After watching the recent Haye vs Bellew Heavyweight boxing fight, it became to me clear that bigger isn’t always better when it comes to the hybrid agent.
During my time working agency side, I gained first-hand experience of the shift in customer expectations. Unrivalled customer service is imperative but now it needs to be coupled with a reduced and fixed price tag.
This has brought about the rise of the online-only and hybrid agent. We’ve seen an exciting couple of weeks in this space.
Countrywide, the heavyweight champion, has now tested its hybrid offering and continues to roll it out. LSL, the contender, is hot on Countrywide’s heels, declaring its interest in the online/hybrid market and hinting at revealing its hand shortly.
In the Purple corner… deep pockets and the ‘commisery’ (or ‘commisery TM’ we hasten to add) led campaign has helped Purplebricks secure a stake in the UK market and embark on Australian and soon American adventures. It’s advertising succeeding in two things, raising awareness of the brand and educating the public on a fixed fee service backed by a convenient consumer facing dashboard.
Three heavyweights
These three heavyweights are slowly lining up knock out blows. How can a featherweight compete? An independent agent is agile and can out-manoeuvre the threat, should it be seen coming. Change needs to be embraced and a choice of service needs to be provided to the customer.
Customers must be able to cherry pick the service they require. If they want to conduct the viewings and take the photographs but need a valuation; then the agent needs to provide them with transparent pricing to reflect this.
Lowering the cost of a listing is essential so savings can be passed onto customers allowing competition with the heavyweights.”
The bigger they are, the harder they fall… independents just need to make sure they move quickly enough so it’s not on them.
For more information about offering a hybrid service please visit www.muves.co.uk or call 07557 343962.
The post Guest blog: Can smaller agents take on the hybrid agent big hitters? appeared first on The Negotiator.