Fledgling trade body partners with Feefo for pre-launch period

A trade body which has been founded to represent the interests of independent estate agents has partnered with consumer reviews platform Feefo.

The Charter for Independent Estate and Letting Agents (CIELA) has announced Feefo as its headline brand partner for the remainder of its pre-launch period which runs until October 1.

Feefo is a global consumer review site which Google uses to power its star rating system. 

CIELA says that choosing the best local estate agent is one of prospective vendors’ biggest challenge.

“Feefo’s service compliments CIELA’s objectives very well,” says Charlie Wright, founder of CIELA.

“In the battle to educate the public as to what good agents really do, Feefo is helping those agents who deliver the best personal service to build a strong online reputation.” 

“Eventually this will help combat the glossy corporate marketing which misleads so many people into instructing the wrong agent,” he says.

In an interview with Estate Agent Today last week, Wright said agents' reputations are damaged by a public misunderstanding of their role in a property transaction.

"When it seems like an agent has 'done nothing for their money', it’s usually because they have done such an outstanding job of smoothing the process out that the client experience is that ‘it was easy’," he said.

Feefo will be in attendance at all of the CIELA's forthcoming 'Decision-Makers' Debates'. These events are free to owners of independent estate agent and the first one takes place on Wednesday in Manchester.