Managing client’s expectations

Managing client expectations

In late August 1988, when the world was young and I was a fearless negotiator, I was on the way to my first million, or so I naively thought. Having agreed industrial amounts of sales due to my brilliance – in reality due to the tidal wave of activity caused by Nigella Lawson’s dad the then chancellor who was fiddling with the property market, (sounds familiar?) I was certain that soon I could trade up my Fiat Uno for a more suitable chariot.

Cold water came in the shape of a phrase – used by a solicitor – who was acting at the top of a chain of five, where we had three of the sales, and were juggling the needs wants and threats of all parties – telling the solicitor we were under hostile fire, he said ‘it is all about managing client’s expectations dear boy’.

Fast forward to the cusp of 2021, and that solicitor was right, but not in the way he meant, as now Generation-Z who are hitting their 40’s, and form a solid phalanx of the property transaction sector expect and are getting, thanks to Amazon backed by technology – ‘service in a Nano-second with a click or swipe of their digit.’

The tech savvy consumer of today, is seeking out those who like doing business with them digitally, and explicitly on their mobile, and have never heard of the fax unless visiting a museum. Do I think lowly of the legal profession no, I actually love them, and feel those in conveyancing charge too little and do too much in what is a thankless and Groundhog day driven process.

Do I think that Artificial Intelligence and machine learning can help? Yes. Are there are many bright minds like Stuart Young – Etive, Sally Holdway – Teal, Joe Pepper – TM Group etc – helping win hearts and minds, for sure.

But perhaps what the conveyancing industry should be forward planning is to meet the demands of the pushy client expectations of even younger generation who soon will be their bread and butter clients in the next decade.

Luckily maybe, there are equally pushy under 30-year olds with great technological solutions like CEO Riccardo Iannucci-Dawson from Yourkeys, who has put conveyancing on roller-skates, at the same time helping conveyancers and all the stakeholders.

Maybe rather than pressure groups asking for a SDLT holiday extension past the 31st of March, we should be asking for huge government investment to modernise the system, Digital Street at the HM Land registry is doing sterling work, but there is a need to join all the dots and quickly.

If anyone has views on the state of conveyancing – or is directly involved in its moving parts from search providers all through the ecosystem – please let us know by emailing me at info@stagingsite.estateagentnetworking.co.uk – Andrew Stanton Executive Editor moving property and proptech forward.

Andrew Stanton

CEO & Founder Proptech-PR. Proptech Real Estate Influencer, Executive Editor of Estate Agent Networking. Leading PR consultancy in Proptech & Real Estate.

You May Also Enjoy

Rightmove logo
Breaking News

Rightmove asks government to carefully consider property tax changes

The UK’s largest property platform Rightmove is asking the government to carefully consider the impact of any changes to property taxation to avoid unintended consequences which would risk stalling parts of the market. Key data National property tax Just under a third (30%) of homes for sale in England are priced at over £500,000, and…
Read More
Estate Agent Talk

Get Fast and Reliable Basement Flood Cleaning Services

Having water in your basement is awful. It could be because of a storm, busted pipe, or bad sump pump. Whatever the reason, water damage in your basement has disastrous effects if not dealt with. Basement Flood Cleaning Services are what you need. They will dry it out, disinfect the floor, and have your basement…
Read More
Breaking News

Breaking Property News 21/08/25

Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.   Providing comprehensive, predictive operational intelligence across all aspects of building operations  JLL (NYSE: JLL) this week introduced artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that are now available as an add-on to Prism, its award-winning building operations platform. As part of JLL’s property management technology ecosystem powered by…
Read More
Breaking News

UK House Price Index summary: June 2025

The average monthly rate of house price growth in June was 1.4%. The average annual rate of house price growth in June was 3.7%, up from 2.7% in May. As a result, the average UK house price remains at £269,000.   CEO of Yopa, Verona Frankish, commented: “June’s figures reflect a market that is steadily…
Read More
Breaking News

Private rent and house prices, UK: August 2025

Average UK monthly private rents increased by 5.9%, to £1,343, in the 12 months to July 2025 (provisional estimate); this annual growth rate is down from 6.7% in the 12 months to June 2025. Average rents increased to £1,398 (6.0%) in England, £807 (7.9%) in Wales, and £999 (3.6%) in Scotland, in the 12 months…
Read More
Breaking News

Industry response to latest inflation figures

Nathan Emerson, CEO of Propertymark, comments: “Unfortunately, any increase seen within the rate of inflation does brings very justified concerns to consumers, many of whom are still struggling with the cost of living, which has been steadily rising over the past few years. “Although there is more work to be done to help ensure inflation…
Read More