Andy is an entrepreneur and the founder of Yomdel, an innovative business that offers fully managed 24/7 live chat services that drive lead generation and revenue online through adding great human interaction to company websites. Yomdel is active across property, finance, automotive, retail and many others.
1. What does Yomdel offer estate agents?
Yomdel helps estate agents generate more business, while driving high levels of customer satisfaction, it is that simple. Around half of all people visiting estate agent websites are coming when the office is closed, and by having Yomdel’s 24/7 managed live chat they have the opportunity to speak with people just at the time they are most interested in their services. Gaining new instructions is the lifeblood of any estate agency, and Yomdel helps convert prospective vendors into clients. The results are spectacular, with around 40% of people chatting turning into new business enquiries. This success prompted one client to say the Yomdel service was the most spectacular change to his business since the birth of the Internet!
Yomdel creates the ‘wow’ factor, impresses people that the estate agent is serious and professional, and helps drive reputation and the bottom line.
2. How is Yomdel different from the competitors?
Yomdel is the only live chat company in the UK that specialises in the property sector, and it is the only live chat service that operates 24/7 as standard, 365 days of the year. This expertise has also been recognised by The Negotiator where Yomdel has been shortlisted for Supplier of the Year: Technology. The awards are on 1st November.
Yomdel works with almost a thousand estate agent offices across the UK, including single branch independents, multi-branch regional businesses and national brands such as Fine & Country and EweMove. Oh yes, and we don’t charge fixed fees, our relationship with our clients is that of a partnership, we only charge on performance and that drives a huge incentive and huge ROI.
Beyond live chat, Yomdel also has unique value added services such as Yomdel Live Connect that takes people from chat straight through into a telephone call with the sales team, which creates the hottest lead you’ll ever get!
3. Why did you set up Yomdel?
I am passionate about how the digital experience can be improved, and to me it seemed a natural step to seek ways to bridge the real world and digital worlds. I wanted to work out why customer service was so important on the High Street but was being ignored online, where customers were expected to do everything for themselves.
What if it was possible to speak with people online, to help answer their questions, to solve their problems? Live chat had emerged in the US as a powerful online conversion channel, and I wanted to find a way to offer smaller companies the opportunity to compete with the large corporations through offering unrivalled 24/7 customer service online.
4. What do you think are challenges that estate agents face over the next 12 months?
One person’s challenge is another person’s opportunity. The market outlook for estate agents is very uncertain, what with Brexit looming large and the aggressive growth of relatively low-cost online only brands such as Purple Bricks. So in an uncertain market, the most important thing an agent can do is invest in securing a larger slice of a potentially diminishing pot. That means investing in digital, because ignoring digital is akin to leaving money on the floor. Ensure the website is targeted and optimised for your sales or lettings proposition and leave Rightmove and Zoopla to help you generate the applicants.
Stop throwing money away in local newspaper advertising and instead invest that spend in digital marketing, providing 24/7 service online with live chat and social media engagement. If you can then drive the right people to your website you will secure more business. You will thrive and your competition will struggle.
5. What do you love about the property market?
Moving is one of life’s necessities, and I love the variety that is out there. While major brands have been growing, the UK property market still has room for the independents and indeed, the independents are often what breathes life into the industry as a whole through continuing to innovate and disrupt. The Internet is a great democratiser – just look at PropTech businesses using technology to further empower the customer. Anyone who sits still will lose, those that challenge the status quo could prosper. The example of one Yomdel client, the hybrid estate agent EweMove, is a case in point. In less than two years it grew to a network of almost 100 franchisees, mainly through embracing digital while keeping local expertise, and focussing on delivering outstanding customer service. EweMove was so successful it was recently acquired by MartinCo Plc, and is now helping drive the growth of the largest franchise network in the country.
6. What do you hate about the property market?
Hate is a strong word, for every example of negativity out there creates opportunity for someone else. As with many sectors facing huge disruption that digital brings, it is not about the blame game. Those agents sitting in expensive High St offices and blaming the new online agents for killing their business are missing the point. It is not about them, it is about the customer and about giving the customer choice. Where is your customer and what does you customer want?
Whoever you are, your customers are online. Ignore them at your peril. Think like your customer, because your customer does not think like an estate agent! Some people always want to buy on price, others will look at value. So for the more traditional agent it doesn’t mean ignoring digital, it means using digital to push your values and high service to find those people that fit the profile of your type of customer.
