Moneypenny, the telephone answering service which provides services for agents, says many of its 1,300 customers are increasingly leaning on it.

Moneypenny does not suggest this is because agents may have depleted staff numbers, instead saying that they are freeing themselves up to concentrate on customer service.

Calls taken by Moneypenny on behalf of sales and letting agents were up 61% in the first three months of this year, compared with the final quarter of last year, and up 44% compared with the first quarter of last year – which included a particularly busy March as buyers and sellers rushed to beat the Stamp Duty deadline on April 1.

Moneypenny said the number of calls it took to book viewings in the first quarter of 2017 rose by 27% year on year.

Samantha Jones, commercial manager for property at Moneypenny, said: “We are finding that an increasing amount of estate and letting agents who have used Moneypenny for years are leaning on the service to handle a greater volume of their day-to-day calls.

“Agents are becoming more committed to delivering excellent customer service and this is definitely being reflected in the care both letting and estate agents are giving their own clients.

“A large number of clients are choosing to use their Moneypenny receptionists for a set period each day so they can focus on making outbound calls for prospecting.”