London Estate Agents Greene & Co. are BBC’s ‘Property People’
22nd November 2007
New BBC Series Shows the Reality of Estate Agency Life
In the summer of 2003 the BBC was given complete access to Greene & Co, one of London’s most successful estate agents, with over 20 years experience in the buying, selling, letting and management of property across North West London. For six months agents from all four branches were followed as they went about their work.
The resulting series ‘The Property People’ will be airing on BBC2 from the week commencing 6th Jan 2004. In a pressurised environment where the deal is king, the series shows the reality of the Estate Agency business, including challenging situations with clients and cut-throat competition both internally between agents and externally with other Estate Agents. If you thought buying a property was stressful, try selling one.
Greene & Co. wanted to take part in ‘The Property People’ as they were confident that they could help shatter the stereotypical image of Estate Agents as ruthless and money grabbing. A recent survey named estate agents as Britain’s least favourite professionals. With public expectations so low Greene & Co. hope that even if those expectations are lifted only slightly they can improve the image of themselves and their industry.
David Pollock, Managing Director, Greene & Co., said of their involvement: ‘We hope that the series shatters the stereotypical image of Estate Agents by showing that within the highly competitive and sometimes dishonest world of Estate Agency there are genuine and honest professionals who want to help people. At Greene & Co. we are proud of our honest, professional and open company culture where we try to put customer service first.’
‘We want to show the public the reality of our business, the challenges that we encounter and the skills we use to hold chains together when so many elements of the process are beyond our control. Being involved in the programme also gave us a valuable opportunity to hold a mirror up to ourselves as individuals to see which areas we can improve on.’
The series follows the highs and lows of staff from Greene & Co.’s 4 branches, each of which has a different area of focus and style of approach. The longest established branches in West Hampstead and Maida Vale represent a range of upmarket properties across the area., whereas Urban Spaces in Clerkenwell are experts in the buying and selling of lofts, live-work and unusual contemporary design spaces throughout the UK. Home was established in 2000, as a concept store in Belsize Park, with a customer friendly comfortable and informal shop environment.
Delivering good customer service is central to Greene & Co’s philosophy and they are continually striving to improve on everything that they do. They have developed progressive customer service and staff motivation practices by working closely with Julian Richer, of Richer Sounds, who advises and lectures numerous companies on customer service and staff motivation. Staff receive company prizes based on customer feedback and mystery shoppers are used to ensure that standards are maintained to a high level at all times.
In industry terms Greene & Co. are leading the way in dealing with gazumping and gazundering. They have independently developed their own legally binding Good Will Charter which locks vendors and purchasers together in an attempt to discourage gazumping and gazundering. The use of the Charter has led to significantly fewer abortive sales than the industry average and Greene & Co believe that this type of agreement will eventually become compulsory.