The organiser of the first EA Masters event in September, at which the Best Estate Agent Guide will be published, has strongly denied a claim that every agent in the UK has been contacted in a bid to sell tickets.
An estate agency owner – who asked not to be named – said he believed that all agents have been contacted, as he himself has been, and are being told first that they have been chosen as a finalist and then that they are a winner.
He says that another agent in his area who has received the same materials is not in the top 20% locally.
The agent told EYE: “I find it hard to believe that their leaflets which claim to show estate agents picked within the top 20% of the UK haven’t gone out to every single agent in the UK.
“Agents all over the country are celebrating receiving a leaflet and posting it to their social media, when it looks like every agent received one.”
He said he could not believe that over 30,000 agents had been mystery shopped, and felt that the object of the exercise was to sell tickets to the event, and then to sell licences and marketing materials.
Tickets to EA Masters, which is supported by Rightmove, cost £299 plus VAT each, or £349 plus VAT for a VIP ticket. Tickets can only be bought by agents with one or more branches listed in the Best Estate Agent Guide, and are asked to fill in a form online asking whether they have been successful.
Peter Knight, of the Property Academy which is running the event, rejected the claims.
He told EYE: “The first part of the process was to analyse over 3bn data sets to identify the best performing branches in all locations.
“Approximately 40% of all branches were then mystery shopped – we carried out over 30,000 in total.
“From this assessment, which is unlike any other in terms of its depth and rigour, we identified the top 20% of branches and these will all be published in the Best Estate Agent Guide and announced at the EA Masters event on 22nd September.
“We’ve written to every estate agent that has branches that will appear in the Best Estate Agent Guide and we’ve created an area on the website where they can find out if they have a branch in the guide or not. Further communications are planned for the coming weeks.
“There’s no charge to appear in the Best Estate Agent Guide.
“If agents wish to purchase the licence fee they will then receive an incredible package allowing them to promote their achievement and to differentiate themselves from their competitors that haven’t made it into the Best Estate Agent Guide.
“This includes advertising and PR templates, a broadcast quality video, links to their own website from the Best Estate Agent Guide and much more.
“There’s no requirement to buy tickets to the EA Masters on 22nd September but those agents that choose to come will learn from nine world-class speakers and nine industry leaders, plus have access to the Innovation Hall where 40 leading industry supporters will showcase their latest products and services.
“To cap off what we plan to be the greatest day in the industry, is the EA Masters dinner when we will announce the branches and their grade.”
“The object of the exercise was to sell tickets to the event, and then to sell licences and marketing materials.”
Yes like all these pathetic awards.
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Secret shopped against what criteria?
Take a dozen excellent agents in a dozen different parts of the country with varying demographics and you need a dozen ways of assessing whether the ‘right’ questions were asked in the ‘right’ way.
There are some truisms that can be assessed in all agents but, the ultimate test is how your customers rate you at the end of the service received, on completion and not, on an initial phone call.
30,000 secret shops is a monumental effort but one which has echoes of my time in corporate agency where you felt pressured to work to the ‘exam’ rather than assess and deliver the customers individual needs.
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Unless there is a mass promotion of these awards (not just estate agent windows, and a small column in the paper), there will be no public awareness of acceptance of them. Many estate agents are members of the NAEA etc, and i dont think i have ever met anyone who had ever heard of them, the only industry body the public area aware of is the Ombudsman!
I’m not knocking the effort, but i would completely question the end goal of this.
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This FRESH approach has to be commended!!
There are so many awards that have a sceptical judging process which means their credibility within the industry and image to the general public is a waste of time.
At least this approach is working from two actual proven ways of measuring performance: 1) proper data and 2) agent response and quality. Neither of which you can fudge!!!
This must give a fairer and less biased or influenced outcome which has to be good for consumers when choosing an agent. If they look at these results along side a respectable review site like Trust Pilot or Feefo then that should give them a solid place to form an opinion on their next agent.
It will be interesting to see what companies are listed and more importantly are not listed later this year.
Possible idea for 2018 would be to include the reviews from these respected sites to also add in the customers opinion. That truly would cover all areas required for the full story.
