Estate Agencies

Entrepreneurs don’t have to know, understand, and do everything themselves to be successful in business. In fact, most successful estate agents don’t attempt to go it alone. They are successful because they’ve found the right people with the right skills to handle important yet routine tasks for them. Growing a team can be perceived as increasing business overheads. This is what drives many small estate agents to save money by shouldering the workload and doing everything themselves. But are they saving money in the long run or are they just limiting business growth? There are some very serious hidden costs inherent in doing everything oneself.

Here is a run-down of the hidden costs DIY estate agents pay for doing everything themselves:

1. Emotional and physical costs

• Stress:  Two of the common causes of stress in estate agents include a massive workload and working long hours.
• Job burnout: An extended period of experiencing constant pressure and relentless stress along with low levels of support is likely to cause job burnout – or worse.

2. Lack of work-life balance

• Work-life balance incorporates five main facets: work, mental health, physical well-being, time to socialise (or spend quality time with family) and time to rest. To avoid burnout, estate agents should strive to achieve a balance between their work and personal lives. This includes taking sufficient time for themselves.
• Not being able to take a break: For estate agents who have no back up or support, taking a break means closing the doors of their business while they are away, which is a no-no for them.

3. Operational inefficiencies

• Lack of attention to detail: A large workload, long hours and insufficient time all lead to cutting corners and attention to detail goes out the window.
• Compromised quality: When you are constantly under pressure or doing too much at once, the quality of your work is bound to suffer and mistakes creep in.
• Slow-moving client service: Navigating a massive workload will inevitably lead to a slower response to client queries or engagement.

Future proofing an Estate Agency business in the UK hinges not only on leveraging advances in PropTech or navigating the highs and lows of the property market. It is also about marketing initiatives and customer relationship management being in being in sync with who property buyers are and their buyer behaviour. Moving into the future, the majority of property buyers will fall into Millennial and Gen Z generational cohorts.

Millennial property buyers are vat an all-time high

An article on millennial home ownership in in the May 2024 issue of Business Matters magazine stated: “Homeownership among (UK) millennials has climbed to its highest level in over a decade, driven by a significant rise in earnings among young people, according to recent research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).”

Millennials are tech-savvy clients

Millennials are the largest generation in the UK today, making up 22% of the population. Age wise, they range between 28 and 43 years old – and two thirds of them have at least one child. Millennials were the first generation to be raised with smartphones, instant communication methods, and social networking. According to a recent survey of millennial homeowners, when it comes to looking for a new home, this cohort is highly likely to start their property search online. This means Estate Agents have no alternative but to use online tools to reach and connect with these tech-savvy clients. Plus, they are used to instant access and expect an immediate response and availability when talking to a service provider.

Millennials are strapped for time

Online research and shopping are entrenched in Millennials’ consumer behaviour. This is amplified by the fact that their lives are super busy with work, family, and other commitments. They may not have the time or desire to spend driving around to endless open houses or meetings with Estate Agents to narrow down their search. Online platforms allow them to search for ideal homes from the comfort of their own homes – anytime day or night. Seeing a property they like online will trigger their contacting the Agent.

Gen Z want to buy property

Older members of Gen Z are already in their mid to late twenties. According to the National Center for Social Research Gen Z, as the future movers and shakers in the property market, “face the biggest gap of any generation between housing aspiration and reality,” from a financial perspective. However, the majority still want to buy property. Gen Z as first-time buyers are fully immersed in the digital landscape. Not only are they digital natives, increasingly they will live in the Metaverse – a 3-D reiteration of the internet that includes immersive virtual worlds where people can connect with friends, work, play games and shop. Marketing to Gen Z consumers demands a very specific language and approach. Successful Gen Z marketing is based on common themes of ethics, humour, relatability, honesty, knowledge and community.

Establishing a strong personal brand is critical for success in today’s highly competitive UK Estate Agency market. Firstly because it supports building a good reputation. Referrals are often given as a result of the trust and professionalism an Estate Agent has established over time. And secondly because today’s potential clients start their property buying research online. A strong personal brand online ensures prospective clients respond positively to what they find. It helps Agents in keeping their marketing message consistent and upholding their positive reputation.

What constitutes a personal brand?

