Tom Durrant, Director of Doctor Photo

Are you a real Doctor?

Not in the conventional sense no, sorry to disappoint! I’m Tom Durrant and I’m the Creative Director at Doctor Photo – we’re visualisation specialists for the property industry.

Who are Doctor Photo and what do they do?

Doctor Photo are an award-winning photo retouching and CGI design agency. We offer visualisation & training services including photography training, photo enhancing (blue skies etc), removing objects from pics, 360* VR editing, furnishing empty rooms with photo-realistic CGI furniture, full CGI for new builds, day to dusk pics and highly specialist photo-visualisation….and everything in-between!

We’re a family business too. My Dad (the MD) was an agent for 37 years and has since been a photographer for the past 13 – yup that makes it 50 years in the industry last year! My mum works in the accounts department and my wife even works in CRM for us part-time. I think the fact we’re a family business means we care and hopefully that comes across. It makes Sunday lunch quite dreary as all we talk about is work but I feel very lucky to have worked with my parents!

Who are your customers?

We service all types of property stakeholder including 5 of the top 20 house builders in the UK, one-man band property consultants, property photographers & estate agent brands with hundreds of offices… we have around 1300 customers of all types on our books which keeps life interesting – and busy!

What’s your biggest achievement with Doctor Photo?

Probably winning the 2019 EA Masters – Supplier of the Year (Small). The great thing about the award was that all Suppliers are automatically entered & it’s completely based on feedback from estate agents… We work really hard to delight our customers & I think the award’s a confident reflection that we’re doing something right on the whole!

What’s your favourite product/service at Doctor Photo?

Probably Photo-visualisation. It’s quite unique to us and requires a high level of artistry.

Basically, estate agents take a photo of a half-built property or a property that has potential for re-development and we’ll visualise it, totally transformed or finished. It’s made with either a hybrid CGI method or via full-photoshop. It takes many hours but it’s photo-realistic and the impact is spot on.

We’ve had agents tell us that they’ve sold off the back of the visualisation we’ve created as it’s brought to life the property’s potential. We can also knock down walls, add new kitchens, transform small rooms into open-plan – you name it, we’ve done it.

What makes Doctor Photo different?

We’ve been around since the beginning – in fact, we’re pretty-sure we were the first in the UK. We’ve preached about the importance of property photos for years on the BBC, in Which? magazine, the Times, the Negotiator and of course Estate Agent Today to name but a few…

We’ve trained the trainer, built a brand based on real passion, substance, knowledge & quality. Won the EAMasters, won the Surrey Business Awwards for our service, and been shortlisted for the Negotiator twice! We’re approachable, friendly and we’re FAST!

Lastly, I truly believe we have the best software. We’re just launching our brand-new interface at www.doctor-photo-easy.co.uk which is a game-changer too, so watch this space!

What do your think’s the biggest opportunity for estate agents in 2019?

I still strongly believe that the biggest opportunity for agents is to improve their images. You only have less than a second to encourage click-through and Doctor Photo can help. Products like our Virtual Furnishing & Photo-visualisation service help inspire way beyond a description or passing comment from an agent and if you can demonstrate, with examples, to a potential vendor how far you are prepared to go to sell your houses, you’ll stand head and shoulders above the rest and justify your fee.

What’s your favourite photo-request at work?

I once got asked to soil the garden! I told them that’s taking eco-living a little too far and our mileage costs would be prohibitively high.

What’s your favourite hobby?

Hobby?! I don’t have time for hobbies, I’m too busy working or trying to put my 2-year-old to bed J

Country or City?

I’ve always had a love for Somerset. Cider may play a part in it.

Dogs or cats?

I like both, I own a cat that’s bigger than most dogs which is the best of both worlds!

Tom Durrant works for Doctor Photo – Visualisation experts for the property industry. To learn more visit www.doctor-photo.co.uk or email him directly on tomdurrant@doctor-photo.co.uk