The short answer
Yes. Voco answers questions about your properties from the property list you keep in your dashboard, looked up live while the applicant is talking. It tells them the rent, whether bills are included, the deposit, furnishing, the pets position and when the property is available. Then it books a viewing. It never reads out your private viewing notes, and it never guesses anything you have not entered.
Why do generic answers lose lettings enquiries?
An applicant who rings about a flat has three questions: is it still available, what does it cost, and when can I see it. A receptionist who can only say "someone will call you back" has answered none of them. The applicant hangs up and rings the next agent on the portal.
The fix is not a cleverer script. It is giving whoever answers the phone the same facts your negotiator would look up, and the authority to book the viewing.
What goes into a property record?
Each property in Voco has a short record. Most of it is what you would put on a listing anyway:
- A reference, which is how Voco names the property on the call. Make it descriptive, such as "Two-bed flat, Linthorpe Road", because that is what the applicant will hear.
- The address and postcode, which help Voco find the right property when a caller names a street.
- Rent, weekly or monthly, and whether bills are included.
- Deposit.
- Available from, if it is not available now.
- A room or the whole property.
- Furnished, part furnished or unfurnished.
- Pets.
- Status: available, under offer, let or inactive.
- Viewing times and how long each viewing slot lasts.
- Viewing notes, for your team only.
You can hold up to 500 properties. Properties are added in the dashboard, and changing a status takes one click.
What does the applicant hear?
Say an applicant rings and asks about "the flat on Linthorpe Road". Voco searches your list by reference, address and postcode, finds the match and answers from the record. For example:
"That's the two-bed flat on Linthorpe Road. It's the whole property, £850 a month with bills on top, a deposit of £980, unfurnished, and it's available from 1 December. Would you like to book a viewing?"
If several properties match and the caller has not said enough, Voco asks which area or budget suits them rather than reading out a long list. If nothing matches what they said, it goes through what you do have.
Two details are handled with care because the law and good practice both point that way:
- Pets. If a property is marked as pets welcome, Voco says so. If it is marked no, Voco never gives a flat refusal. It says pets are by request and the landlord considers each one, because, under the government's guidance on pets, a tenant can ask in writing to keep a pet and a landlord has 28 days to reply and cannot refuse without a fair reason.
- Under offer. A property under offer is described as only available if the current offer falls through. Voco never calls it available now, and it offers a property that is.
The questions applicants ask, and where each answer comes from
Most lettings calls are made of the same handful of questions. This is where Voco finds each answer, and what happens when the record does not hold it.
| The applicant asks | Where the answer comes from | If it is not in the record |
|---|---|---|
| Is it still available? | Status and available from | Always answerable: every property has a status |
| How much is the rent? | Rent, weekly or monthly | Voco says the team will confirm the rent |
| Are bills included? | Bills included | Read with the rent |
| How much is the deposit? | Deposit | Left out, and passed to the team if asked |
| Can I bring my dog? | Pets | Passed to the team |
| Is it furnished? | Furnished, part furnished or unfurnished | Passed to the team |
| Is it a room or the whole place? | Room or whole property | Always answerable |
| Is there parking? | Not a field in the record | Passed to the team, never guessed |
| When can I see it? | The property's viewing times | Voco takes details for a call back |
Anything that sits outside the record, such as parking or the nearest station, can go in the reference if it is the first thing applicants ask about, for example "Two-bed flat with parking, Linthorpe Road". Keep the reference short enough to say out loud.
What Voco keeps back, and what it will not guess
Viewing notes are never read out. That is where agencies tend to keep key safe codes, alarm details and notes about the landlord, and none of it belongs on a call.
Voco also only describes properties from your list, in the words of the record. If the applicant asks something that is not in it, such as parking or the exact address, Voco says your team will confirm. That is deliberate. A confident wrong answer about a property costs you more than a short wait for the right one.
A property marked as let is never offered. Because Voco reads the record at the moment the caller asks, a flat you mark as let at 10am is not offered to someone ringing at 11am.
Booking the viewing on the same call
Once the applicant is interested, Voco offers times from that property's own viewing times, matched to when they said they could come. They pick one and it is booked against the property, with a confirmation text on its way.
If they want to check with someone first, Voco texts them a link to the property's booking page so they can choose a time themselves. The link never gets read out on the call; it arrives by text.
Either way, the enquiry lands on your Lettings board with the property attached, so your team sees who is coming to what. For what happens between booking and the viewing itself, see how letting agents can cut viewing no-shows.
The same answers on chat and WhatsApp
Applicants do not only ring. The same property lookup and viewing booking work in Voco's website chat and on WhatsApp, so the answer an applicant gets does not depend on how they got in touch. When Voco drafts a reply to an enquiry email, it can check the same list for the rent and availability, although email replies wait for you to send them. See answering portal email enquiries for how that works.
Getting the records right
The answers are only as good as the records, so spend twenty minutes on them before you switch the lookup on:
- Write references the way you would describe the property out loud.
- Fill in rent, deposit, bills and pets for every available property.
- Set viewing times you will actually keep, with a realistic slot length.
- Put anything private in viewing notes, not in the reference.
- Mark properties under offer or let the moment it happens.
Then ring your own number and ask about each property as an applicant would. You can be live in minutes, and about an hour is enough to tune it properly. Voco costs about 29p a minute with no monthly fee and no contract.
This is one part of a wider lettings set-up, covered in AI for letting agents, from first call to rent day. For the call handling side, see how Voco handles lettings calls, or ring the property demo and ask about a flat.