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Trustpilot? Respectable?! I think not.
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Regardless of whether you think the awards are worthwhile to promote, whether they have enough public exposure or if you want to attend the event, the fact that this will be the first clear look at the EA landscape as a whole, without people needing to pay up front to be considered is refreshing. If you have done well, you will be recognized for this regardless.
I’m looking forward to being able to benchmark the company against the whole industry and then look to see where we can continue to tweak and improve our service.
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Tickets can only be bought by agents with one or more offices! Hmmm I wonder who that leaves out!
i don’t think we were contacted and we have been an outstanding agent in a prominent village for 20 years, I wonder what our criteria would have been?
of course their profit would have been low as we are only 3 full and 1 part timer, Oh and we are one of only two agents in the village and the other one wasn’t contacted either however if our clients are happy then word of mouth and recommendations is our just reward and aim, 20% my backside it’s all a load of tosh
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The only credible estate agent awards out there are from the allAgents review site. No matter what people think of then, they have done what Purplebricks has done and disrupted the business model of all other award schemes by doing it all online and free of charge. Sure it means no glitzy award ceremony , but at the end of the day who really cares? it’s completely transparent with not only who the winners are but who actually voted for them. Is it any surprise that within a few years they have become the Industries largest award scheme, effectively single handedly putting all these other award schemes out of business?
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I agree, we are a one branch operation, never entered any of the award schemes (or should I say, never paid for an award). The only site we appear on is Allagents, where we do pretty well for our size and number of people we deal with. Yes people can ‘fudge’ this if they want, but you can fudge Google reviews, Facebook reviews, Yelp reviews etc
These EA masters awards have finally shown their true colours.
You can have an award if you pay us. You can even have a VIP table is you pay more, ha ha ha .
Not sure I even believe the 30,000 claim.
Tripadvisor won out in the end when it comes to most reviews that are trusted, this is a free platform where consumers rule the roost in how people are performing.
Allagents comes out top in natural search results on Google, so people are looking at it, whether you like it or not. Please please please all you corporate lot ignore it, go to your fancy pants dinners and pay for your little glass awards. So smaller agents like us can get a head start on you.
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Yippee, I won, I’m the best !
Aren’t I ?
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If the anonymous estate agent owner, or anyone else, would like to contact me directly with any questions about the Best Estate Agent Guide or the EA Masters event I’m happy to answer calls on 01372 370815 or emails to pk@propertyacademy.co.uk
In the meantime, to answer some of the posts above:
1. We have three objectives: A. to help consumers find the best estate agents, sales and lettings, in their area. B. To recognise and reward the Best Estate Agents in the country – there’s so much criticism of agents in the media, (ironically including a number of comments on EYE), that we’ve sought to counter this. The agents we identify as the Best will have a powerful marketing tool to combat the poorer performers and cut fee merchants. C. To encourage improvement and to raise standards.
2. We analysed each branch based on their 12 months listings to define their “area” and then compared all other agent’s listings in that area. This was done for both sales and lettings. We looked at lots of different data including whether properties actually sold or let and the average time this took. As for the mystery shops, this was consistent across the country – we measured things such as whether calls were answered, details taken and requests answered – this surely is the same whether the enquiry is for Aberdeen or Truro. We carried out over 30,000 mystery shops.
3. All branches were assessed for free, there was no entry charge and we’ve announced the results before anyone buys a ticket to the event. Every branch entered into the Best Estate Agent Guide will have a free listing. If an agent wishes to upgrade their listing and receive a comprehensive marketing pack then they will be sign an agreement and pay a fee of £1,200+VAT per branch which will last for 12 months. Tickets to the EA Masters are £299+VAT and include access to the Innovation Hall with 40 companies showcasing the latest products and services for estate agents, a conference with nine world class speakers and an additional nine industry leaders, all refreshment breaks, lunch, drinks reception and black tie dinner with entertainment and wines where the “Best in Guide” will be honoured. Our hope is to provide an event to make the industry proud and to celebrate success – something much needed during testing times.
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