According to HMRC’s figures, there were 111,950 completed residential property sales in the UK during October 2017 alone – That is a lot of sales!
Especially in light of recent political events, those working within real estate are evidently experiencing an increase in workload.
Although the success and revenue for the business are exciting and fruitful, with it comes inflation in work and thus stress.
Consequently, estate agencies may find themselves wondering “How can we be more efficient and productive?“
With the objective of tackling this question, we caught up with Patrick McCutcheon – The Head of Residential at Dacre, Son and Harley estate agents.
Patrick is telling all and sharing some real estate tips including how they have been able to maintain their position as one of Yorkshire’s popular estate agencies.
Furthermore, Dacre, Son and Hartley have coped with the demands of a successful business whilst improving their customer service.
Hello Patrick, can you tell us what made Dacre, Son and Hartley seek the professional advice of VoicePower? What challenges were you facing?
Hello Courtney. Well, the prime driver was the inefficiencies of the old system: analogue tapes.
Our company’s admin support operates from a number of disconnected locations and offices. Evidently, this led to a lack of full-time workflow.
We operated on the physical submission of work via analogue tapes.
This meant that the handover of work would not happen until the authors returned from out-of-office visits. Similarly, this restricted staff members who work from home, etc.
With help from the VoicePower team, what solution are you now using?
After an assessment of our previous solution and our workflow, and discussing our options with VoicePower, we chose Philips SpeechLive digital dictation.
With which duties and tasks of working within the property sector does SpeechLive assist you?
The preparation of reports, marketing material, and general letters.
Moreover, we are able to complete these tasks whilst users are either working within office environments or within our operation field areas.
What benefits from SpeechLive did you identify that give you an advantage over your competitors?
Speed –The speed at which we can submit dictation allows us to submit confirmatory reports and letters to potential clients very quickly.
Also, the asset of pooled dictation hubs. Thanks to the dictation hub, support staff now have a constant flow of work.
They no longer have to wait for others to return from activities away from the office, which led to a sudden increase in workload.
What are you and your team doing with the resources that Dacre, Son and Hartley have saved by using SpeechLive?
The time saving allows us to seek out and make the most of opportunities.
We are able to sell our services rather than carry out administration duties.
How has SpeechLive affected the customer service and experience at Dacre, Son and Hartley?
We are able to submit our products much more quickly to our customer base, probably reducing wait times by around 50%.
Dacre, Son and Hartley chose to purchase our training alongside your new solution. Can you tell us about it? How did it benefit your team? Was it valuable? Would you recommend it to others?
Absolutely, as much as anything the training secures ‘buy-in’ and investment in the system across the group and ensures we can maximise efficiencies.
Patrick’s Real Estate Tips – A Summary
As demonstrated by Patrick and his team, digital dictation users are saving vast amounts of time and resources.
Thanks to sending dictations virtually via an internet connection, that the physical delivery of tapes is spared.
Furthermore, admin staff can prioritise jobs and avoid a ‘feast or famine’ scenario – When many jobs come through at once.
Property agents are able to record property valuation reports and send them for typing immediately.
As a result, the turnaround times of letters and updates of property are reduced equalling speedy and quality customer service.