Our industry needs the advancements of technology to provide potential clients with the speed of service they require, and more importantly, it also needs very good people, as per my last article.
The industry has online only services, central call centres, regional structures, local high street premises, single office practices, large independents, corporate companies and more – all of which will work, depending on how the business is structured and managed.
Of course, they can all fail without the right leadership and direction. The real question is: what does the consumer prefer at each stage of engagement and how do we deliver that?
We accept that the day of clients needing to walk into an estate agents office has gone, but some still do, and those clients prefer face to face negotiations or services.
Surely what is important is that we understand our business, what our brand represents, and deliver our services in the best and most effective way to our clients. Balance technology with people skills and personal service.
Personally, I don’t really worry about how other companies present their services. If I did, I would not focus on delivering our own services properly. I have said before that I have no control over how other agents deliver their services – they will offer a service and a fee that they feel is right for their business model.
I am aware of how other companies work from being part of a network and various discussion groups which also allows me to share great ideas with other companies, which is obviously beneficial. There are a lot of good estate agents who will always provide support and advice.
You decide how to run your business, no one else. If you are distracted by others and become indecisive, then you disrupt your own business and help your competition.
Today an agent needs to offer a balance of the technological advancements that are available and continue to be developed; consumers must be able to engage with you by every possible method – your services must provide speed of response 24 hours a day.
There is a balance between technology and people. Whilst technology allows speed of engagement and delivers opportunities, without people qualifying business leads you would soon become busy fools.
Remember by default “buyers are often liars”, i.e. they buy something with different criteria or in a different location than first discussed. A good negotiator with excellent local knowledge will open up criteria and opportunities.
We need to offer clients options and property that they didn’t initially consider, and don’t just order-take, but listen to clients’ requirements and convert that information into a transaction.
Good people are still the key to success; people still buy people and they will engage with people they relate to and trust. People have the skills to provide personal service, understand the clients’ journey and tailor solutions for everyone.
Buying and selling still involves emotions and personal circumstances which we must understand and relate to.
In summary, we must continue to develop and improve our technology, engage with clients in many ways, offer more services throughout the customer journey, develop and diversify our services, train and retain great people.
Most importantly, decide your own businesses direction, stop being distracted by the competition and focus on delivering a service better than anyone else in your locations.
* Kevin Scrupps is managing director of regional firm Pygott & Crone
Technology yes is needed, but “proptech” is a complete myth. Beyond “the internet” and email, digital photography, what useful technology is actually on offer.
Do Customers actually want speed, or do they just want it done correctly and be kept up to date. Very very rarely does a vendor or purchaser bemoan that things arent happening quick enough, once realist expectations are set.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
all web tech does is create more leeches and devalue our industry. Great if you are the founding leech but not good for the many.
Amazing that real proptech businesses like dezrez and expert agent etc were around 15 years ago. If the founders were born in san francisco they’d be billionaires by now.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Hi pie. talking about tech plugins. Can you sort your edit function out. Everytime i edit one of my amazingly insightful comments, it parses all the text and lumps all the text into 1 paragraph.
cheers.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Our industry is devalued both those that “inflate” the value of their offering. I remember some joker a few months ago claim that his tech was worth £10million and then it was sold for £7.50 or nearest offer
Quirky…..what a chancer!
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Nearly every approach that we have had for cost cutting technology / efficiency improvers would only have saved us the wage of the member of staff that we would have needed to let go if we used the stuff (and that’s assuming that they are as efficient as the salespeople say they are).
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Adopting the right tech (both in terms of what your business needs and the quality of the offering itself) and integrating it in to your business and procedures fully can deliver for an agency on all fronts. We use several offerings and they are essential to the everyday running of our business and the foundation of a large proportion of our profitability. As DASH says above, you can only realise ‘savings’ if you replace a member of staff- which might be viable for larger organisations but isn’t for small, single office operation (like ours). What is more, we wouldn’t WANT to replace any quality member of staff with tech. However, the tech we currently use delivers 4 main rewards- simplified and improved office operations (making the job easier and more enjoyable), staff time maximised on value adding or revenue generating activities (not data entry, task repeats, constant chasing) maximising your profitability and finally client/consumer access to 24/7 solutions (e.g. property maintenance issue trouble-shooting & reporting). Don’t get hung up on the word ‘proptech’ (that’s primarily a term for VCs and media) and don’t dismiss, out of hand, tech past your portal and crm- if you do don’t be surprised if your profit margins struggle and competitors (who do adopt) start to take market share. However, it must be right for your business and your customers. However the ‘aint broke, dont fix it’ mentality often means one major thing- you are waiting for your company/operations to break- and by then it might just be too late. Consumers often accept what ever they are offered (in terms of your service offering) but just because they don’t expect/want more doesn’t mean they won’t value it when you do- the most common comment we get when explaining some of our tech is ‘why doesn’t every agent have this’…..in my mind that pretty much says it all.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
“Most importantly, decide your own businesses direction, stop being distracted by the competition and focus on delivering a service better than anyone else in your locations.”
Spot on Kevin!
Excellent piece from a man who understands estate agency.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register