Longer opening hours improve sales
Agents who offer longer opening hours have a better chance of selling more houses
Agents who provide longer opening hours in the week and at weekends will sell more houses
The nature of working life in Britain, and indeed around the world, has changed. It used to be that business premises were open Monday to Friday around 9am to 5pm, with some regional or independent variations. Of course, times have moved on. Stores often open late on a Thursday to allow people who are otherwise engaged during standard business hours to shop and the weekends have become standard business hours too. With many banks opening for at least half a day on Saturday, it is fair to say that businesses are providing more hours, and it is all about offering a better standard of customer service.
This makes sense for all businesses and it should make sense for estate agents. The estate agents who offer longer opening hours such as late night viewings in the week and are open at the weekends have a better chance of selling more houses. This is all down to the fact that these estate agents are available when people need them. An estate agent that operates strict Monday to Friday 9 to 5 hours will alienate so many customers and will miss out on this market share. Estate agents who open earlier or later, or who provide weekend hours can capture the same clients as the previous estate agent but they also have access to people who cannot use the other agent.
Being available is a good thing for estate agents
Of course, the advent of the internet means that businesses can be accessed 24 hours a day. Online property portals ensure that potential buyers can review homes at all hours of the day and night. If an estate agent doesn’t have a website or provides access to properties online, they will miss out. This should be the bare minimum for any estate agent these days but in a competitive market, a good estate agent will always look to offer more.
Online functions allow estate agents to provide better customer services
One way for an estate agent to provide longer opening hours and better service around the clock is to utilise website chat facilities. Whether is a manned service or a service which utilises a FAQ database to provide answers and direct users to an individual estate agent who will contact them later, there is a genuine opportunity for estate agents to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. At VitalSpace, we also provide our clients with a state of the art client login system meaning property updates with feedback, viewings and even offers can be provided out of typically working hours.
This is the sort of service that clients want. Buyers want to know that they can review properties and find out more at all hours of the day or night and sellers want to make sure that their property is available to potential buyers at all times of day and night. This means that all parties are looking for an estate agent that makes themselves available as freely as possible, which means estate agents should be looking to provide a contactable service at all times.
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