The biggest ever study of the British estate agency industry has been announced this morning, and is likely to involve 30,000 high street branches plus all the online and hybrid firms.
The study will involve analysing hundreds of thousands of data points, plus an enormous amount of mystery shopping.
The Property Academy has embarked on the assessment in a process that will take over six months to complete, and is being undertaken in conjunction with Rightmove.
Rightmove itself announced the project this morning to shareholders in its results, saying that in association with the leading industry event, “we will create a new recognition of excellent in Agency in 2017.”
Organiser of the initiative, Peter Knight, who recently drew curtains on The Sunday Times Estate and Lettings Agency of the Year Awards, said: “We could have continued to make incremental improvements to our established awards format, but we feel it is time for an ambitious step-change towards something totally new and far more inclusive.
“We have decided to undertake the first ever, independent appraisal of all estate agents. We will identify and shine a light on the very best and provide them with opportunities to stand out from the crowd. The search is already underway, with every estate and letting agency branch included.
“We are putting the customer experience at the heart of our criteria and are in the process of analysing hundreds of thousands of data points and conducting mystery shops involving tens of thousands of telephone and email enquiries.”
The Property Academy has teamed up with Rightmove for this new initiative.
Knight said: “We are very excited to be working closely with Rightmove on this initiative as our primary data source. Additionally they bring their market leading insight of the industry trends, issues and opportunities.”
Rightmove’s head of marketing Iain Kennedy said: “We’re excited to be partnering with the Property Academy and offering our market-leading tools and data to help with their ambitious new study that will recognise excellence in the industry.
“The appraisal will make use of Rightmove data from 25m interactions with agents and consumers, as well as reviewing the performance of over 4m individual property listings.”
In the next few months, a shortlist of the best performing agents will be published, from which the top 10% of branches will be announced and honoured at an event on 22nd September in London.
This will include a showcase of the very latest innovations and best practice in estate agency in addition to a conference with international award-winning speakers as well as industry experts from the UK and abroad, all focussing on business improvement and raising standards of customer service.
An exclusive, invitation-only event is being held next month, on March 28, to launch the initiative to industry supporters and suppliers.
WOW!!!
Congratulations to Peter Knight and Rightmove on such a bold and imaginative initiative.
Thank you for committing yourselves (and interested agents) in further raising the standards within our industry.
I can only hope that we are good enough to feature in that top 10%.
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Simon – I agree and as you’re a committed customer of Callwell, I’m certain that your business will win prizes.
Well done to Peter, a great initiative.
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I like Callwell but that was really cringey, Bob.
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So much emphasis is placed on quantity nowadays. Let’s hope this really focuses on quality!
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Let us also hope that they do make the thousands of calls promised rather than just “massage the numbers”. Fairly sure this is just PR for the need for future training courses
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Has any agent asked him to do this?
I would rather my staff did not waste time on this.
Would also prefer RM not to back this as it will be throwing our stats out.
We get enough time wasters really do not need any more.
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I couldnt agree more, we don’t want a crusader we want real leadership from certain bodies. Had a call from a lady, for the sake of anonymity lets call her Mrs Woft! All she wanted was to bang on about the Roman Catholic church, was probably this guy putting a funny voice on:)
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Wow Peter really does not like “constructive feedback” – Every time i comment on a story he is mentioned in I get a bucket load of dislikes.
Silly thing is the regular posters know he is making a fool of himself.
Que the dislikes 😉
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Rightmove has managed for all these years to maintain impartiality and to just be a really great portal. One of the reasons behind their incredible success in my opinion.
On reading this news it seems that may be about to cross the line from just being a great portal into a site which provides guidance or an opinion on which agent is the best.
What a shame. I hope they are ready for the fallout.
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industryian81 that’s absolutely spot on.
what I can’t get clear in my head is that I can see the top 10% being interested in this but the other 90% are going to have a fit. Having staff time wasted to be told they’re rubbish for a service they’re paying top dollar for. Lose-Lose…
Also this sounds like a huge expense, someones going to have to pay for it, where’s the catch?
Mind you real fracturing down the middle of the portals now for this event. Can’t imagine Zoopla will be too happy getting involved.
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Catch…..Oh you can fully expect that the ‘invited’ agents will very much have to pay for the privilege to participate and attend the
‘event’ in September. no such thing as a free lunch … or free check out !
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Rightmove are absolutely the last company I’d want involved in a new recognition award. They constantly screw us all on ever increasing fees and now want to try and curry favour with us by trying to show that they understand our industry and chucking out a few awards once a year. Disappointing alliance Peter Knight.
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Property industry version of a census.
I wonder how many will list themselves as being Jedi?