For Estate Agents, whether you work within a multi-agent business or as an independent, personal branding is about consciously building a reputation that highlights your unique qualities and expertise. It conveys how you want to be perceived by clients and colleagues. This may be as an expert in a particular geographic area or as a skilled negotiator who is known for getting your clients their asking price. Thus, visible personal branding involves far more than just promoting a company logo and tagline. It entails multi-channel marketing communication that conveys your ethos and values. Upholding personal branding also has a practical component – it is found in day-to-day service that backs up your skills and the unique value you bring to your clients.

Why is a personal brand important?

Competition between estate agencies in the UK is fierce. Your personal brand is the tool that sets you apart from your competition by communicating your values, experience and service offering.  Consistency in your brand identity over time increases clients’ good perception and the trust that will help you stand out among your many competitors in the long term.

Estate Agency is a people-centric industry. Without timely and effective client communication, Agents would not have a viable business. Regular communication and keeping clients in the loop fosters trust, ensures understanding, and facilitates smooth processes. As an agency grows, and the volume of client interactions continues to rise – especially if the agency also manages a letting portfolio – maintaining consistent communication with clients can become a challenging, time-consuming task. In the digital age, communication platforms play a pivotal role in connecting Estate Agents with their clients and support strong client relationships. This is where digital communication systems in the hands of a skilled Virtual Assistant can transform your business.

So, what is a digital communication tool?

A customer communication tool is one of several available channels that facilitate interaction between a company and their prospects and clients.

Digital communication tools are essential in three ways:

• When it comes to marketing the agency, today’s AI-enhanced digital technology allows for well targeted, personalised communication that generates and converts leads into clients.
• In servicing signed clients who are in the middle of selling or buying property, digital communications tools have the power to make an incredible impact on clients’ interaction with your agency.
• Digital communication tools allow Agents to stay in touch with clients well after a sale has been concluded, helping to keep the agency top of mind and to acquire ongoing personal referrals.

What is the purpose of customer communication tools?

At their heart, client communication tools accomplish 3 things:

1. Facilitate seamless client interactions across various channels, including email, live chat and even social media.
2. Manage enquiries, feedback, and support requests efficiently, regardless of the channel through which they originate.
3. Track client behaviour and preferences, providing valuable insights to tailor communication efforts effectively.

Digital tools paved the way for VAs

One area where digital tools – especially communication and project management tools – have made a significant impact on Estate Agency worldwide is that they’ve facilitated taking on Virtual Assistants who are able to work remotely and fulfil a broad range of tasks. They allow VAs to manage important yet time-consuming day-to-day tasks to free up Agents’ valuable time so they can focus on mission-critical priorities, like selling property and growing the business.

AI is paving the way for increasing sales while saving time and money 

While digital tools have been used increasingly since the mid-1990s, it was only in 2023 that AI truly went mainstream. Today, if Estate Agents want to stay keep up with competitors, AI is no longer a nice-to-have. It is essential for speed and accuracy in gaining industry and market insights through data manipulation. It is pivotal for seamless, personalised client interaction. It is a strategic imperative for staying cutting edge by wowing sellers with bespoke property videos that impactfully market their property – or moving the dial on sales by offering incredibly life-like virtual property walk-throughs. 

It is important to remember, though, that AI is a tool. It’s only as effective as the people who wield it. It’s not a replacement for human originality. 

AI is a very powerful tool in the hands of a tech savvy Virtual Assistant

Estate Agency will always be a ‘people industry’. In both the sales and letting sectors, providing a top quality, personalised service relies heavily on human expertise, insights, and emotional intelligence. However, in the hands of a skilled and experienced Virtual Assistant, AI tools will allow your VA to be more productive and efficient than when they use conventional tools. Not only will their turn-around time be faster, their job description will expand as AI allows them to automate routine tasks, produce valuable information and reports, generate more leads, better identify and reach your target audience – and then use sophisticated AI-enhanced marketing campaigns to nurture them and turn prospects into clients. 

To align with the typical property buyer’s journey, which often begins with online searches for suitable properties, digital transformation has become essential in the UK estate agency industry. More than seamlessly reaching prospective clients, the rise of the digital era has allowed Estate Agencies to cut back on expenses, increase their efficiency by automating and streamlining processes, and improve on data security.

In addition to a quality CRM system, what are the essential digital tools that Estate Agencies can employ to generate leads, enhance and streamline their operations and improve their ‘client experience’?

