Mary Portas takes on the Estate agents

Pennywise

harrup wrote: »

There is one rather crucial difference between your mum's dedicated carer, the lovely girls in your local shop...and the wholy disinterested sales force at Primark et all.

And it isn't money.

It's personal engagement. And passion. It's the knowing, the belief that what you do or what you sell, has some intrinsic "value".

Making a difference to someone in their last days MEANS something. It feeds the carer's soul, their self esteem even if the monetary compensation is frugal...or even absent. Just look at the staff in most charity shops - they work for free yet what they do has meaning to them.

The girls in your local shop? Well, they are part of your community ( and for all we know you might look more handsome than Robert Pattison so there is the ogle and flirt factor to consider!) and you are their "neighbour" even just in a broader sense.

The abyssmal chicks at Primark? Selling badly made cheap crap doesn't feed anyone's soul now, does it? And perhaps therein lies the moral of that story...:)

How does that kind of theory relate to our local Morrisons' customer service counter which seems to be permanently manned by one of two regular ladies. One is brilliant and can't do enough for you - refunds and exchanges with the minimum of fuss, friendly, happy to chat if there's not a queue etc - the other is a royal pain in the bum who spends most of the time talking to other staff and makes it clear that the customers are a nuisance. Both paid the same (presumably), both working in the same environment. The difference is that one of them is actually making and effort whilst the other is just there for the money. There's many a time when I've had something to return and seen the CS adviser from hell and deciding not to bother that day and go back another time when the better one is there.

I don't think it is the job or lack of "engaging" or whatever trendy word you give it. It's down to the people. Some people actually want to be helpful, some aren't - simples. The problem is down to poor management - often if the so-called store manager who employs anyone just to put staff on the shop floor, rather than actually making an effort to be more choosy and take the time to find better staff - easy life for the so-called manager pure and simple! I think it's quite a poor and lazy excuse to blame poor wages etc on the abysmal level of customer service standards. You can't tell me that suddenly increasing the wage of the CS assistant from hell will suddenly make them more interested in the job and helping customers - at best it will be a short-lived improvement, but ultimately, the CS assistant will return to being a lazy and unhelpful sod.

drc

Jowo wrote: »

There's another 2 bed up for sale in that street for a lot less so I'm not surprised it's not shifting. Neither is this one, it seems to be up for rent, too...

http://www.foxtons.co.uk/property-for-sale-in-muswell-hill/chpk0232581

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-31515065.html

What is the extra 50k for - the glass bricks?!! So its probably not just the poor basic marketing (missing floor plan and shifty hairstyles) but the fact that its probably grossly mispriced.

They probably think it is worth it because it is in a street almost opposite Highgate Wood and because as you say, they they have installed some glass bricks as it is a basement flat to let in light :eek. There are 23 houses on at the same price in the area. Why would someone buy a 2 bed basement flat?

edit to add: It's got a floorplan featured on Rightmove and it is 64 sq meters, so not very big at all.

tomterm8

Cleaver wrote: »

Funnily enough I just said to Mrs Cleaver: "They've changed the approach, changed the description and changed the viewing style yet for some reason they've left his f*cking hair alone."

I quite like the hair... left you in no doubt who you were talking to.

I only watched the end bit... and wasn't that impressed. If he was that poor at selling after the hour program, what was he like at first? He didn't even ask the clients any questions! How the heck are you going to show them the best house for them... if you don't know what they want?

Telling the truth is the real basics... it's not what customer service is about.

Mrs_Money

THE_GHOUL_BUSTER wrote: »

Estate agents provide access to the property ladder to mere mortals and allow them to obtain their dream homes. As such, they deserve the ultimate respect. Mary Portass with her insolent attitude was well out of order in my opinion.

No Estate agents don't "provide access to the property ladder" buyers do that for themselves by saving for a deposit, working hard and struggling to get a decent mortgage.

The EAs I've had the misfortune to deal with over the last 6 months are just "key bearers" - except, that is, for the one that turned up for a viewing 10 miles away from her office with no key, then said "well, you can see a bit through the windows":eek:

Mary Portas was spot on.

JanCee

THE_GHOUL_BUSTER wrote: »

Estate agents provide access to the property ladder to mere mortals and allow them to obtain their dream homes. As such, they deserve the ultimate respect. Mary Portass with her insolent attitude was well out of order in my opinion.

Isn't this joke wearing a bit thin now?

bo_drinker

THE_GHOUL_BUSTER wrote: »

Estate agents provide access to the property ladder to mere mortals and allow them to obtain their dream homes. As such, they deserve the ultimate respect. Mary Portass with her insolent attitude was well out of order in my opinion.

