged portal leads

You can produce a list of contacts newly imported from portal leads and/or a list of contacts newly merged from portal leads.
For more information on Identifying recently imported or merged portal leads, click here

Automated response to portal leads

An automated response can be sent by email to any portal lead that comes into the Enquiries section of Alto. To enable this:

1. Click Tools on the main toolbar
2. On the side menu, under System Tools, click System Administration
3. Click Branches
4. Click Edit next to the relevant branch
5. Tick Portal Lead Reply by Email 
6. Scroll down and click Save

If you wish to change the content of the email that is sent:

1. Click Tools on the main toolbar
2. On the side menu, under System Tools, click System Administration
3. Click Email Templates
4. Click Page Down until you see the PortalLeadReply template
5. Click Edit and amend the Content as required
6. Click Save

Market Appraisal Enquiries

Once a customer has requested a market appraisal from your website, a request will be displayed in Alto.  

You can filter by Branch (from the top), or sort by appraisal Type, Address, Name, Phone or email (by clicking on the relevant column).

Booking Market Appraisals

On the Market Appraisal Enquiries tab:

1. Using the dropdown menu, click the relevant Negotiator who will be attending the appointment 
2. Click on the appropriate time Slot
3. Details of the customer and the property display on the Add a Market Appraisal or Property form
   
   1. Alternatively, you can add a new vendor, and property
4. Click Amend if you need to amend the time of the Market Appraisal
   1. Alternatively, select one of the time slots from the left hand side
5. Click Next 
6. On completion, click Finish

Viewing Enquiries

Viewing requests from your website are managed from the Viewing Enquiries tab.

You can filter by Branch (from the top), or sort by Date, Market, Name, Email, Phone or Duplicate (by clicking on the relevant column).

Duplicates

There are 3 possible status for duplicates that appear on the right hand side of the Viewing Enquiries section of Enquiries.  

• Known Contact is when an applicant has logged into their PropertyFile account at the point of requesting the viewing
  1. Click one of the times they have requested
  2. In the Viewing window, click Save Viewing
• New Contact is when an applicant has clicked Continue as guest when requesting the viewing and doesn't have a PropertyFile account, a contact record within Alto, and isn't a possible duplicate
  1. Click one of the times they have requested
  2. Alto asks if you are happy to accept the contact. Click Yes to proceed
     1. You can invite the applicant to PropertyFile from here, if required
  3. In the Viewing window, click Save Viewing
• Possible Duplicate is when an applicant might already have a PropertyFile account or a contact record within Alto
  1. Click the magnifying glass
  2. Check what the applicant has Matched On
  3. If you're happy, click Merge
     1. You can also click Preview to open the contact record on the right hand side (click Open Contact to open the full contact record)

Actions

The Actions dropdown menu on the far right gives you the option to Decline and Email & Decline the viewing request.  

• Decline will decline the viewing
• Email & Decline will open an email which can be edited. Click Send to send the email and decline the viewing request

Related articles:

PropertyFile Applicant Portal

Activating your website widget

PropertyFile Vendor Portal

PropertyFile Landlord Portal

PropertyFile Maintenance - overview, setup and configuration