Here are our top five must-have digital tools for Estate Agents:

1. Online project management

Project management software, like Trello or Asana, is designed to help companies and individuals track projects, tasks and schedules. The key value of this kind of software is its ability to bring structure to business operations. The software should be easy to use, with a logical interface. Choose software that can integrate seamlessly with other IT systems you use, such as your CRM software. The ideal software will have the facility to grow with your business and be adaptable to changing needs.

2. Customer service integration

A chatbot is an entirely digital Virtual Assistant that can handle client inquiries, simulating conversation and answering questions, with the benefit of being on duty 24/7.  For Estate Agents, this can mean answering questions about buying or selling properties or the sales process using artificial intelligence or pre-defined conversation scripts. Integrating your chatbot with your CRM (managed by your human Virtual Assistant) can enable seamless and consistent communication with customers across multiple channels, which include website, mobile, email and social media, etc. This integration allows the chatbot to access and update the customer data stored in your CRM system seamlessly.

3. Social media content creation

Social media is an indispensable tool for modern estate agents. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn provide opportunities to generate leads, engage with clients and share listings. High-quality content has the potential to drive traffic, increase conversions, and build brand awareness. Online graphic design tools like Canva make creating quality visuals and videos in-house really easy. Canva can be integrated to directly post your designs to messaging apps and social media and messaging platforms like Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest.

4. Advanced marketing analytics

There are many ways that data is useful to Estate Agents – from determining a suburb’s demographics to a specific property’s sales history to market trends. One very important aspect of data analytics – it is crucial to ensuring the success of digital marketing campaigns, including measuring the performance of social media, digital advertising and a company’s website. These analytics help to determine which areas of your marketing strategy are successful and which areas need more attention, allowing you to invest your marketing budget wisely.

5. Virtual tour software

Virtual tours can help agents market properties more effectively by providing a more immersive and engaging experience for potential buyers. They offer convenience, flexibility and a 3-D view of a property before ever stepping foot inside it and are seen to be a valuable service for both buyers and sellers. As technology has evolved on the back of the Covid pandemic, the software to produce high-quality 3D tours, 360-degree panoramic views, and even virtual reality experiences have become readily available for Estate Agents to create their own virtual tours in-house. Despite the initial capital outlay required, this is a more cost-efficient approach in the longer term.

In today’s digital age, virtual tours and property videos have become powerful marketing tools used to showcase properties for sale. These innovative tools have become “must haves” for competitive Estate Agents, helping to enhance property listings and offering a unique way to engage potential buyers both local and those from further afield.

• Property videos

Property videos can be made up from a combination of video and still photos. They are an effective marketing tool in that they can be used to generate interest from prospective buyers. They are more impactful than still images to emphasise the unique features and benefits of each property. Leveraging property videos saves time in that these allow a potential buyer to get more comprehensive first look at a property without having to schedule an in-person showing.

• Virtual tours

Virtual property tours allow potential buyers to narrow down their search by experiencing the layout, size and features of a property from their own laptop. They are an ideal way to communicate the dimensions and features of a physical space, allowing an Estate Agent to showcase 3-dimensional indoor and outdoor spaces in a way stills photography cannot accomplish. They also allow clients to better envisage renovations and upgrades as they get a sense of a home’s space and flow. They expand Estate Agents’ reach, allowing them to showcase properties to remote clients. If a prospective client calls to schedule a viewing after seeing your virtual tour, they have already shortlisted the property and have a genuine interest in putting in an offer.

Yes, there is upfront financial outlay to be made when launching into creating virtual property tours. But the return on investment has been proven¹ to be well worth it. One way of making the creation of virtual tours more affordable is (rather than using an external service provider) to take on a Virtual Assistant who understands the technical ins and outs of creating property videos and virtual tours. This can greatly enhance your ability to showcase your properties in a more budget efficient way.

Cold calling feeds the lead pipeline

To maintain a decent level of stock, Estate Agents need to maintain a healthy pipeline of leads. One way to do this is cold calling. Agents engage in cold calling to accomplish a variety of purposes that have both short and long-term benefits. These include:

• Generating new leads.
• Starting a relationship that can be nurtured.
• Initiating meeting in person with potential clients.
• Plus it can be a great source of referrals.

Cold calling is both daunting and time consuming

No matter how important it is, cold calling is time-consuming when done well. Significant amounts of time are spent researching prospects, making calls, reaching prospects’ voicemails and then phoning again, and encountering uninterested prospects to weed out those people who become qualified leads.

