Estate, lettings and block management agencies are being offered a new way to calculate the financial impact of inefficient processes, underused technology and poorly converted leads.
House of Marque and Olliverr. have launched The Property Agency Benchmark, a diagnostic service designed to identify operational and marketing weaknesses and put a financial value on addressing them.
The assessment examines an agency across five stages against a fixed benchmark, looking at areas including workflows, technology adoption, marketing, lead handling and costs.
Agencies complete an initial questionnaire before specialists from the two businesses analyse how work moves through the company, where processes are slowing down and whether existing technology and marketing spend are delivering sufficient returns.
COST OF INEFFICIENCY
House of Marque says its existing audits identify an average of £8,000 in immediate savings for agencies.
The new Benchmark is also intended to help firms considering significant technology investments, including changing CRM platforms, by assessing existing processes before another system is introduced.
Participating agencies receive a report within 10 working days, including three ranked priority actions with estimated financial impacts and projections for the following 90 days.
House of Marque co-founder Adam Graver says: “Every agency we’ve ever looked at is paying for at least one thing that isn’t earning its place, a tool, a subscription, a process nobody questions anymore.
“The Benchmark doesn’t guess which ones need to go.
“It shows you, in writing; our average audit at House of Marque saves agencies £8,000 straight away as well as helping make decisions on what to do with the elements that stay a part of the mix.”
‘CAPACITY IS OFTEN ALREADY THERE’
Olliverr. founder Sam Olliver says: “A growing agency is a double-edged sword. More instructions, more revenue, a business worth more than it was last year.
“The catch is that the way of working that got it here is rarely the one that carries it through the next stage. What was manageable when the business was smaller becomes a strain as the workload grows, unless processes, systems and automation are working together underneath it, so the team aren’t overwhelmed and clients get the same service as you grow.
“The capacity is often already in the business, sitting in half-used tools and manual steps that should be automated.
“The Benchmark shows you where that opportunity is and puts a figure on it, in cost saved and revenue added, so you can grow with the team you have and keep the clients you’ve worked hard to win.”
“The Benchmark is built to catch that before the next contract gets signed.”
House of Marque co-founder Lucy Collinge says: “I’ve watched agency owners work through supplier after supplier: one promising a CRM that would fix the workflow, the next promising a marketing contract that would fix the leads, each one landing on top of a problem it was never built to solve.
“The team ends up carrying the gap between what gets promised and what actually changes, and eventually the good ones stop waiting for it to be fixed and leave.
“The Benchmark is built to catch that before the next contract gets signed, not after: one report telling you which half is actually broken and a figure on it, so the fix lands on the right problem the first time.”
The service costs £1,000 for the first seven agencies, rising to £1,250 thereafter.
