The short answer
Database calling means ringing applicants already in your records when a property they might want becomes available. Done well, it books some of the easiest viewings you will get, because the applicant already knows you. Done carelessly, it breaks the rules on marketing calls. The safe version is simple. Ring people who asked to hear from you, screen every number against the TPS, say who is calling, and make every call about something they actually wanted. Voco runs these calls for you: it rings only people who agreed, screens every number first, and books viewings on the call.
Why is the applicant database worth ringing?
A popular two-bed can attract more applicants than it has viewing slots. One person gets the flat, and the rest go back into a list that nobody has time to ring. Six weeks later a similar flat comes up on the next street, and the agency advertises it to strangers while the people who wanted exactly that are sitting in its own records.
Ringing them back is not cold calling. They know your name and they have already told you what they want. What usually stops it is time. Twenty calls take a morning, and each unfilled enquiry has a value you can work out with the letting agent calculator. Half the calls go unanswered, and the ones that connect need notes on budget and move-in date that are somewhere in someone's inbox.
Who can a letting agent ring from its database?
A call that promotes a property to let is a marketing call. The ICO's guidance on telephone marketing sets out the rules under PECR. In plain words:
- Screen against the TPS and CTPS. Numbers registered with the Telephone Preference Service, or its corporate version, should not get marketing calls.
- Specific consent overrides that. You can ring someone who has specifically agreed to marketing calls from you, even if their number is registered.
- Automated calls need their own consent. If a call is automated, the person must have agreed to that type of call, not just to hearing from you in general.
- Always say who is calling, show your number, and give contact details if asked.
The ICO guidance does not yet say how an AI voice that holds a real conversation should be treated, and it notes the guidance is under review. So Voco takes the cautious route on every campaign. People must have agreed to be called, and the question they agreed to says it may be an AI assistant calling. This is not legal advice. If your situation is unusual, check with your own adviser.
Build the list at the moment people enquire
The easiest consent to get is the one you ask for while the applicant is still interested. When someone rings about a property that has gone, or does not suit them, Voco can ask:
"Would you like us to ring you when something comes up? It may be our AI assistant calling."
Everyone who says yes joins a list, with a note that they asked on a call. The wording is set by default, and Voco only adds people who clearly said yes. Over a few months this becomes the most valuable list your agency holds, because every person on it chose to be there.
Upload your own list and make every call personal
You may already keep applicants who agreed to hear from you in a spreadsheet or your CRM. Export them as a CSV and upload them to a campaign. Up to 2,000 people fit on one list.
Voco needs a name and a phone number. Everything else in the file is useful too:
- A Tags column becomes tags you can filter by, such as "two-bed" or "students".
- Every other column becomes a note that Voco uses on that person's call. A column called Budget with £1,100 in it reaches the call as "Budget: £1,100", so the conversation starts from what the applicant told you rather than from scratch.
Before the first upload, the account owner completes an identity check and the business is checked against Companies House. Outbound calling is only switched on for verified businesses, which protects the people being rung and your number's reputation.
Write the campaign in four parts
A campaign is a short brief. Voco does the calling; you tell it what the call is for.
- The goal. What a good call ends with, for example "Book a viewing".
- The opening line. The first thing the person hears after Voco says who it is.
- The rules. What Voco must and must not do, such as "Do not discuss the landlord" or "If they have already found somewhere, wish them well and end the call".
- The facts. Up to twelve facts about the property: rent, area, when it is available, pets, bills.
For lettings there is a ready-made template called Something now available. Its goal is to book a viewing, and its opening line is: "You asked us to let you know when [what they asked about] came up, and it has." You change the bracketed part and add the facts.
Campaigns can run once, repeat weekly, and stop on a date you set, so a property that lets on Tuesday does not keep generating calls on Thursday.
What does a database call sound like?
Voco opens with your agency's name and says it is your AI assistant. It reminds the applicant they asked to hear about properties like this, then gives the headline facts. If they are interested, it books a viewing into the times you have set, on the call, and the applicant then gets the usual confirmation and reminder sequence. If now is not a good time, it notes when to try again.
Each call ends with an outcome: interested, booked, not interested, call back later or wrong person. You can add up to three of your own, such as "already found somewhere". The campaign report shows how many people were rung, how many answered, and how many viewings were booked. That last number is the one that matters.
The safeguards that run on every call
These are not settings you have to remember. They run every time.
- TPS and CTPS screening. Every number is checked before it is rung. A number that cannot be checked is treated as not callable for marketing.
- Calling hours. Only between 8am and 9pm, inside your opening hours and any window you set for the campaign.
- Sensible retries. At least four hours between tries, and a full day after reaching a voicemail. Voco does not leave voicemails.
- Stop means stop. Anyone who asks not to be rung again is not rung again.
- Your incoming calls come first. A campaign makes no more than two calls at once from each list, and it pauses if your balance runs low.
What it costs
Campaign calls are billed like any other call: Voco costs about 29p a minute with no monthly fee and no contract, and the pay as you go pricing page explains how per-minute billing works. If a campaign rings forty people who asked to hear from you and books six viewings, it has done in an afternoon what would otherwise take a negotiator a couple of mornings.
Campaigns sit alongside Voco's other outbound calls, such as ringing back a missed caller a minute later. For how this fits into the rest of a lettings week, see how AI fits into a lettings week.
Want to hear the voice before you put it in front of applicants? Ring the property demo.