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A not small analysis of everything has been active for the past 14 months, if its any help at this early stage don’t try to box agents into confined criteria, there is no such thing as a top 10%
To give you some examples, the very best agent for selling landed property on Exmoor is never gets invited to sell the ex local authority homes in the gateway towns to Exmoor. The agents who sell those don’t get invited to sell the landed stuff, neither agent gets invited to sell the exclusive sea-view homes or retirement bungalows on Saunton Park in heaven’s waiting room
There are as many winners as there are categories of property and locations. I have a fairly diverse list and can already identify the best 3 in every outcode, but the best 3 for houses might be a different best 3 for flats, a different 3 for bungalows, only one agent for ex council and just 1 agent covering woodland for the whole region
I will be interested to see the outcome of the study, it will either act as a congratulatory re-inforcement of the work we have already done or it will show us where we have gone horribly wrong.
With luck the study will identify agents who are still actively gaming, portaljuggling, manipulating their market share and performance statistics on a daily basis.
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Lets hope so however I suspect that the reality will be that ‘you’ll have to be in it to win it’. This being the case it will never be entirely representative as will never be inclusive of all. Can’t really see an agent being awarded with anything if they haven’t written out a cheque to participate.
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I agree with Industryian82.
Sounds like a good idea which is the thrust RM normally take but somehow these good ideas tend to be ‘mometised’ in some way?
Take real time data as an example. Does this enable them to sell your new listing data to your richer and call centre competitors via prospecting products?
Do RM ever invest in anything for ‘free’.
Call me cynical but I see this as an additional paid for ‘Optimiser’ product?
You may need it as more and more customers and buyers are being drawn away from your own websites?
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Whilst I find the idea of uninvited mystery shopping a little distasteful, I have to say this could be the alternative to Allagents that I think the industry has probably needed to see for sometime.
My initial reaction was disappointment to see the involvement with Rightmove, but lets be frank, we created RM, we continue to support it and it has achieved household name status, so I suppose their brand will add credibility in terms of customer perspective.
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Just a money making excersise by Mr Knight, you wait to see the cost of a table at the “event” and dozens of awards to boast ticket sales!
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I am a cynic, as such I have to consider the possibility that Peter closing the awards might have something to do with his new arrangement with Rightmove i.e. it was leading up to this announcement, maybe even under direction of Rightmove. Or maybe just a coincidence!
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On another note, I know my standards, I do not need outsiders to test me and waste my time. I do not need validation of my commitment to my career and I do not need to shout about it. It is though mainly the wasting my time that will bug me the most.
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Spot on Robert and I am sure that is right for many parts of the country. We all know our patches and the agents that deal in a particular type of property.
It is just another money making ‘award’ system although IF done impartially may be somewhat more objective that the usual awards whereby an agent has to apply to enter and is then persuaded to take a table at the awards ceremony!
Once awarded I can then see RM having a top pecking order search facility whereby if you are an award winning agent they will ”offer” you the opportunity to be listed separately in an elite section at a costtof course.
I wonder how long it will before rightmove charge the general public to access the top performing agents listing site, and why not?
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Some questions.
How much is a gold award going to cost me ?
How much is a silver award ?
How much is a bronze award ?
How much is RM going to charge me to display my shiny badge next to my listings ?
Awards are a just money making exercise for all of those involved, and those with the most money tend to win the most awards ……. because you can pretty much pay for them.
I think we should encourage more and more awards ceremonies, the richer companies can then throw money at them all. making them poorer, until awards are so watered down they are meaningless.
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‘…..until awards are so watered down they are meaningless’. AGREE!
That and only that is the reason the this new initiative has been proposed. Negotiator awards, ESTAS, EA/Lettings Live Awards …. the list goes on.
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So, there’s an announcement that somebody is going to actually test to see if agents are as good as they say they are and suddenly everyone is whingeing. Sounds a lot like some agents here are terrified that they aren’t going to perform well.
The comparison with how this news goes down at the forward thinking agencies is eye-opening. I can guarantee that every online agent and every agent with high levels of service is licking their lips at the opportunity to show what they are made of.
“I do not need outsiders to test me and waste my time. I do not need validation of my commitment to my career and I do not need to shout about it.”
I imagine your customers might think differently and considering that every high street agent on here pledges that they are better than every online agent, I would have thought this will be a great opportunity for you all to prove that.
I can’t wait for the results and the hand-wringing to begin!
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I have to say I tend to agree with this Observer.
I am sure there will be some money making involved, the Property Academy is a business, but the reality is that any agent who doesn’t think they are getting mystery shopped all the time in just plain naive. Property developers do it, relocation agents, even vendors do it!
