Technology is key for effective service delivery
As with any business, if you can provide a service more efficiently than your rivals, it will cost you less and so make you more competitive. Estate agency is no exception. Online Estate Agents offer vastly reduced commissions and so a high level of efficiency is essential in order that quality of service is not compromised.
One of the best ways to improve efficiency is through the application of technology. This does not mean going out and purchasing the latest computer system or gadget and hey presto you halve your overheads. It’s how you apply that technology to your business processes that really matters.
Take viewings for example. These days many viewings are conducted by the vendors themselves (another way for the agents to reduce costs and pass on the saving to the vendor). Arranging viewings is traditionally done over the phone and you would have thought that this would take a few quick phone calls, but it is rarely that simple.
A typical scenario: buyer calls in asking to view at 3.30pm on Tuesday. You call the vendor who is unavailable and leave a message. The vendor calls back 2 hours later saying that 3.30pm is not convenient and it will need to be 5.30pm onwards. You call the buyer who is now also unavailable and leave a message. Eventually the buyer calls back the following day to say that they have subsequently organised the viewing of another property at 5.30pm and that it will now have to be Wednesday… you get the picture.
One way to reduce this to-ing and fro-ing is to maintain an availability calendar showing when a vendor is available to conduct viewings. This can be done online so that vendors can keep it up-to-date themselves in their own time. Now when a buyer phones up the viewing can be confirmed straight away during the first phone call. Of course not all vendors, despite automatic prompting, will remember to keep their availability calendar up-to-date and sometimes to-ing and fro-ing is simply unavoidable. There is, however, no reason why this cannot be automated.
Move4us technology reduces the estate agent’s workload whilst at the same time improving customer experience.
At move4us we have evolved a highly effective system whereby when a new viewing is requested, a text message and an email are sent to the vendor listing several potential viewing windows. The vendor can either choose one of these times or else suggest some alternative times of their own. This results in a text and email back to the buyer who then has the same options to accept or suggest new times. Finally the confirmed viewing time, along with all other necessary details such as names and addresses, are sent to both parties.
This takes up virtually none of the agent’s time (none at all if the viewing is requested on-line via the website) and because people tend to respond to text messages and emails more quickly than phone messages, it results in the viewing being confirmed much more quickly.
This is just one example of how technology can be used to reduce the estate agent’s workload whilst at the same time improving the customer’s overall experience of the service. There are of course many others and at move4us we are constantly striving to think of more.
If you are selling a property and want to benefit from a highly efficient low cost service why not get in touch today.
Contact move4us on 01844 265410 www.move4us.co.uk.
Blog post by Andrew Weston, Director at move4us | UK Online Estate Agency | Selling Properties Online
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