An agent was told this week by Rightmove that it is expecting traffic levels to increase as more people work from home and are on their computers – “a bit like Christmas”.
An email was sent by an account manager to an agent who had written querying their Rightmove costs.
The email went out the day before Rightmove announced its deferred payment plan to agents.
“Sent: 17 March 2020
Subject: RE: CD19 – CORONAVIRUS
Hi
Thank you for your message regarding your Rightmove payments, I completely understand your concern and would like to think that we can assist you at this uncertain time.
The heads of our business are currently finalizing plans as to how we will support our agents through this challenging period, so I will be able to update you on this very soon.
We predict that our traffic levels will increase over the next month as customers will be at home and on their computers – a bit like Christmas.
So we need to keep you visible so that you are pushing your branding out to the increased volume of traffic. It may be a good idea to explain this to your customers too.
We will be offering ongoing training and support to ensure you guys are making the most of future potential business opportunities as always & the changes that may be required during this time.
Please see the link to some of these webinars here that might offer some practical advice going forward https://hub.rightmove.co.uk/
I’ll be in touch soon when I have an update on this situation.”
Meanwhile, another agent has suggested to the portal that the person whose pea-brained idea it was to introduce the deferred payment scheme should quit.
Chris Willey, of Wilsons in Taunton, Somerset, quite Rightmove yesterday. His angry email described the move as “frankly idiotic” and said: “It is pretty obvious Rightmove has become so obsessed with making money it has lost touch with the reality of our business.”
“It would appear likely those who conceived the ‘gesture’ regarding fees, have committed commercial suicide on behalf of your company.”
He said he felt sorry for the “foot soldiers” having to deal with “a barrage of dissent and countless resignations”.
He received a polite response in return from the customer experience team, saying that if he changed his mind, he could always return.
But Willey said in his response that he has no interest in membership at any price.
He told Rightmove: “It will give me, and many others, pleasure to learn of the resignation of whoever came up with the pea-brained idea of offering such a derisory concession.
Well done Chris, spot-on.
……and “a bit like Christmas” Rightmove?
Rightmove – so far away from reality!
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Traffic driving past the services on the motorway can be heavy as hell, for the retailers in the services its the drivers that stop that pay their bills.
This must be one of the daftest things ever said by anyone trying to justify digital advertising ever!
Everyone knows traffic will be higher but the disconnect between traffic and viewings and sales is about to be exposed. There IS NO CORRELATION between traffic and viewings!
152 million hits for one site alone cannot possibly have generated 45,000 sales (the numbers attached to 1 record month of traffic) as there are other portals in the market to share the 45,000 sales supposedly generated in a month by digital platforms
So with (45k/152m)x100 as the starting point,0.0296% of page view generate a sale. Let’s see if a Corona Christmas of say 228 million page views generates 67,500 sales out of the 112500 Rightmove just predicted will happen because of self isolation.
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Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have been appointed to run Rightmove
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Disgusting
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Whoever wrote that email probably feels like a turkey at Christmas right now.
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RM compare Covid-19, self-isolation, mass unemployment and 100’s if not 1000’s of businesses shutting up or ging bust, to Christmas traffic on their portal… Soooo glad we left them last year.
You don’t need to accept this back-peddling, begging, we Fxxcked up again 75% discount offer, take 100% discount and walk away… kill the beast that keeps you as a slave – you have the gun, take aim, shoot and leave.
Stay safe people..
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The person who wrote / authorised the email? Peter Brooks-Johnson.
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Every day has been Christmas day for RM for some time now. They’re going to be a bit more Tim Cratchitt than Ebenezer Scrooge for this one.
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How embarrassing… I got the exact same email!
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