Being the largest homebuilder in America comes with a lot of responsibility.
D.R. Horton has been delivering dream homes and high-quality construction since 1978. And since 2002, more homebuyers have chosen D.R. Horton than any other national builder.
Pretty impressive, right? On the outside, D.R. Horton is a thriving business, but internally, the company struggled to keep up with potential leads coming in.
In the real estate industry, the cost per lead is high, averaging around $500. Therefore, if leads are slipping through the cracks and not properly tracked and followed up with, you could miss out on thousands of dollars. Ouch.
But, with CallRail’s Lead Center, D.R. Horton flipped the switch. Not only were they able to effectively track and follow up with leads, but they were also able to save more money down the line, save time, and increase their revenue significantly.
Challenge: No visibility into leads
D.R. Horton has office locations all over the country, ranging from large to small teams. Specifically, The D.R. Horton division in New Mexico operates on a small team, consisting of eleven sales representatives and one online sales counselor.
With a team that small, it can be tough to manage and track all the leads that come in. Before CallRail, the builder had little to no visibility into incoming leads, which posed major problems. According to D.R. Horton’s Online Sales Counselor, TJ Meaney, there was too much “ambiguity and grayness.”
Due to a lack of visibility that led to improper follow-up, there would be double communication with leads — a major no-no. “There would be a lot of frustrated customers being asked the same questions and contacted multiple times,” said Meaney.
Since D.R. Horton is a big name within real estate, calls would come in from multiple locations, and there would be no way to decipher where those calls were coming from. As a result, there was no way to forward them to the correct sales representative to answer whatever questions they had.
So, how did D.R. Horton, New Mexico solve these issues and make a huge turnaround with their lead management?
Lead Center saves the day
Once D.R. Horton implemented Lead Center, the company hit the ground running and worked through its challenges.
Communication consolidation
Lead Center drastically improved D.R. Horton’s communication process. Before, the company was using Google Voice as their communication platform, which doesn’t offer analytics and is limited in its functionality.
Combined with Call Tracking, Lead Center lets them see the details of each communication that comes in, allowing for quick reference and easy monitoring into call transcripts and recordings.
Meaney calls Lead Center simply “amazing,” allowing the company to know if leads are converting, being forwarded to the right community, and being followed up with properly.
Team performance boost
When calls come in, their first contact is Meaney; then, he assigns them out to sales representatives. Before CallRail, the reps didn’t have all the information they needed to answer many callers’ questions.
Using call recordings, a Call Tracking feature, with Lead Center and Call Tracking together, TJ discovered gaps in training. He was able to address those training opportunities and level up his team.
Now reps know how to handle each call better and reference prior calls to gain the insights they need for every lead they’re serving.
Another plus — Lead Center helps spot top performers in the company. “Giving kudos, especially to sales representatives, is a huge thing. Listening to these phone calls, and knowing they killed it, referred [leads] to the right place, and communicated [information] well, is a really nice thing to be able to do,” said Meaney.
Email notifications with recording links
D.R. Horton set up email notifications for every missed call, along with a voice mail recording link. Meaney pushes them to the proper community, giving the sales reps in those communities access to the recording as well.
“It was such a pain, making sure leads got the help they needed and making sure that they were going to the right place,” said Meaney. “And email notifications with recordings have been huge.” For Meaney and the management staff, seeing what happened in phone calls has made lead tracking and follow-up a lot easier.
The results: All-around company growth
Revenue growth and cost savings
D.R. Horton’s revenue has increased significantly over the last year and a half after implementing CallRail’s Lead Center. Since their leads are now properly being tracked and followed up with, every high-dollar lead gets the attention it needs, leading to more revenue for the company and fewer leads going down the drain.
Performance at a glance
“With CallRail’s Lead Center, our lead management went from a free-for-all, firing from the hip situation to an organized, strategized, and thought out workflow.”
Lead Center gives you visibility into each lead (call, text, web form submission, and chat communication) and whether or not they were answered, missed, and contacted.
As a result, every single communication is visible in one view, allowing for easier lead tracking. According to Meaney, “I can do one person’s whole job because of this tool.”
Better time management and communication
Because of Lead Center, sales representatives can spend more time doing what actually matters — proper follow-up and lead management. Time spent finding lead information and researching team responses and lead status has been cut in half. And as a result, lead handoff is more fluid, and there’s better communication and alignment between office and sales teams.
If Lead Center can help America’s largest homebuilder secure more revenue and transform their lead tracking and lead management, imagine what it can do for your business. Prevent your leads from slipping through the cracks — try our 14-day free trial of Lead Center today to get started.
