Top Ten Tips for Estate Agents

According to The Times, 80 estate agents closed this February due to low sales volumes and the increasing cost of running a business. But there are measures estate agencies can take to ensure their business runs efficiently and cost effectively.

By: Becca Dwyer, Sky Communications International, on behalf of Eurolink Technology Ltd.
Date: 26 March 2012

According to The Times, 80 estate agents closed this February due to low sales volumes and the increasing cost of running a business.* Richard Murray of Eurolink Technology Ltd, a leading consultant to UK estate agents, warns: “The screws are tightening and estate agents who can’t run a tight ship are sadly diminishing.”

Richard continues: “We are often called in to estate agencies to find solutions to cutting costs and increasing productivity and we find that simple changes can make a huge difference.

“Agents should become increasingly tech savvy in order to meet growing customer expectations of a more immediate and personalised service, and the correct software solution can play a significant role in improving productivity and efficiency.”

After spending more than 20 years providing property professionals with relevant advice and cost-effective products and services, Eurolink is well placed within the industry to highlight the key areas businesses should develop in order to generate greater efficiency in the work place.

Richard continues: “Your offering needs to provide more for less – that is, less cost to you the business and less cost to the customer. Innovative technology can improve business decision-making and, ultimately, customer service, which is one of the benefits of IT advances of the last few decades.”

Eurolink’s top tips for an efficient, cost effective property business are:

1. Automation: Streamline your processes, in particular, the repetitive manual ones which take up valuable time that is better spent on negotiating and closing deals.
   
   
2. Setup a solid IT infrastructure: Ensure your systems are functional, reliable and easy to navigate and that staff are well trained in using them.
   
3. Maintain a dependable IT support network: Use a reputable IT support provider to ensure consistently quick access to data and to prevent being caught out when systems go down.
   
4. Keep staff knowledge up to date: Provide regular training sessions and news updates for staff, advising them of new legislation changes, local events and your key point of difference from local competitors, and how these might affect business practice and your varied client base.
   
5. Customer Relationship Management: Ensure that your software application can deliver all of the relevant contact information for every individual client you deal with. Understanding who the person is and what they mean to your business will ensure that all potential opportunities can be explored.
   
6. Integration: Utilise one software system for both estate and lettings work. This allows for the cross sharing of customer data, reduced data storage and is cost effective (you only pay for one license, one technical support team etc.)
   
7. Familiarity: Implement a software system that is familiar to your staff, as a complicated and unfamiliar interface will make adoption difficult. A product like the Veco-onesystem™ which appears similar to Microsoft Outlook allows for easy navigation and will mean staff take less time to embrace the latest and most innovative technology.
   
8. Organisation of data: A complete software solution allows your business to free itself from the restraints of filing cabinets and storage units and is also environmentally friendly.
   
9. Streamline customer communications: Link your network phone system to your software solution to enhance customer communications by delivering a fast and knowledgeable service.
   
10. Security: Store data in a secure software storage facility. Information can still be easily accessed by authorised staff, and access can be monitored.

Eurolink Technology Ltd is the UK’s leading property management software development company, established in 1990. It is best known for pioneering the 'onesystem' software concept, which allows multi-practice estate agencies to combine one or more of their business systems into a unified Veco-onesystem™ CRM solution. This innovative software is designed to be efficient, affordable and is adapted and tailored to suit individual businesses’ needs.

For more details on the services offered by Eurolink Technology Ltd, please visit www.eurolink.co or call 0137 2389 250.

For press information, please contact Rebecca Dwyer or Julia Arnold at Sky Communications International on 01273 355 111 or email: rebecca.dwyer@skycommunications.co.uk.

Press Contact:
Becca Dwyer or Julia Arnold
Sky Communications International
44 (0)1273 355 111
44 (0)7747 578 617
rebecca.dwyer@skycommunications.co.uk
julia.arnold@skycommunications.co.uk

Sky Communications International
2 Frederick Terrace
Frederick Place
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www.skycommunications.co.uk

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