Moving house is stressful!
Almost two years ago I moved house. As anyone who has ever moved house will tell you, it is an incredibly stressful exercise. When my husband and I were looking for potential properties, our hearts used to sink whenever we saw the name of a particular estate agent alongside a property we liked. In our experience, it meant two things: the property would invariably be overvalued, and they would never answer the phone.
On the other side of the coin, my company, Paperclip, provides telephone answering and support services to a number of estate agencies, all of which go out of their way to focus on good customer service. This got me asking myself the question: why is there such a wide variability in the quality of customer service provided by estate agents?
Here are some of the potential reasons that came to mind:
A good estate agent recognises the value of a conversation with a prospective seller or buyer. A poor estate agent doesn’t answer your call because ‘…everything is online these days.’
When I was looking for a property, like most people I would scour Zoopla, Rightmove and the websites of local estate agents advertising properties in the areas we were looking at. Once I’d trawled through the basic data – location, images, room layout – and decided it was of interest, I would immediately ring the estate agent to arrange a viewing. If we liked the property, we would ring again to arrange a second viewing or maybe make an initial offer. These could be the first of many calls.
Answering the phone is important. Good estate agents understand this.
A good estate agent recognises that word of mouth referrals are key to their business and driven by good customer service. A poor estate agent doesn’t answer your call because they know you’re interested and will ring back.
If you’ve seen a property you like online, you may take an initial drive past. If you like what you see, you will call the estate agent to arrange a viewing. If the phone isn’t answered you ring again…and again…and again until the viewing is arranged. In the case of a property you like, the estate agent is often the sole supplier.
The lifeblood of any estate agency is new instructions; homeowners choosing the agency to manage the sale of their property. How do you decide which agency to choose? You may pick up names from sales boards in your area; you may Google ‘local estate agents’; you may see an advert in your local press. In my experience, however, many people go by word of mouth referrals from family and friends. One of the key factors that prompt a referral is the level of service provided and a key service component is answering the phone. Would I recommend an estate agent that was poor at answering the phone to a friend?! Absolutely not.
Answering the phone is important. Good estate agents understand this.
Answering the phone is important to a good estate agent because it is the next instruction and the next sale that are the most important. A poor estate agent doesn’t answer your call because they are too busy.
Many of us will recognise the scenario of waiting to be seen in an estate agency accompanied by the cacophony of ringing phones. A stressful process made even more so!
Furthermore, why spend all that money on marketing – and estate agents are typically good at marketing – only to lose the instruction because the phone isn’t answered?!
In a good estate agency, you receive a warm welcome. There is a sense of calm, a sense that you matter. There may be calls to be answered, but not within earshot. Agents with a high street shop front, typically the regional and local agents whose names we recognise in our locality, understand the value of courtesy and engagement.
Answering the phone is important. Good estate agents answer your call but are organised in such a way that they are also able to deliver great face-to-face customer service.
How estate agents have used Paperclip to improve customer service
At Paperclip we are fortunate to work with estate agents who recognise that answering the phone is fundamental to customer service and, by association, the future prosperity of their business.
Each Paperclip estate agency client has its own unique approach to service delivery and we provide different packages of telephone answering and support services to meet their exact needs. The following is a list of just some of the different services we offer:
- Simply capturing the call, taking a message and forwarding it to the estate agency team. The caller knows their call is in the system and they will receive a callback.
- Capturing the call, taking a message, and entering data directly into the estate agent’s management software. Jupix and Alto are two of the more popular software packages we interface with. I have provided a list of other estate agency software providers at the end of this article*. The outcome is the same as above, but Paperclip has reduced the admin load for its estate agency client.
- Capturing the call and, where relevant, booking viewings in line with the guidance provided by the estate agent on their management software e.g. viewings only at weekends between 10 am and 3 pm.
- Capturing the call and, where relevant, booking valuations. Having access to the estate agent’s management software provides us with visibility of the valuers’ diaries.
- Following up on viewings to capture feedback, and entering this feedback into the management software for the estate agent to relay the feedback to the vendor. I know this was one of the services I valued when selling my property.
As in many sectors, there is a shortage of skilled and experienced estate agent professionals. Consequently, many of our estate agent clients are increasing Paperclip’s ‘administrative’ role in the house selling process to ensure their teams are focussed on those value-added services based on their unique skillsets.
Scale quickly without increasing fixed costs
Estate agents carry a lot of fixed costs, particularly if they maintain multiple physical offices on the high street. One way of switching fixed costs to variable costs could be to use Paperclip as a communications ‘hub’ through which all calls are routed. The physical customer-facing service would still remain with the agent, as would core deliverables such as valuations and negotiations. Not only would such an approach reduce fixed costs, but it would also allow the estate agent to scale quickly without having to recruit additional administration staff.
In summary
Answering the phone, returning calls, recording calls. More so than in many other sectors, answering the phone is particularly important for estate agents.
If you would like to find out more about how Paperclip could help your estate agency grow, please call me on 01246 418 181. We are ready to answer your call.
*In addition to Jupix and Alto, other estate agent management software packages include AgencyCloud, ExpertAgent, Domus, Gnomen and MRI.
You may also enjoy reading
- Business challenges resolved: stopping the phone ringing!
- Business challenges resolved: securing the sale
- Voicemail – the pros and cons of ‘…leaving a message after the tone’
- How much does call answering cost?
Hi, I’m Louise Bellwood, Director at Paperclip. I am responsible for delivering Paperclip’s customer service and growth strategies for 2024 and beyond, I am a crusader for the benefits call answering can deliver for organisations of all kinds; customer service, sales generation, customer retention and more. If you have a question about call answering – pricing, set-up, benefits – I would love to hear from you at louise@paperclip.co.uk or 01246 418 181.