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Clare Bettelley Editor
Every economic cloud has an agency silver lining
A
recent FT Weekend article attempted to coin the current generation of people, for whom debt, financial crisis, unemployment and austerity
have become the norm. We are, suggests columnist Gillian Tett, 'Generation Flux'. This new generation has become immune
to economic shocks. We rarely bat an eyelid when we hear about yet another financial institution in trouble, or that unemployment has hit record highs. This indifference may be about people
hunkering down to concentrate on their own finances. But it is possibly also a result of people realising that things are never going to return to 'normal'. This is the new normal, which many agents have now started to embrace. In terms of business,
Innovation is rife with new marketing
strategies, but the greatest change in agency has been the change in practitioners' job specifications. More than ever, agents are being forced to play the role of an all-singing adviser, consultant, counsellor and confidant, as vendors struggle to accept the true value of their home and buyers remain intent on hard bargaining to protect their funds. This is unsurprising in, for example, South
Devon, where property costs are now 16 times the average local pay packet.
agents in the North East may be suffering some of the most devastating unemployment levels, but a number of firms have been quick to identify a growing sector – property management. This sector is now soaring in the North East as a result of tenants refusing to deal directly with landlords after bad experiences. Meanwhile in the South, agents already with a good balance of sales and lettings business are concentrating on overhauling their websites and overall marketing propositions in a bid to win instructions from rivals.
“The greatest change in agency has been the change in practitioners’ job specifications. More than ever, agents are being forced to play the role of an all-singing adviser, consultant, counsellor and confidant.”
As our training guru, Julian O'Dell, explains in this month's Dilemma, building trust with clients, old and new, is key to surviving and thriving this year, and this relies on delivering good old-fashioned customer service, irrespective of the spangly IT gadgets bought to impress clients. Delivering on promises is nothing new, but how will you ensure you and your team deliver yours in 2012?
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The Negotiator is now published by PROPERTYdrum Ltd, following its acquisition from Ocean Media Group in December 2011. The purchase included The Negotiator website, e-newsletter and The Negotiator Awards. The magazine will be published monthly, the e-newsletters will be published each week and The Negotiator Awards will take place on 24th October 2012.
www.the-negotiator.co.uk TheNegotiator l March 2012 l 3
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