Countrywide chief executive Alison Platt has said that its customers do not compare it with other estate agents, but to retailers.

In an interview with the London Evening Standard, she said that she was approached by Tesco to join its board of directors.

Being on the board of the supermarket giant appealed to her: “There’s so much we can learn from how Tesco work, in their branches and in digital, how they’re customer-focused.”

She said Tesco’s current woes added to the attraction.

She told the Standard: “If you’re going to do something like this, you don’t want it to be about maintenance management.

“It’s the perfect time to join because the management challenge is massive.

“It’s all about having a change agenda and making Tesco the customer’s first choice. Tesco has to change on the outside, and the way it’s seen, and on the inside. And they both have to change at the same time.”

The article concludes that Platt “hopes to draw on her Countrywide experience to help Tesco”.

Platt took the helm at Countrywide in 2014, joining from a non-estate agency background.

She told the paper’s writer Chris Blackhurst: “Our customers don’t look at us and compare us to other estate agents, they compare us to other retailers.

“We’re in retailing, the same as Tesco.”

It is an interesting piece, which makes no reference to the blood-letting at Countrywide which has seen a string of senior people quit to pursue, as they say, other interests such as gardening.

More departures are on the cards, EYE understands, after a re-structure which left some senior people “on seats by the door”.

Nor does the article refer to speculation regarding Tesco’s previous attempts to enter the house-selling market via a private sale-by-owner business that was subsequently declared to be an estate agent, and Platt’s own stated desire to launch some kind of online estate agency.

The article does, however, emphasise Platt’s charm: “She smiles a lot, is modest, self-deprecating, down to earth, speaks with a Mancunian accent.”