AgentFront 1.2: a new email engine and seven Australian voices

Most of what AgentFront does in a day comes down to two jobs: writing replies to rental enquiries, and holding a conversation with whoever rings an agent's forwarded line. AgentFront 1.2 rebuilds the core of both. The changes went live in two releases, on 13 and 21 October.

On the email side, the problem is that a rentals inbox carries far more than enquiries. Rental application notifications, forwarded emails, colleagues replying to a thread and mail from inside the agency all land in the same place, and none of them should get a reply written for a prospective tenant. On the phone side, every caller type needs a conversation that captures what the agent will need when they ring back.

What changed in rental enquiry replies?

A new AI engine now writes the replies. The rules it works to are unchanged: each reply states only what the current realestate.com.au listing says, sits in the enquiry's own thread, and waits for approval unless the agency has turned on auto-reply.

Several details changed with it:

• Every reply now ends with a short closing line. For agencies on Outlook, where replies can't carry a personal signature, that gives every reply a consistent close.
• An advertised available-from date that has already passed now reads "available now", instead of a date in the past.
• When a rewritten draft promises the enquirer a follow-up, a task is created so someone on the team does it.
• The reply box shows paragraph gaps exactly as the email will arrive, so what a property manager approves is what the enquirer reads.

How does AgentFront tell an enquiry from everything else?

Incoming email now passes a screening step before a reply is written. Emails that are not enquiries, such as rental application notifications, are set aside. An email the assistant can't classify goes to Needs review, so a person decides what it is.

Three further rules keep the list of open enquiries accurate:

• A forwarded email is not treated as a reply.
• When a person on your team replies to an enquiry themselves, the thread is filed.
• Mail from your own agency's domain does not open an enquiry, so a colleague's email is not treated as a tenant's.

The Rental Enquiry Email Assistant page sets out what the assistant answers and what it leaves for your team.

Which voices can the Phone Assistant use?

There are now seven Australian voices. Five are new (Arlo, Callum, Cooper, Ella and Olivia) and join Grace and Paul. Each has a sample clip in the voice picker, so an agency can hear them all before choosing.

How does the rebuilt conversation work?

The conversation engine behind the Phone Assistant has been rebuilt. Each caller type now has its own script and a clear list of what to capture from that caller, so the record an agent opens after a call holds the details they need for the follow-up.

Other changes to the conversation:

• The agency's custom instructions now apply to every caller type.
• Dates and numbers are spoken the way Australians say them.
• A rental whose applications are with the landlord is described as exactly that.
• A personal caller, such as a friend or relative of the agent, can leave a message without being asked for a surname.

What changed in appraisal booking?

The Phone Assistant now understands part-of-day and multi-day preferences, such as "a Tuesday afternoon" or "any morning next week", and offers a time that fits. When the first choice is taken, it offers the nearest alternatives.

Times still come from the agent's real calendar, with working hours, appointment length and buffers included, and the appraisal is written to the calendar once the call ends. The Phone Assistant page covers the full call, from the first ring to the record it leaves.

What else is in 1.2?

The app is also smoother on phones, building on the phone layouts that arrived in AgentFront 1.1.