Almost eight in ten sellers who went on to sign up with online agent eMoov looked up the firm on a review site first.
eMoov conducted a survey asking over 2,000 of their sellers how they had heard about the company.
Almost one third (29%) cited word of mouth while in total, 78% of sellers checked out the agent via a site such as TrustPilot or allAgents.
In other high value purchase decisions, 62% of respondents said that they trust friends’ recommendations, while 58% trust a review site in such decisions.
eMoov CEO Russell Quirk said: “The former pillar of the estate agents’ window, that the high street still cling to in terms of providing a competitive advantage over the online sector, is no longer an effective medium from which to secure a customer.
“Many companies claim they have great customer service, but under closer scrutiny they often fall at the first hurdle. It isn’t about fabricated reviews and having shiny review site logos on your home page.
“It’s a culture that starts at the top of the company and flows downward. When done properly, it not only results in happy customers but repeated and ongoing business.
“Vitally, a genuine approach to great customer service ensures lower acquisition costs and far better unit economics. In contrast, some of our competitors are realising that no matter how much money they throw at marketing, if your reviews are poor, potential clients won’t be persuaded to transact.
“Treating people fairly, providing a great service and truly committing to outstanding customer service is far more cost-effective than any marketing or advertising activity.”
Comments (11)
Anybody know offhand what the ‘true cost per sale’ is for emoov? This to my mind should be the total gross charged so far to people listing plus total investors money spent divided by the number of completed sales. Then we would have a figure that could be more realistically compared to the ‘no sale, no fee’ model
The review system needs to be ‘reviewed’ ..the online agents have taken this part of the business to a new low. Would trustpilot let a holiday company put reviews of how good the holiday was when the couple in the office booked the holiday????
‘We would recommend PurpleHolkidays every time for holidays. . We called them, they took our money and we are going on holiday next month..Amazing …not sure if we are going in a dingy or a concorde yet but hay hoe,,it was £200 cheaper then a dodgy, reputable holiday company. …’
Exceptionally well put!
I had to smile as PeeBee, May and Wood lined up to give the Quirkster a good kicking. It’s rather like watching Clockwork Orange as Alex and the Droogs beat the Cat Lady to death.
Simply stating the obvious, AgencyInsider
The Quirkster somehow managed to do his own kicking!
No-one else would admit to going about the business of marketing to an audience with the curtains down and the mics turned off!
The story was posted to incite a reaction. After last week when posts once again dropped off a cliff it is probably some comfort we haven’t taken offence.
Of course a survey of their ‘customers’ would show that.
They don’t have any presence other than online so apart from making a judgement on their website, what else can they judge Emoov on?
Oh yeah, Quirky’s personality, that must be the other 23% (based on his accuracy with numbers!!).
From the man who has spent millions of investors money predicting stellar growth of the market sector as a whole (to around 16% by next year if I remember correctly), rubbishing the full service model and local knowledge only to can the full centre-only model and set up ‘local experts’, be hit by ASA rulings he was misleading consumers and, is currently sitting sitting with an impressive 0.3% UK market share.
Interestingly, in the last couple of weeks, the call-centre/ hybrid agents market share sector as a whole has fallen off a cliff, from 4% to just 2.15% this morning. Another well known and much loved call-centre agents market share has also seen a sudden and inexplicable* drop to just 1% with thousands of listing magically disappearing.
*Readers can draw their own conclusions
The tipping point was supposed to have been mid 2016, 9 months ago! It was predicted when the sector had expanded to a claimed 5%. Now the word is out the public are shelling out for nothing more than an advert on the internet with a 1:419703 chance of being spotted the public is saying “no thank you very much we’ll stick with what we know and who we know”
Emoov don’t have enough properties to be noticed; based on their listings for everywhere they do have a listing there are two areas where they don’t.
They need to spend more cash and win 3x as many instructions just to have a passing presence. As you point out loss leading your way to victory is an expensive game, the internet costs far more than any £/sqft zone A I know of.
“Who? what company? never heard of them!” 3.6% of the selling public have chosen the passive intermediaries to list their property of which 29% got a service good enough to drive a recommendation;
I suggest the headline could quite factually be; Just 1.04% of the selling public would recommend a list it and leave it alone agent despite their best efforts attempts to be any good.
Sector spokesman Russell Quirk inadvertently exposes the weakness of the online disruptor model; no-one has ever heard of them, of those that have more than 70% would not recommend them to others.
HANG ON…
A numpty who built a house without windows says that they are now obsolete cos HE hasn’t got any?
Anywhere else but in the property industry and the men in white coats would be knocking on his door.
Assuming he’s got one of those, that is…