"For years, the volume of telephone calls to estate and letting agents has acted as a barometer for the industry, and as such we have seen a very healthy start of the year for our property clients"
In a like-for-like comparison of calls to its estate and letting agent clients, the telephone answering service reported a 61% increase in calls during the first three months of 2017, when compared with the last three months of 2016.
The findings come as the company, which looks after over 1.2m calls a year for over 1,300 agents of all shapes and sizes, announces the results of its first quarterly review of 2017, taking a look at property calls handled between January 1 and March 31.
The property team at Moneypenny also reported a 44% increase in calls compared with Q1 2016. Viewings saw an increase in calls by 27% in Q1 2017 compared with Q1 2016.
Calls to letting agents alone experienced a 59% jump at the start of the year compared with calls in Q4 2016.
Samantha Jones, Commercial Manager for Property at Moneypenny, said: “For years, the volume of telephone calls to estate and letting agents has acted as a barometer for the industry, and as such we have seen a very healthy start of the year for our property clients.
We are finding that an increasing amount of estate and letting agents who have used Moneypenny for years, are leaning on the service to handle a greater volume of their day-to-day calls. Agents are becoming more committed to delivering excellent customer service and this is definitely being reflected in the care both letting and estate agents are giving their own clients. A large number of clients are choosing to use their Moneypenny Receptionists for a set period each day so they can focus on making outbound calls for prospecting."
The call analysis also revealed that activity has picked up for estate agents in March, with the top five busiest days falling in this month – the busiest day being Friday 31 March. However, calls to letting agents were 8% busier in January than March.
Samantha said: “We usually see a spike in calls to letting agents early in January. This could be for a variety of reasons, but we do know from speaking to agents that many received a higher level of calls prompted by relationship breakdowns than they would normally receive.”