I think how this develops will be fascinating but love the idea or not, I would certainly face up to the fact that this is the of its kind, that with Rightmove backing it, actually might well achieve, customer recognition status.
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The key words in the article are ‘is likely’ . So will it actually involve 30,000 agencies, or not ?
Probably not, unless they pay for it, I’m reading between the lines here, but I’m pretty sure that they are going to invite XXXX amount to take part for £££££££ and they are generously projecting that 30,000 will respond.
Maybe I am being too sceptical but what this boils down to is two private companies hosting an awards, one individual has decided a collaboration with Rightmove is more profitable / worthy that a collaboration with the Sunday Times ,or they may be paying more ?
Or maybe they are doing it our of the goodness of their hearts ? I doubt it unfortunately, but will be happy if proved wrong.
Nowhere does it state free to enter…….
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The article also says “every estate agency and letting agency involved” so I take that to mean they are including all agents in the assessment without asking people to pay to be surveyed.
Im sure there will be something to pay for down the line if you want to USE the data they collect however.
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“I would have thought this will be a great opportunity for you all to prove that.”
But I do not need to prove it, my clients already know it.
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I think you are missing the point Peter, you may well feel your clients know it (I’m glad you didn’t see my eyes roll) but someone on here mentioned Michelin stars earlier and I think they are right, so my question to you would be: would a customer pay more or less to dine in a 3* Michelin rated restaurant?
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I except that some clients will be drawn to shiny shields, indicating a degree of standards and success that they should also expect to receive, but our success is built around recommendations because existing clients know how diligent and conscientious we are.
Is a 3* Michelin chef better than Grans cooking?
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If you want to remain static and not grow then existing clients and recommendations are great but to deliver significant growth requires a lot more than that in the face of the rising competition.
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Dear rightmove. Can you take my the text, pictures and links that I send you and display them on your website and give people my phone number. That’s it. That all I want you do. Thanks.
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If only!
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How many more times…. Rightmove is not your friend !
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necessary evil no more, no less and with absolute certainty; no friend to anyone but themselves!
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Is there something I am missing here? How can secret shoppers or data gathering teams accomplish anything but test communication and accuracy of information and advice at the pre-instruction/sale stage? The best agents surely do the walking, where even the firms with dubious reputations or proven poor track records in customer service delivery – can do the talking. Is someone going to provide real properties (in a chain) to complete the sale of? OR to find and move tenants into and managed property for a year or two? Is this not how agents should be measured?
Surely it’s actual customers that tell us who is the best. This is just The Sunday Times Awards revamped with a ‘Michelin Star’ type process of visits to the branches. Will it be perhaps be called the Rightmove Annual Awards- and I wonder, just like Michelin, if there will also be a warning of roughly when the branch will be visited so that some will have the opportunity to buck up and ‘cook’ their books and presentation. The outcome is familiar – shortlisted firms paying for tables annually at a Park Lane hotel. I thought we were getting something fresh.
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It’s ‘Allagents’ by another name!
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I’d object to being part of a study I’m not party to. They’ve no right to come in and try to scrutinise my business and pass judgement on me without my knowledge or permission.
Every agent needs to email rightmove or that Peter whatsisface, and categorically tell them they’re out of order for even suggesting this, and they they are not to make contact or set foot on their premises. If enough agents do it, then this little plan of theirs will obviously unravel, as they won’t be able to produce a meaningful study.
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Not really sure I can see what people are getting their knickers in a twist about to be honest. Surely a mystery shop can only be beneficial to your business? And if it is beneficial then how is it a waste of yours or your colleagues/employees time? I for one would want to know if I or anyone who works with/for me wasn’t performing as required or above that standard so that they can either be trained up to do so or shown the door (whichever is appropriate!). Clearly if RM are going to do it then tell you you need to pay an extortionate amount for the results they obtain or to display the awards they give out on your literature, websites etc then that is a concern. But as they haven’t said that’s what they are going to do then I’m not going to assume that it is.
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RM doing something for agents for nothing? RM gaining more influence perhaps. Not only taking vast sums off agents for what the agent has sweated to get and paid heavily to gain but then helping sit in judgement on how good we are or aren’t on a particular day at a particular time? What’s the chances of an initiative to enhance your listing on RM to help you compete with those that ‘appear’ to do a little bit better? Might be too cynical perhaps but I wouldn’t bet against it! Too subjective on initial glance and a precursor to a hike in subscriptions could be?
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Rightmove looks to become Wrongmove with this idiotic project……As for Peter Knight just another money grabbing scheme for sure..
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More fake news
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Whatever you think of this. I suggest you listen to your Rightmove calls and see as an Agency what opportunities you are missing out on. Will be a real eyeopener for you. That’s if you want to grow your business and maximise on the opportunities.
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