I have seen the future…. And it’s yesterday

There are many #PropTech companies out there bringing us lots of different products that they say we need. So, when the company that brought us Spectre (A product I have not only recommended to clients but one that I use on my day to day estate agency life) told me about their new product “Hello Again”, I was keen to see what it had to offer.

We estate agents are great at knowing what’s going on in our market right now. Who has listed that? How do we get that listing? We are also great at looking forward, telling potential vendors, through various marketing channels, that we are the best agent to choose IF they are coming to the market.
If you were to ask the CEO of almost any business to give you a list their top three thoughts on how to grow a business, they will tell you “Repeat Business”. Yet, I find that agents, in general, don’t work with their database of past sales and purchases. Why?

Oh, don’t get me wrong. On a training session on this subject agents will tell me –
We contact our purchasers 12 months after completion to see if they want to find out how much the house has increased in value.

We show them how the market has performed in that time.
We do this every year they are in the property to keep that relationship going.
There is one question I ask them that gets most agents in a series of “uhmms”, “Wells” and “You Sees”. I ask them “How?” (They do this). What I then find is that the switched on agents know they should keep in contact with past success stories but they don’t.

Then I ask why?
The answer is usually “We have more pressing things to do”. What this shows is that the day to day “Stuff” is getting in the way of solid business strategy and process.

Well, I have just had a “Test Drive” of Hello Again, the new #PropTech product from the team that brought us Spectre.

Designed to allow the forward thinking agent to keep in contact with its previous success stories, build that relationship and secure repeat business.
Once the data transfer is complete the system can run itself but does allow agent interaction to personalise content.
Having been involved in Data Transfer previously, the process is as simple as it gets, simply uploading from a CSV file or spreadsheet.
I have always said that any #PropTech product MUST release the agent from doing “Stuff” so that they can concentrate on customer engagement. Hello Again, not only does that but also manages the engagement for you.
Let’s not forget the customer in all this. How would you feel if on the anniversary of buying your largest ever purchase you received a free report on how that investment, along with the market in general, is preforming? Pretty good, right!

To finish, I’d like to respond to an agency CEO I met recently to said “Let’s be honest Nigel, Service levels are all well and good but they don’t pay the bills”. Hello Again might just be the product that ensures that they do.

Nigel Stephens

You May Also Enjoy

Estate Agent Talk

Why Cases Stall in Summer and What Agents Can Do About It

By Cara Stanbridge, Head of Relationship Management at Nova Conveyancing Every year, we hear talk of the summer slowdown. But from what I see working closely with agents, conveyancers and clients, the issue isn’t usually a lack of activity. More often, it’s keeping transactions moving when everyone involved is juggling higher workloads, holidays and competing…
Read More
small house bird box
Breaking News

Britain’s property hotspots revealed

The Scottish city where houses sell fastest – and the town where it takes SIX TIMES as long to sell your home Homes in Glasgow sell three times faster than the UK average – making the Scottish city the fastest selling in Britain Wakefield is the slowest-selling city in Britain, with homes spending twice as…
Read More
Breaking News

Breaking Property News 13/8/26

Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.   The average age of tenants living in shared houses in the UK is now 35   Thought leadership by Adam Pigott CEO of tlyfe (Openbrix)   “The headline figure that tenants are now in their mid 30’s and still have to share facilities, not even have the…
Read More
Breaking News

Stamp Duty receipts remain above pre-pandemic norms

The latest research from Yopa has revealed that, despite continued speculation surrounding a slowdown in the housing market, Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) receipts remain comfortably above pre-pandemic levels, demonstrating the resilience of buyer activity in recent years. Yopa analysed monthly Stamp Duty Land Tax receipts published by HM Revenue & Customs between January 2018 and…
Read More
Estate Agent Talk

The summer improvements that could add value to your house

The latest research from Yopa has revealed which summer-inspired home improvements could add the most value to your property once the cost of carrying out the work itself has been taken into account, with a summer house potentially boosting the value of the average UK home by almost £8,000. Yopa analysed a range of popular…
Read More
AI in estate agency letting agency property
Estate Agent Talk

Turning anxiety into advantage: how SMEs can make AI work for them

By Johann Aguirre, founder of Cachi AI   According to the Office for National Statistics, AI adoption among UK businesses has risen from approximately 12% to around 35% since late 2023. However, adoption levels differ considerably depending on the size of a business and the sector in which it operates. Larger, established organisations may be…
Read More