Mary Portas TV Show; Weak and Very One Dimensional.

If you watched the show last night, I found the whole experience completely unrecognisable to our daily working practices. In my view, the programme was weak, one dimensional and a prejudice hatchett job. Very dissapointing. In fariness to Gordon Ramsay, at least he understands his subject matter!

•  She presented the public perception of estate agents completely stereotypically and of old – slimy, manipulative, spin, all about the hard-sell, and keen to pressure people to buy
• Her view was that the industry was “as far away from good customer service as you can get. A reputation as good as a piece of poo on the street.” Charming I know! She referred to “smoke and mirrors” and claimed she “didn’t understand why people just don’t sell houses themselves by sticking it on the internet” adding that “estate agents are not doing customers justice”
• She made a big deal about the lack of training estate agents get, saying things like “buying a house is the biggest purchase anyone will ever make, estate agents basically say ‘we don’t train our staff’, and I find this unbelievable”. She stated that you don’t actually need a formal qualification to become an estate agent (we could link with the licensing later in the year for this if needed?)The London agency they basically did a case study on only offered one hour customer service training for new staff and offered no formal training to help staff to do viewings (new staff basically shadowed senior staff and learned on the job – badly!) We know that you guys differ hugely and are proud of the investment you make in your team and of their own individual experience and integrity
• The estate agents lived up to the stereotypes so pressured people to sell, exaggerated, used estate agent jargon “west facing is the new south facing”, “based on a prestigious turning”...
• She took the agents to a stately home to learn from a tour guide and stressed the importance of understanding the property, doing proper research, really getting to know the ins and outs and giving people the full picture – emphasise the positive, but also not ignore any negative features/aspects. This is something that you guys do as a matter of course
• Her aim was to develop a new type of estate agency based on honesty, knowledge, hard-work, expertise, detail, researching the features, showing they care about the customer and the property. Sounds rather like Nock Deighton doesn’t it! She stressed the importance of giving people the whole picture so listing the pros and cons of the property on marketing literature, banning estate agent clichés like ‘would suit a DIY enthusiast’ and ‘convenient for motorway access’
• The results of this new approach (surprise, surprise!) were that in a survey of customers 100% satisfaction was reached and 100% thought they were trustworthy
• She ended with the hope that the “slimy little toads will clean up their act”