How to minimise pandemic disruption in your estate agency

Last month it was reported that up to 500,000 people had been ‘pinged’ by the NHS in a week. While the so-called ‘pingdemic’ may now be over, cases remain high and the potential need to isolate still poses a threat for business continuity across the country. 

This can be particularly problematic for estate agents, where delay or disruption can cause chains to fall through.

So, what can your estate agency do to minimise disruption to sales progression and keep sales moving, even if you have agents isolating? Leading sales progression tool, mio shares its top tips.

Be prepared

You never know when you might need to isolate so preparation is key. Keep all notes up to date and ensure they are stored digitally, in an accessible centralised location. That way, if you’re isolating and your buyers or sellers call up, another member of the team can provide an update on your behalf and keep your customer informed. Not only does this prevent buyers or sellers from becoming disgruntled, but it also saves time because the agent in the office isn’t having to ring around or sift through emails to find the latest update.

“With the rest of the team having access to mio, keeping clients and customers updated even when I am out of the office is great, the team can just update on the last milestone reached and the relevant notes to the next chase date.’ - Tony Brigden, Branch Manager at Woodhead and Co, Wellingborough.

Make the most of instant messaging

While for many it’s one of the easiest and preferred ways to communicate with your buyers and sellers, getting on a phone call isn’t always the most efficient way to communicate, especially if you’re juggling multiple clients who all want an update at the same time.

If you’re isolating and can’t be in the office to answer calls from your home movers, making use of mio’s instant messaging feature can help to keep the communication flowing. Simply send them a message or notification via the mio app when a new milestone is complete and if it’s a simple answer they require, encourage your home movers to send their questions via instant message instead of trying to call.

“mio saves so much time because there’s less calls, and with the instant messaging feature I can just copy and paste the update across without having to type it all out or call the buyer or seller up”. - Lucy Luxton,  Branch Manager at Fox and Sons, Tiverton,

Keep calm and carry on!

Needing to self-isolate unexpectedly if you or a family member tests positive for Covid-19 doesn’t need to cause havoc to your sales progression. With mio, you can simply log on and pick up where you left off! With all your files and notes on mio, you can work through your daily task list in exactly the same way that you would in the office, updating milestones and pushing updates to your buyers and sellers via the mio app.

“Having access to all the properties has really helped with working from home because it’s all there within mio, so we can carry on as normal.” - Emma Vickers – Sales Progression Manager, Connells, Wolverhampton.

“We had to isolate recently and when we were working remotely, we could access everything from home with mio. It wasn’t like one person had got the paper file and they had to deal with it all, we could all log on and do our own individual thing on it.” - Elle Maher - Sales Negotiator at William H Brown in Dinnington.

“When I had to work from home the sales chasing part was very simple as I did not need to bring paperwork home, I simply logged into my mio account and could access the information and contacts I needed.” - Claire Purdue, Branch Manager at Connells, Ferndown.

*Nick Ball is the Head of Sales and Client Services at mio