Slack & Zapier Integration: Use Case

  • Updated

Showcase IDX has a number of direct integrations with platforms like FollowUpBoss and Salesforce, but two of these integrations in particular can be made to work together to integrate with nearly any platform available, including your custom application.

Slack integrates with over 2,400 apps and services and Zapier with over 5,000. Theoretically, you can link Showcase IDX, Slack and Zapier to pretty much any system intended for relationship management that offers an API connection. 


General
In most of the flows we've seen, Showcase IDX sits both at the beginning and throughout the home buyers journey, taking the initial information and passing it along either directly to an agent, or to a more comprehensive relationship management / CRM system. The key to successfully leveraging these moments when users interact with your site is knowing what can be inferred from the data collected.

 

An example flow before we get into the details:

Jim_s_Whiteboard__2_.jpg

This is what we commonly see with most accounts that integrate with Zapier and/or Slack. Most of the time it's set up so that either a Listing or a Lead is established as a channel or posts to a dedicated channel in Slack so that all conversations can be focused there. Zapier handles alerting Agents to New Leads and any messages received, but not much further than that.


This is enough to cover the basics, but with slightly more time put into it, you can start collecting and analyzing a lot more data thats already available to you.

Jim_s_Whiteboard__3_.jpg


In this setup, you're collecting information about the Lead in a much more detailed way, seeing what their price range may be and what kind of listings they're looking at. Since in this configuration there's an assumed CRM solution to store this data, Zapier will be instrumental in tailoring what parts of the mass of data that comes from an interaction through Showcase IDX and flows into your system.

 

Below we will go into more detail of what events can trigger Zaps or Slack events along with what data can be included along with those events. This is done to give you an idea of all that is available to you data-wise when connecting to Showcase IDX.

 

Showcase and Zapier
Showcase IDX can initiate a Zap in two instances, one is when a new lead signs up and the other is when they contact you through the listing. When registered, Showcase IDX can send the following information along with that Zap:

ID (Randomly assigned at creation to identify a lead uniquely)
First and Last Name 
Email
Phone
Created_at and Updated_at (The date and time the lead was created and last edited in SIDX)
Assigned_to (The agent this lead was assigned to, if lead routing was enabled or if the lead was assigned manually)
But when a user messages in or requests a tour, there is MUCH more information available:

All the same Lead info that would come from registration above is included in each messages Zap data. Along with that is information about the listing the user was viewing when they sent the message. (This list subject to change per-MLS and per-listing based on detail availability, but this list includes the most commonly available attributes)

Type

Content

Created_at

Listing_details

Orig_mls_number

First_seen_dts

Sale_type

Listing_type

Property_type

Property_type_id

Status

Foreclosure

Short_sale

Description

Virtual_tour_url

Listing_office

Listing_office_id

Listing_agent

Listing_agent_id

Colisting_agent_id

Bedrooms

Bathrooms

Fullbaths

Halfbaths

Price

Taxes

Tax_year

Hoa_monthly

Year_built
Sqft

Sqft_source

Acres

School_district

Elementary_school

Middle_school

High_school

County

City

State

Citystate

Zip

Address

Subdivision

Street_name

Building

Unit_number

Latitude
Longitude
Parking Spaces

Sewer

Electric

Heating

Electric

Basement

Cooling

Heating

Appliances

View

Pool

Pets

Categories

General

Parking Spaces

Sewer

Electric

Interior

Heating

Exterior

View

Community

Pets

Pool

View

Garage

Carport

Fireplace

Basement

Waterfront

View

Orderable

Parking Spaces

Sewer

Eco_friendly

Single_story

Ada_accessible

Indexed_dts

Service_id

History

Openhouses

Images

State

County

City

Public_mls_id

Public_mls_number

Crea_tracking_listing_id

Recommended

Views

Saves

Hidden

Comments

Reactions


This allows you to see what the Lead is looking at, what kind of price range they're thinking of, etc. However even further to this, you can start to collect information about all of your Leads and how all of them behave. This can lead to improving listing details, targeting feedback inquiries, improving sales flow practices, the list is significant.

This is the data that you can act on that will grow your business in a sustainable, meaningful way.
Showcase and Slack

If you are building a custom application or technology stack and would like to integrate with SIDX, our Premium Slack integration may work well for you. Slack has an extensive API. Multiple partners have used Showcase IDX’s integration with Slack to pull the type of information above into their applications above. Your development team can follow follow the Slack API documentation linked above, connect each SIDX account through Slack, and then use a parser to extract the information you need into your application. The specifics will of course depend on your application and needs, but this will give you a large amount of flexibility.

Showcase IDX is able to trigger events in Slack in a lot more circumstances than it can with Zapier at the writing of this article. Slack actions can be triggered when the following events occur:
When Showcase IDX can trigger Slack: What Slack can do when triggered by Showcase IDX:
New Leads
Messages
Viewed Listings
Saved Listings
Hidden Listings
Subscribed Searches
Reactions
Comments
Send Messages
Set Topics
Add Reminders
Update Profiles
Set Statuses
Invite to Channel

 

This means that when a Lead messages in about a listing, all of the information from the above sections such as property, agent and pricing data can be included along with it.

Example automation:

  • Reply back with a Community Page of the area the Lead asked for a tour of, potentially adding more desired properties to a day of touring.
  • Alert your Agents when certain searches are subscribed to, since this now means if they update that search, the included listings will be sent in a curated list to an already interested Lead.
  • Take note of which listings are hidden on a regular basis, analyze those listings to see if there is a problem with the description or images that either makes it unappealing or otherwise appearing inappropriately among other listings.
  • See which users are interacting with your website and when, in a readable per-Lead channel in Slack or in a note database of your own choosing. This lets you see the best times to reach out to them about buying.

Anything you would normally do out of habit, you can often set up an integration to handle it automatically for you, its all about getting that initial alert from Showcase IDX at the right time, and taking the right action.