This week I woke up to the news that Savills were advertising in a local paper using a testimonial written by a senior employee. The head of Savills PR claimed that this was an oversight.
Unfortunately, although I accept that accidents happen, on this occasion, I do not buy the oversight' explanation. Furthermore, it questions the professional integrity of a leading estate agency firm.
For me, the worst part was reading that the Head of PR tried to pass it off as an oversight rather than a serious breach of policy. Why does this matter
Like it or not, estate agency has a very poor public image and stunts like this do little to promote a more positive opinion. What's more, the commercial reality is that given the size of Savills, it forces smaller agents to consider employing similar standards. This is not a rant at a particular agent but ethics are and always will be of utmost importance to the success of our industry.
One of the issues I often encounter is sellers that are fed up with an endless number of buyers coming to view their property that they perceive are not seriously interested or suitable.
Last week I was approached by someone who has been marketing their home for nearly 12 months. The market for their property is difficult and they accepted that their existing agent was up against it, but the one point that got their hackles up was the number of people viewing their home that they perceived to be time wasters.
There are many reasons why pre-qualifying people can be difficult and it would have been easy to assure them that I would do things differently.
Now, I do pre-qualify people as best I can but even I know that it doesn't always work. Having explained how I approach things, I had to concede that there are times when I question myself whether it was worth showing certain people around a property.
However, what it boiled down to for this client was that they didn't trust estate agents and I think it is safe to say that if a national firm has to resort to writing their own testimonials, then it means we all face an uphill battle.
By the way, I did get the instruction and have already shown a few people around that seem serious.hopefully this client will write me a good testimonial to save me the effort!
*The Secret Agent has been in property for almost 20 years and trained as a Chartered Surveyor. He enjoys nothing more than being involved in property and has invested in, renovated, developed and sold plenty of property for both himself and clients.
(In between selling property this agent loves nothing more than being involved in rugby and whilst slower and heavier, continues to be as involved as possible.)
Comments
in todays socially connected world the only testimonials that are what your customers really think. Posting your own positive reviews is easily spotted and ends up making the company look worse than unprofessional. Be great at what you do,deliver on your promises,if you mess up ,own up and fix it fast and in the normal course of events your reputation will be built and maintained. If you fail to deliver on any of these 3 the market will soon let you know.
There is another way! Some may be interested in an [url="http://www.helphound.info/2014/08/stop-using-testimonials-now.html"]article[/url] that specifically addresses the subject of testimonials.
We completely understand why so many agents use them; until recently they were one of the only (if weak) ways of combating the general lack of trust described so accurately in this article.
Agents should be embracing reviews wholeheartedly, your reputation is potentially in the hands of a tiny minority of dissatisfied clients if you don't.