In 2021 expectations from consumers have never been higher, especially when it comes to moving home. The home move is the third the most stressful experience an individual experiences go through alongside divorce and redundancy. Therefore, every business that interacts with customers in this life-event has even greater expectation to make things simple. With the number of innovations developing his has become easier and easier to do.
The estate agent is the most important player in the home move, caring after the home mover from when they want to find a home right through to the move in. In this article we’ll explore the two main ways estate agents need to start thinking about the home moving experience differently. These are adapting new home moving technology and customer experience.
Moving home technology
Technology is evolving rapidly in the prop-tech space with new innovations developing all the time. These innovations will either save the user money, reduce their time or save them stress. Estate Agents can partner should look for and partner with these prop-tech innovators. From change of address services like SlothMove, to deposit alternatives like Reposit or mydeposithero. These are examples of new technologies that didn’t even exist 3 years ago. However, from a tenant or conveyancing perspective they make a significant difference in terms of experience.
The key takeaway here is that it isn’t enough to do estate agency the old way any further. With over 25,000 estate agents in the UK it is essential to have a point of differentiation. Whether you’re helping movers get their home setup and addresses updated or saving them money by removing the need for a deposit, it’s important. Estate agencies cannot rely on differentiating on price alone, lest they see their margins under constant pressure. These new innovations don’t just provide value to the home mover, they can also simplify and help the estate agent also. Utility updates such as energy & broadband can generate revenue and save time for estate agents. Reducing the purchase or ‘move-in’ friction through streamlined processes or work-arounds will increase conversion rates. Of course this, in turn, will drive value to the bottom line by improving conversions.
Set expectations for the moving journey
On average in the UK, individuals move once every move every 7 years according to English Housing Survey data. Interestingly, the frequency is considerably greater for millennials and Gen Z and less frequent the older one becomes. So, why is that relevant to your estate agency? Essentially, since a customer will change address so infrequently the process is essentially whatever you make it. Some customers will have an excellent sense of the process but that cannot be said for everyone. The question we ought to ask is ‘how can estate agents add value to these customers?’. If one estate agents doesn’t another will.
So, they key takeaway here is that estate agencies should not assume their home movers are aware of the process. We know that customer satisfaction is the customers expectations vs the reality of what they receive. Let’s say a first-time buyer has an unrealistically short expectation of a house sale. The prospective mover will soon be disappointed and may infer that to be at the fault of you as their estate agent. Improving the home moving experience means recognising this fact and taking the time to walk this through with home movers in the onboarding process.
The bottom line for estate agents
New technology and customer excellence aren’t anything new, however the pace of change is increasingly markedly. Against a back-drop of a very competitive estate agency market the need to have a strong point of differentiation for customers is more important than ever. The customer acquisition strategy of the future will grow through referrals and organic pull the stronger and more compelling the user journey becomes. There is a need to re-think the positioning to customers, return to basics and utilise new technologies.
These new technologies will remove the friction of moving home significantly. It can become cheaper, easier and faster than ever. With developments across all aspects of the property technology sector (from conveyancing to address changing) there are many opportunities to add value to customers.
