Above and beyond the call of duty – a tale of staff attitude and the customer experience

Anyone that has stumbled across my previous blogs will know that I am in the process if moving. My estate agent who were excellent when I bought thought them two and a half years ago have let me down. 2 weeks plus for the board to arrive, inaccurate details which took three attempts to get right and no viewings for the first two weeks. In fact little visible sign that they are trying very hard at all. I just hope that when I used to sell houses I was never that complacent, the market is changing and houses no longer sell themselves, an agent has to work hard to get results.

However, on Tuesday the first viewer round made an offer within 15 mins of walking in through the front door, a bit of negotiating later and we are sorted, deal done subject to survey and contract.

We are now looking for somewhere to buy and I am bitterly disappointed with how estate agency has altered in the years since I did it. All but two agents covering two major towns are open on a Sunday. Worse still they are fully booked up for Saturday viewings a week in advance, and even worse, estate agents generally seem to employ staff that have forgotten what customer service is about. I am seriously faced with taking a day off work in order to look round houses when THEY decide they can find time to show me around. “I’m sorry Mr Armstrong our last viewing is 5pm”, “I’m sorry Mr Armstrong we cant do any more viewings on Saturday as our viewer has to finish at 1pm  and I’m the only person in the office”. If you are prone to depression then my recommendation is don’t sell your house, use the money you would spend on moving on a holiday, HD TV or anything else that is likely to help you relax and unwind.

But what’s this……..can I really believe this is true? Farrell Heyworth seem to be taking a different approach. This week they are advertising that Monday to Friday their viewing hotline is available from 8am to 8pm, and they are open on a both Saturday and Sunday. They text potential properties of interest to me regularly and one negotiator in the Morecambe office has gone the extra mile. When I explained I couldn’t view either during a weekday or last Saturday she offered to meet me at 6.15pm to show me round a property occupied by an elderly lady. She isn’t responsible for viewings but appreciated my plight and responded. She won’t get paid for it, I know that much, and I don’t think she is on commission, but she wants to help. Not only this but she always calls when she says she will and has even offered to do the same again over the weekend for me after she closes the office on Saturday.

Now that is service. From what I have seen I like to think that our guys working here at UFindUs would, and,  are doing the same thing. Who would have thought it that an estate agent would be leading the way in customer service? All I have to say is well done Farrell Heyworth for nurturing the right approach in your staff and an even bigger well done to the lady in the Morecambe office who has done what very few others would have done.

Graham Armstrong – UFindUs Ltd

Declutter to get moving.

My own little pied a terre finally went on the market last week. The result has been chaos, not just a bit of chaos, but heap loads of it.  You know how it is, you get an idea but you just don’t realise how wide reaching the consequences are going to be. A week and a half later and I am still packing stuff up to put into storage, touching up the paintwork and doing the garden so that it has “kerb appeal” As an ex estate agent I spent 18 years advising people on what to do to make their houses saleable, and to be fair I made a damn good job of it. I also hasten to add I was doing this long before Anne Maurice would attempt mass hypnosis of the tv viewing public with her husky American tones.  Question: How much can you cram into a drawer divan, an under stairs cupboard, an airing cupboard and other assorted storage spaces? Answer: Too much. I am swamped with much treasured items that I just couldn’t possibly part with and yet I am happy to have them rot away in the darkest recesses of my home. I think the time is right to fill a few bin bags or have a car boot, but like many others with great intentions I can imagine saying, “aawwww I cant get rid of that, I’ve had this for years”. Its like groundhog day, I remember being in the same situation when I moved 2 years ago. Maybe the best thing is to get a friend to sort it for me, if I haven’t used it by now I obviously don’t need it.  I hope that the pain I am going through now will reap the rewards when the house gets sold ultra quick because it has been given a quick makeover and de-clutter. I guess it is a bit like running a business, you have to keep it fresh and focused on what you want to achieve.