The call answering professionals: Over 23 years of virtual receptionist experience

Why Reading Estate Agents Need To Answer The Phone, 24/7

By Nick East

March 5, 2019

Even though we live in an increasingly digital world, the phone still plays an important role, particularly for businesses. It’s a key part of customer relations, from signing up new clients and generating new business to providing them with the best quality of customer care you possibly can. For estate agents, telephone calls are still a main source of business, with new buyers, renters, sellers and landlords always looking to speak to a real person who can answer their questions. So if you’re an estate agent in Reading, it’s incredibly important for you to have someone ready to answer incoming calls, no matter what time of day.

Quick Sales And Urgent Enquiries

Some of your customers are going to be happy taking things slow, waiting until you open tomorrow to chat. But people who are looking to sell their properties quickly might have issues or queries that need to be resolved urgently. For example, when you’re trying to complete a sale there are several issues that will need to be ironed out along the way, from the initial valuations, accepting offers, negotiating and all the legal bits that come before moving and completion day. As an estate agent, providing a 24-hour telephone customer service line makes it possible for constant communication and customer care, ensuring issues are dealt with in a timely manner and the whole process can be smoother. It’s also great for giving customers peace of mind – they know that if there is an emergency, they can still call any time of day or night and get some help.

Convenience For Office Based Workers

Although flexible working is now becoming the new norm in a lot of offices, most places still employ a traditional ‘9 to 5’ working timetable. This means that if an office worker is in the process of buying or selling a house, trying to find somewhere to rent or is letting out their own property, they have to sneak away from their desk every time they want to talk to their estate agent. By providing them with a phone number they can use 24 hours a day, buyers and sellers can contact an estate agent’s call service whenever they want from the comfort of their own home, not just in office hours when they might not be able to get away from their desk to make the phone call.

Avoid Lost Sales

Providing great quality customer care on an ongoing basis isn’t just great for the customers, it’s great for Reading estate agents as well. If a prospective buyer is looking to complete in a short time frame and can’t get hold of someone in the office, they may well decide to go to another estate agent who can meet their needs. This means you lose the business, and it could even damage your reputation if it keeps happening. But if your estate agency provided around-the-clock telephone customer service, buyers would have the support they need to continue with the purchase. Having someone able to answer the phone 24/7 means your estate agency never has to lose out on a sale again.
At Verbatim, we understand how difficult, if not impossible it can be to have someone in your office answering the phone all the time. Which is where we can help. We work with professional services like estate agents in Reading to help them manage their calls. From providing an overflow service when all your operators are busy, to answering those out-of-office-hours calls that could be the difference between signing up a new client and losing them. Our services are flexible, professional, and exactly what you need to support your growing Reading-based estate agency. To find out more, just get in touch with the team today.

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