The answer lies in taking on an experienced VA

Taking on a Virtual Assistant who has experience in cold calling, lead generation and lead nurturing will not only level up your lead generation activity and improve on the number of face-to-face meetings you have scheduled. Their upfront work will also have you fully apprised with valuable information before you meet each client and will free up your time to focus on relationship building, signing business and closing deals.

The goal of using a customer relationship management (CRM) system is to improve relationships to grow your business. To this end, a CRM system provides a highly organised, online collection point for customer-related information. This makes managing and tracking information easy. For example, you can document and track the buyers’ journey for current clients, keep in touch with old clients and keep a record of prospects. CRM technology helps companies stay connected to customers, streamlines processes, and improves efficiency. This helps to save time and grow the business.

Here are 3 benefits of using a CRM system:

1. Since a good CRM system can store a wide range of information, it can be a central “archive” for all information, aligning processes between marketing, sales, customer service and administration.
2. By intelligently storing and managing your existing prospect and clients’ information, an automated CRM system more than maintains an existing database, it can help to improve the strategies that determine the number of leads your marketing and lead generation campaigns generate.
3. CRM systems allow both sales and marketing teams to personalise communication. This helps companies to build a relationship with their clients and prospects that converts prospects into clients, fosters loyalty, and nurtures customer retention.

When it comes to data input, IT specialists will tell you, “Garbage in, garbage out.”  In other words incorrect or poor-quality data input will produce flawed or useless output. Today CRM data management is of such importance to Estate Agencies that it is seen as an advantage to have someone in your team who oversees your database to ensure it is comprehensive, accurate, and up to date. To the point that some Estate Agents are taking on a dedicated CRM Virtual Assistant – in other words, Virtual Assistants with the appropriate knowledge to manage customer relationship management systems to keep client data organised and actionable.

Here are 3 valuable ways that your Virtual Assistant can help you optimise the use of your CRM system:

1. Data management: To ensure that data is updated regularly and accurately entered in the CRM system.
2. Lead management: To track target markets and lead generation campaigns – from prospect through to lead conversion.
3. Analysis: To mine the information for valuable trends and insights. For example, to analyse and report back on what is working and what is not working in generating and converting leads.

People who are successful business owners will tell you that there is great fortune to be had in consistent follow up. This makes sense when you consider that, according to research studies, only about 2% of sales happen upon initial contact. Clients who are among the 2% have already done their research and clearly know what they want.

What about the other 98%?

Each person within the remaining 98% is a warm lead – a potential client who has already shown interest in your stock or service. As they have already engaged with you personally or via your marketing channels they are typically receptive to outreach. However, their journey to becoming your client is still in progress. They need to be communicated with, educated and guided through an established sales funnel to keep them warm so that they don’t lose interest.

How can your Virtual Assistant help?

At its heart, lead nurturing is about making lasting connections with prospects. The three main elements of lead nurturing are building relationships through meaningful conversations, providing valuable insights that answer customer questions, and driving action by moving prospects closer to becoming a client over time. There are many ways your Virtual Assistant can help you in consistently gathering and nurturing warm leads. These include:

Gathering leads

• Market research: Conducting research to identify potential customers and target markets.
• Cold Calling: Reaching out to potential leads directly by phone.
• Referral marketing: Asking satisfied customers to refer your company to their associates and friends. To make your referral programme sing, consider adding incentives like an extra discount or reward. This will encourage clients to spread the word.

Nurturing leads

• Regular person-to-person follow up: Creating a follow up schedule then checking in with qualified leads via phone call, email or WhatsApp at appropriate intervals – depending on where they are at in the buyer’s journey.
• Email campaigns: Managing an email drip campaign. Email marketing campaigns can be quite effective at keeping leads warm because they provide the opportunity to keep in regular contact with prospects.
• Re-engagement campaigns: These campaigns are designed to specifically target leads within your database that have fallen dormant and re-engage them in the sales process.

• Digital marketing: Building relationships with your prospects with the goal of earning their business when they’re ready. This includes:

• • Social Media: Engaging with potential clients on social platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram
  • Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): Enhancing website visibility to attract organic leads.
  • Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC): Using paid ads to target specific demographics and drive traffic to landing pages.

• Online education and networking events: Organising webinars and other online events to connect and add value for potential clients.
• Reporting and analytics: Monitoring and analysing lead generation efforts to optimise strategies.