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Digital marketing agency Reckless has been shortlisted for Best Platform/Tool of the Year at the 2024 UK Dev Awards.
The nomination is for ‘Willow’, the new homes digital assistant that Reckless built alongside property developer Castle Green Homes.
Willow is a fully integrated housebuilder management system that couples CGI technology with e-commerce, customer relationship management and snagging software. Willow enables both homebuilders and buyers to manage everything digitally, from initial enquiry through to aftercare, in one place.
Senior Project Manager at Reckless, Hannah Worsley, said: “Over the past year we’ve built in lots of new features to enhance the UX of Willow with a focus on accessibility and personalisation. One of our latest features is the ability to directly integrate with leading property portals like Rightmove, Whathouse and OnTheMarket. This has streamlined the home buying journey online, and enables Castle Green to track and nurture prospective buyers using real-time data.”
Reckless also integrated Willow with live chat software MoneyPenny to provide outstanding customer service, and email marketing provider RedEye for targeted and automated campaigns.
With Willow’s CGI virtual tours, buyers and prospective buyers can ‘walk around’ homes and developments to see their new neighbourhood, even before they’re built.
Hannah continued: “We are immensely proud of Willow and what we’ve achieved. It is an extremely complex piece of technology that’s revolutionised the homebuying experience. The results have been phenomenal, with visual CGIs now available for 85% of all extras and an impressive 93% of homeowners stating they’d recommend Castle Green. The project has been so successful that we are already planning the next phase to further enhance Willow’s capabilities.”
Some of the key features within Willow
- Manage and sign all documentation in one digital place, reducing paper collateral.
- Customise homes, order and purchase extras like fittings and materials with CGI, so they can see exactly what they are buying before their house is even built.
- ‘Watch’ homes being built in real-time and see what stage of construction is at so customers can feel more involved.
- Book contractor appointments and raise maintenance issues for faster fixes. These are mapped to the floorplan to show exactly where the issue lies and includes imagery and videography to clearly highlight issues.
- Customise dashboards and track activities including messages, call logs, and sales. They can also see trends in data, such as an increase in enquiries, defects and orders.
- Onboarding videos at every stage to accommodate different IT literacies.
- Accessible 24/7 from anywhere at anytime, for ultimate customer convenience.
To connect the home buying journey online and offline, Reckless also connected Willow with the tablets and touchscreens in Castle Greens’ experience centres. This has brought the sales experience to life as prospective buyers can take virtual tours and customise homes digitally whilst visiting a Castle Green development.
Daniel Dewhurst, Head of Product Development at Reckless said: “Usually, buying homes is stressful and managed across various tools predominately offline. Willow however makes the entire process much easier, more enjoyable and exciting. Building Willow has been one of our most complex web development projects, but by utilising the latest in AGILE and SCRUM methodologies, the team has worked brilliantly together. Being shortlisted for Best Platform/Tool of the Year at the 2024 UK Dev Awards is a testament to the team’s hard work and dedication.”
About Reckless
Digital marketing agency Reckless is based in Liverpool, Chester and Manchester. Founded in 2007, it has a broad and long-standing client base including property developer Castle Green Homes, independent craft beer brewery Polly’s Brew Co and global toy retailer Keycraft.
Reckless now employs a team of over 30 who specialise in SEO, PPC, CRO, online marketplaces and bespoke website development for B2B and B2C e-commerce brands.
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