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EatNgage is a marketing tool based around scheduling virtual lunch meetings with clients and prospects.
Platforms: Browser; mobile optimized
Ideal for: Agents who specialize in relocation; geographically diverse teams; coaches; team leads
Top selling points
- Easy scheduling tools
- Very novel idea
- Automated follow-ups
Top concerns
Scheduling a lunch meeting to eat in front of monitors and webcams might be a tough concept for a high-touch industry like real estate to grasp.
What you should know
EatNgage is an online conference tool that helps agents and professionals schedule remote lunch meetings.
The company has partnered with two meal delivery services, Delivery.com and EatStreet, that will deliver food to your contact so he or she can enjoy a meal with you (in front of a webcam, of course).
Meal options are limited to restaurants located in the areas that choose to participate. EatNgage has a full-time staff member assigned to securing restaurant agreements.
I was unable to have a meal provided for my demo because, well, I live in Truckee, California, where the franchise presence is deliberately limited.
Nevertheless, I was impressed by the invitation and meeting confirmation process.
Meeting invites can be custom designed and sent to multiple parties; notifications come back as each person confirms and orders.
When a calendar invitation is sent, the recipient can choose a meal. (Or decline a food option, which then makes the appointment a typical online conference call.)
If they choose to dine, a budget is set and menus are made available. As of now, many options are major franchises, such as Cheesecake Factory and Dominos.
The overall concept is novel, and there’s value in the other aspects of the software.
In fact, I believe removing the entire “online lunch” concept would make the product more palatable. Yet, it would also place them directly in the middle of a market dominated by names like LogMeIn (GoToMeeting), Microsoft (Skype), and UberConference.
I admire their successful effort in creating a differentiator.
The scheduling capabilities are sharp and fast, integrating nicely with Outlook and Google Calendar.
Meeting times are listed in 30-minute increments, and won’t show timeframes already booked. Meeting details are presented vertically in a right-hand column.
There’s automated follow-up capabilities and an 8-week email campaign creation module with tracking features.
They’ve created a Gmail invite widget that embeds in your compose window and can launch the appointment process.
I think a lot of agents are firmly embedded with email tools available through their CRMs, or stand alone offerings like MailChimp, eMerge and Constant Contact.
I think coaches, team leads and sales consultants could benefit from the entire model. Sending a few meals to small gathering of remote employees or coaching clients would be a nice touch.
Agents who have a client relocating from across a busy urban area (where commutes are brutal) should give eatNgage a try.
Again, the infrastructure is solid — the guys behind the product don’t lack in software development skills or user experience design.
In summary, if you want to send a meal to a friend before you jump on a webcam together, this is the software for that.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe.
