For estate and letting agents

The three call types, in order of value

Valuation requests. One instruction is worth thousands in commission, and these callers are choosing between two or three local agents.

Viewing requests. Time sensitive, and in a fast rental market the property is gone within days, so the applicant who could not get through views something else.

Maintenance reports from tenants. Low commercial value, high volume, and the thing that consumes your out of hours capacity entirely.

Handling valuations properly

These should never be treated as a message. Capture the address, whether they have already had other valuations, their timescale and their reason for moving, then book the appointment into the valuer's diary while the caller is still on the phone.

An evening valuation request that becomes a booked appointment before nine the next morning converts at a completely different rate to one returned at eleven.

Viewings out of hours

Availability is the question that decides it. An assistant reading a live diary can offer a real slot at half past nine at night, which is a considerable advantage over a competitor who returns the call on Monday.

Capture the applicant's position at the same time: whether they have sold, whether they are in a chain, whether they have references ready. It saves a second call and lets negotiators prioritise.

Maintenance and the out of hours burden

For letting agents this is usually the reason to look at all. Tenants report faults in the evening because that is when they get home and notice.

Set the escalation rules carefully: flood, fire, no heat, no water, anything affecting security goes to your on call contractor immediately. Everything else is logged with the property, the tenant and the fault, and lands in the morning with a full record.

This alone often replaces a staffed out of hours line at a fraction of the cost.

What it is worth

An agency missing forty calls a week, converting a third at an average of £3,200 a transaction, is a very large number. Even discounting heavily for the fact that many callers are not instructions, one recovered valuation a month covers this many times over.