Nonsense. She didn't tell us much we didn't already know, unless of course you were toying with using an agent and not had any interest in the subject.
She high lights the faults in many walks of retail and is on the ball. Whether they change is up to them.
EA's had it so good for so long in the boom times, the weak players went when the recession took hold. They charge big money for not a great deal t b h. All this sort of cr4p needs exposing. Sooner the better.

chewmylegoff

was a rubbish programme really, all it really focused on was the viewings, didn't look at anything else. my favourite parts, aside from the "west facing is the new south facing" was:

"i've got 47 appointments today" - at least tell a lie which is physically possible.

and, about every property "this will probably sell today".

LydiaJ

Well, I thought she did well at improving the way they did viewings. However, there are other things about EAs that have annoyed me a lot more than incompetent viewings.

When I was househunting last year, I wasn't that bothered about how I was shown round a viewing. My criteria were all about space and layout and aspect - I could tell about the layout and aspect online before the viewing began, and I could tell how the space felt without the EA having to tell me stuff. (That is, IF they could be bothered to produce a floorplan. I found it very annoying that many of them frequently didn't.) I'm not the sort of person who cares where the radiators have come from or whether the floor is original, so I didn't need that kind of information.

What astonished me was the huge variation in the amount of effort the EAs put into listening to me as a potential buyer and sending me details of appropriate properties, as follows:

Company A, who had a very high volume of stock in the specific area I wanted, who quickly realised that I was a useful buyer (no chain, no mortgage) and tried very hard to find me a property. They emailed me as soon as anything remotely suitable came in and invited me to view it immediately, often while the particulars were still being prepared. Their particulars contained all the info I wanted, and the extent to which their suggestions matched my rather exacting requirements improved as time went by because they engaged me in conversation on viewings and listened when I gave them more details about what I wanted than I'd given them in my initial visit.

Hamptons, who deserve mention by name because they gave such an excellent personal service. They took an interest in me as a person - like all the agents they were stunned by my story of why I suddenly had enough money to buy, but they were the only ones to follow up with an email a few weeks later to say they hoped the children and I had got through Christmas OK without late-nearly-ex and that they were sorry they hadn't yet found the sort of property I wanted, but they were still looking. Sadly, most of their stock was beyond my price range, and they didn't ever get anything in that was a serious contender for me. However, they never sent me any details without an accompanying email referring to my requirements: "I'm afraid we still haven't found anything that precisely meets your criteria, but we're not sure how much work you might be willing to do, and we wondered if perhaps this one might leave you with enough money to do an extension that would provide two more bedrooms and an extra reception room, and then it would fit what you want."

Companies B, C & D, who sent me links to Rightmove whenever there was something vaguely suitable - after my Rightmove alert had already told me about them. Company B had the house I've actually bought on their books for a while (at a ridiculously inflated price that didn't tempt me) but didn't notice that it matched my requirements and never told me about it.

Company E, who irritated me intensely by taking a hugely detailed list of requirements from me when I first went to see them, and then only ever sending me a fortnightly digest of all their properties of all sizes in the entire region.

All the rest, who never sent me any details at all, including company F, which had my new house on their books for a while, and company G, which had "house 1" on their books, neither of whom bothered to contact me.

If I were a vendor, I'd want to know that my EA was listening to what potential buyers wanted, and flagging up my house to the specific buyers most likely to want to buy it.

PS Mrs Money & bo drinker

There have been a series of "new" posters on here with names all in capitals with underscores between them and the word GHOUL somewhere in there. General opinion is that these are all the same person, or possibly two people. It is regarded as a troll who is not worth feeding. Please don't bother to respond - it just encourages whoever it is.

lostinrates

LydiaJ wrote: »

Hamptons, who deserve mention by name because they gave such an excellent personal service. .

They have a different commision system to most...which IMO fosters better service for buyers (and their own clients the sellers), meaning when it gets serious about a house then the agents can more easily (financially)work as a team for that rather than cover their own backs for commission. Its noticable, isn't it?

Wheezy_2

Guitar wrote: »

We get a quick look at an estate agent who I think is going to be the star of this particular show. I'm going to call him "Mr. Hair-splosion". If you imagine there was such a thing as a hair-gel bomb that explodes hair gel on contact. Then imagine a guy getting hit with the hair gel bomb on the back of the head. This is what Mr. Hair-splosion's hairstyle looks like.

For those who missed the programme: