Nov 12, 2014
Estate agency administration voted a failure by clients
Recent research by the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) has revealed that nearly two thirds (60%) of buyers and sellers have experienced a problem with their estate agent within the last five years.
Most dissatisfaction was expressed not at a failure to achieve pricing or timing targets, but at the perceived lack of proactive communication by the agent. Almost a quarter (21%) of respondents felt that their agent had either not contacted them enough, or had done so too often. 14% had been given the impression that their agent hadn’t cared about them or their needs.
Mark Hayward, director general of the NAEA, gave his opinion on how estate agents should be providing a first class service, saying: “With the extensive administrative tasks and processes involved in buying or selling a home, communication between agents and homeowners is essential. It’s the estate agent’s role to make these processes seem as pain-free and seamless as possible”.
Unfortunately, as we see time and again, as an agency grows, its range of services often expands and administrative processes inevitably become more complex and time-consuming. It is at this point that customer service standards can begin to slip. Off the shelf software packages fail to match the specific needs of the agency and agents often attempt to compensate by adopting their own, individual record keeping and administrative processes which fragments the overall team effort and negatively impacts on the service provided to the client.
The answer must surely be to use a system that is suited to both the needs of the agency and its clients – a system that aims specifically to make administrative processes and tasks easier and faster to complete with agents retaining complete control in-house, rather than waiting on the availability of IT or design specialists and causing unnecessary delays within the buying or selling procedure.
For more information about how your agency can make the most of the opportunity to meet growing client demands, contact the PropertyStream team today.