Congratulations! ESTAS 2020 winners celebrate ‘virtual’ victories

The industry’s first virtual awards event has taken place with hundreds of agents participating courtesy of YouTube.

Winners of the prestigious ESTAS Customer Service Awards 2020 have been announced by Phil Spencer with over 1,500 agents and suppliers tuning in.

ESTAS Group founder Simon Brown says: “There’s also never been a more important time to highlight and celebrate the importance of customer care as agencies strive to do the right thing for their clients whilst protecting their businesses and families.

“It was a big technical challenge for us because we wanted to include as many live elements as we could to try and recreate the amazing atmosphere we have at The ESTAS every May. We streamed the broadcast through two platforms so shortlisted agents could interact with the show, fortunately we pulled it off.”

Phil Spencer, who has hosted The ESTAS every year since their inception in 2004, told the nominees: “Your excellent customer service is one of your selling points but winning an ESTA is your USP. It’s proof that you don’t just say you deliver great service, you prove it time and time again. The ESTAS are the purest kind of recognition any firm can receive because its real customer review ratings from real clients that decide the winners.”

The coveted ESTAS Grand Prix title for Best Estate Agent Office in the UK was won by Bury St Edmund based agent Mark Ewin. 

The lettings title was awarded to Infinity Property Solutions in Harrow West London for the second year in a row. 

Strats Estates & Lettings also picked up a Grand Prix for their services to tenants.

In the group categories London based Anthony Pepe scooped the titles for Best Local Agency Group for sales and lettings while in the Regional Group categories Essex based Beresfords were awarded gold in both. 

Countrywide, Andrews and Belvoir took gold, silver and bronze respectively in the Large Group category.

As well as regional awards The ESTAS presented ‘Best in County’ titles helping agencies to gain an advantage in their local areas, 121 agency branches were recognised for the service they deliver to vendors, buyers, tenants and landlords.

The Supplier of the Year category – sponsored by Kerfuffle – was won by Tenant Shop, with Agency Express taking the silver and bronze awarded to HomeLet.

There were also ‘Best in Sector’ Supplier Awards for PayProp for payment services, Spectre for instruction generation tools and Angels Media - the publisher of Estate Agent Today and Letting Agent Today - for best marketing services.

The individual category known as the ESTAS People Awards – sponsored by PayProp – recognised outstanding individual contributions and customer service.

Five Highly Commended trophies were presented to Paul Cooney from Horton & Garton Chiswick, John Harrison from Houseclub in Lancaster, Joanna Hill-Brown from Marriotts with Richard James in Oxfordshire, Ross Jones from Home Financial Mortgage Brokers in Warrington and Karl Taylor from Andrew Reeves Beckenham in Kent.

To commemorate Zoopla’s 10 year anniversary as Headline Partner a special ‘Xcellence’ Award was announced to recognise those agents who have been the most consistent performers in The ESTAS over the last 10 years. 

Base Property Specialists from East London won gold in the lettings category and Logic Estates in Manchester won the sales category.

Ben Marley, ESTAS sales director, adds: “We offer a unique package which now gives agents the best of both from an annual subscription to a review platform designed specifically for the property sector and the chance to win one of the most coveted awards in our industry.”

A full list of the winners can be found here.