Agents’ New Year resolution must be to slash business costs

The objective of estate agents in 2022 must be to cut their business costs and employ technology to replace - and make cheaper - the execution of tedious repetitive tasks.

That’s the view of Peter Grant, chairman and chief executive at industry supplier Openview. 

He says recent data from CRM supplier Salesforce suggests that replacing manual tasks with automated tasks will save employees between 10 and 50 per cent of the time taken to do labour-intensive duties. Meanwhile a customer service survey conducted by business consultancy PwC suggests that 80 per cent of participants say speed and convenience are the most important aspects of a positive customer experience. 

“From sales to lettings, automation is proven to be a reliable time-saving solution. As a time-sensitive industry that is constantly changing, agents regularly have to meet deadlines. Potential delays, large volumes of clients, paperwork to complete, and complex transactions to process are just some of the challenges that agents will always face” says Grant. 

“However, through the use of automated processes, agents no longer must worry about the chances of error, potential delays, and losing valuable documents. Stopping these nuisances from happening by automating processes saves plenty of time, money and stress in the long-term.” 

And Grant believes that the unique circumstances of the pandemic make the case for more technology even more compelling. 

“While the Omicron variant creates uncertainty about working in the office again, we predict that relying on the right software will support growth all year regardless of where agents choose to work.” 

He adds that automation increases the likelihood of being more compliant, too.

“The market is always changing and this has been supercharged by Covid. It will be those agents who adapt and evolve who profit the most. As we move into 2022, the aim for agents should be to simplify processes and deliver ground-breaking services efficiently. With the help of readily available PropTech solutions, this is more than possible to achieve.”