Heather Staff - Co-Founder of Street Group

Who are you and what does it say on your business card?

I’m Heather Staff and it says Co-Founder of Street Group on my business card.

What is ‘company name’ and what does it do?

Street Group comprises 3 products - all of which are designed to streamline operations, drive growth, and deliver better results for estate and letting agents. They are:

• Street.co.uk

• Spectre.uk.com

• Insights.street.co.uk

What services do you offer and in what ways do you work with estate and letting agents?

Street.co.uk is our multi-award-winning CRM. The platform helps agents win more business whilst streamlining their operations and empowering them to work more efficiently.

Spectre.uk.com is the market-leading prospecting tool for estate and letting agents. Our software provides unparalleled on and off-market data and technology that is proven to help agents win more instructions and grow their market share.

Insights.street.co.uk provides unrivalled property data, as well as digital and PDF reports, to any agent in the UK, completely free of charge, for life!

What makes your product different and how does it benefit agents? 

Street.co.uk is built with modern technology that no other CRM offers. It is designed to help agents win instructions around the clock, provide an unparalleled customer experience, and streamline their operations in ways that have a direct impact on their bottom line. Street.co.uk is also the only agency CRM that has a true openAPI - enabling agents to integrate their entire tech stack and supercharge every aspect of their business.

Spectre.uk.com provides estate and letting agents with an entire suite of prospecting tools, under one subscription. This includes everything from on and off-market data, lead capture solutions, anniversary reports, success tracking, revolutionary AI innovation, automation and more - all proven to help agents save time and grow their market share. 

And finally, there’s Insights.street.co.uk - the first-ever platform to offer property reports and data completely free of charge to UK estate and letting agents. Not only do these reports provide 130+ data points on each of the 32 million UK addresses in our database, but they also come in various formats - such as printed, lead capture, tracked, and presentation mode. What makes them truly unique is that despite being free, they are fully white-labelled and customisable with the agent’s unique branding. 
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What is your greatest achievement in your current role and what made it so special?

Winning ‘the treble’ last year!

We won Best Overall and Best Large Supplier at the EA Masters, Best Prospecting Tool at the ESTAs, and Best Marketing Tool at the Negotiator Awards. I believe we are the first and only company to do so.

What made it doubly special for us was that most of those awards were voted for by agents, which I think is a testament to the products themselves delivering great results for agents, combined with the excellent level of service that we always strive to deliver.

What is the most satisfying part of your job?

It’s cheesy but it’s when we receive feedback/testimonials from agents, particularly when they mention members of the team by name.

For example, we recently onboarded a 20-branch agent onto Street.co.uk. Changing CRM has a reputation for being a stressful and generally not a very pleasant experience. However, once we had migrated and onboarded them, we received an unprompted email from the client, thanking and naming no less than 6 members of the team with some glowing feedback - here’s a snippet:

“Bravo, everyone involved – We are truly grateful for your trusted hands holding ours. Thank you just doesn’t seem to be enough to express how we feel about you all; individually, personally, as a team, as a company and your product. Your award-winning service is genuinely outstanding and a credible claim.”

The email was immediately shared on Slack and the buzz around the office for the rest of the day was tangible. I’m honestly so grateful for agents that take the time out of their day to do things like this, it means so much to everyone!

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing estate and letting agents at the moment?

Readjusting to normal transaction levels. Over the last couple of years, agents have naturally adapted to cope with higher than average transaction levels - and top-line growth can sometimes mask inefficiencies that may have crept in over that period. Now we’re back to normal transaction volumes, those inefficiencies will start to surface and agents will need to ‘right-size’ their business and processes.

What is your property prediction for the next 12 months?

I cheated and asked our in-house data analyst! This is what she had to say: ‘I see a steady flow of new properties coming to market but a continuing decline in sales as the market rebalances. We'll see properties stay on the market longer leading to more withdrawals and more price drops until we reach "normal" levels. We'll probably see a neutral but still sturdy market this year, but continued uncertainty around inflation and the impact on base rates might mean a brighter or gloomier outlook.’

Country house or city apartment?

City apartment.

Trendy roof terrace or traditional English garden?

English garden.

Would you rather be a free-moving tenant or settled owner occupier?

Occupier.

What is your favourite room in your home?

The kitchen.

Homes under the Hammer or Location, Location, Location?

Location, Location, Location.