I believe that perception is everything, and at the moment, estate agents have to deal with the perception that some of them don’t give a good enough service and that because of this, the public’s expectations are low.

What does this mean? In my experience, when people believe that the majority are giving bad service and can’t be bothered, they will go for the cheapest version of that lousy service they can find.

My company has just completed a mystery shop campaign for over 500 agents. The results were interesting. Over 60% of people we spoke to responded to our enquiry by asking “what’s your budget” followed by quite incredibly?” Have you got anything to sell?”

Of course, I understand how vital it is to capture that information; however, firstly, no one wants to be asked their budget before they have been engaged or treated as a client rather than another irritant to get rid of because “we are busy.”

It’s pretty incredible that not 45 seconds after taking or making a call, the negotiator is asking if you have a property to sell.

This is the most selfish question ever adds no value to the customer who remembers he was enquiring to buy and leaves a very nasty taste. Why not find out where they live at present? What’s prompted them to move to ***** and find out more about them.

If you do that and then ask what they intend to do with their current home, you have more chance of having a business conversation than a tick box registration. If we are just “registering” customers, then they might as well go to an online agent who is, in some cases, very clear about how little they will do (we mystery shopped them as well).

We need to be adding value at every stage. Do our customers know that if they go online, they will probably be dealing with sales progression themselves? Are they aware that they are talking to a faceless person in a call centre who could not and cannot tell them where the nearest doctor, dentist, school, or the A&E is?

Of course not, but if we don’t add that value if we are not calling our tenant on their first day in the property (too many agents say I don’t want to do that it opens a can of worms) to welcome them home and ask for a review and a referral then we will fail.

How can we expect to survive the onrush of online agents if we don’t get up to our game?

We have to deliver world-class customer service to everyone, and if you have an issue with negotiators saying they don’t have enough time to “be nice” on the phone, then something is very wrong.

Our estate agent clients are finding that by constantly reinforcing a world-class service culture, they can not only stay ahead of the game but also drive forward.

Boyd Mayover is the Founder of The BM Group, a training company that has helped over 540 negotiators in 2020/2021 improve conversion rates, gain great reviews and boost profits.

01923 85 5427 www.boydmayover.com boyd@boydmayover.com