Estate agency branches ‘aren’t dead, they just need to adapt’ says leading CEO
Mark Brooks of SE firm Miles & Barr tells The Negotiator that a high street branch remains a key validation point for instructions for his agency.
One of the UK’s leading estate agency CEO’s has poured cold water on the oft-repeated claim that estate agency branches will soon be a ‘thing of the past’ as some firms adopt a ‘hybrid’ approach.
Mark Brooks, who heads up leading South East estate agency Miles & Barr, says branches remain one of the key ‘validation’ points for vendors and landlords when they are considering which agency to instruct, along with a good website – but also says their role is changing.
During an interview with The Negotiator, he says claims that branches are expensive and unnecessary is ‘a fallacy’ and that it’s a red herring to worry about whether to keep a branch or not.
“The physical costs of running a branch – namely the lease – are only 5% of the total costs with others such as the portal subscriptions and staff being much greater,” he says.
“Consequently, if you’re wondering whether to do away with a branch, then remember it isn’t going to transform the profitability of your business.”
Brooks says Miles & Barr has taken a different approach; some of the staff who were traditionally based in its high street branches have been centralised to offer better customer journeys and create a more efficient distribution of workload.
Head office
“For example, five years ago we had a sales progressor and an administrator in every branch, but now those roles along with a dozen or so sales support staff are centralised at our 7,000 sq ft head office,” he says.
“In the future, I think branches will feature ‘reception staff’ who deal with walk-in enquiries and organise viewings, valuations and other tasks but who will be connected to a centralised ‘mothership’ HQ that covers the daily admin.”
In the past, he says, a branch with dedicated sales progressors could easily fall over if a member of staff became ill or left suddently, but with a centralised team, that problem is solved because those who are quieter can help those who are under pressure.
Read The Neg’s full interview with Mark about Miles and Barr in the next issue of the magazine.
Very sensible. The High-Street is far from dead.