Property clients explain how they use Moneypenny

How did you start working with Moneypenny?

Michael Utchanah, Director, Robinson, Michael & Jackson: We came across Moneypenny about four or five years ago. Sam and her team came to see Robinson, Michael & Jackson, which are part of a 21 branch operation, and showed us how Moneypenny could help our business and, ever since we spoke to them, we used them and it’s been fantastic.

What difference has Moneypenny made to the service you offer to your customers?

Michael: Well, Moneypenny are able now to allow us to use a USP which we call, we’re open eight ‘til eight, seven days a week and they offer a service over the weekend where our staff are not able to answer the phones, so at eight o’clock in the morning a customer can phone in and it’s answered by Moneypenny but the client thinks that it’s been answered by Robinson, Michael & Jackson, which is a great service.

What additional benefits have you seen by using Moneypenny?

Michael: The additional benefits that we have from the Moneypenny service is because we don’t miss a call and everything is logged in by a spreadsheet and we get the information immediately; the manager gets the information, the branch gets the information and we know whose phone, what the phone number is, what was the requirement from that customer who’s phoned in, and we were not able to answer the phone, so there’s no missed call whatsoever, so that’s added value and we also get the breakdown of the buyers and the sellers, so we know where the valuation calls have come in, when they have come in and we’re able to get on it straight away, so we don’t lose out on any business whatsoever.

How important is the data Moneypenny provides?

Michael: The management information is very, very important to us and, also, we’re able to log the staff in the branch; how on the ball they are and how many calls they miss, as well, because throughout the day there are occasions where staff are out on appointments, or out for lunch and calls can be missed, and you’d be surprised, and the first test we did we were 119 missed calls in the space of a week or two, so that really helped us and made the decision for us to use Moneypenny.

Does the service represent good value for money?

Michael: It’s been great value for money, there’s no doubt about that; our marketing department work with Moneypenny all the time and it’s been a great return on investment. I have always recommended Moneypenny and there’s lots of businesses, lots of other types of businesses other than estate agency, that Moneypenny do work with and I always recommend Moneypenny.

What made you trial Moneypenny initially?

Simon Bradbury, Partner, Thomas Morris and Fine & Country: We first trialled Moneypenny about 3 years ago and we trialled them because, at the time, we were using answering machines to take care of customer calls and we didn’t think that was good enough, so we thought we’d have a bash to see if they’d be able to handle calls better.

What were your first impressions?

Simon: It worked so much better than we’d anticipated. What we were thinking was that it would just be a simple replacement for telephone answering devices, but in actual fact what we found it was like having an extra member of the team, because now, when anybody rings up, they get a human being answering the telephone that they perceive to be part of our team at Thomas Morris or Fine and Country.

Can you outline some of the business benefits?

Simon: I think that Moneypenny have brought a significant amount of benefits to our business, specifically we have situations like where people, for example, are running late to attend an open house; they’ll ring through to our office, Moneypenny will pick up that call, ring it through to the person who’s attending the open house and let them know that that person, that they’re going to be late. We had one example, just a few months ago, where somebody couldn’t even find our open house. We had nobody in the office unfortunately, MP picked up that call, and we give them directions for that open house, and they took that customer directly to the open house event, and that worked really well for us.

How does the relationship work?

Simon: The way I would see our situation with Moneypenny; it’s much more to do with the business relationship and a personal relationship than it is to do with just telephone answering. All of my team know all of the people at Moneypenny intimately and, likewise, they know us really well and what we’re about. I’ll often have conversations with them to let them know what’s happened with our business, and they with us, and it’s that understanding of the way that an estate agency works and the challenges we face every single day, that really makes our relationship work well with MP.

How important is it to ensure you are capturing all calls?

Simon: The amount of calls that are picked up at our Fine & Country department is relatively small, in all honesty, it’s probably between 80 and 100. But at Fine & Country, because our average fees are so high, every single communication that we get from a member of the public is worth a lot of money to us and so I would always recommend that estate agents use MP. I would recommend that they use their 14 day free trial, see how it works with them and I think they’ll find that it works with them very well indeed.

What attracted you to working with Moneypenny?

Liza-Jane Kelly, Sales Director, Marsh and Parsons: We were attracted to Moneypenny in the first place because we wanted to ensure that our phones were answered all the time and, sometimes, in the offices, when people are busy and they’re with clients, applicants or they’re on calls themselves, we wanted to make sure that no call was ever left unanswered.

What was your experience in terms of customer service?

Liza-Jane: We had a free trial, we met Jo and Sam, who are fantastic, and I suppose initially, before we actually met Moneypenny, we always felt that these call centre services were never going to match the customer service that we really require in Marsh and Parsons and how we wanted the phone answered and how we make people feel when they deal with Marsh and Parsons, but on meeting Moneypenny, straight away, we knew that the relationship was really going to work.

Can you outline any particular advantages?

Liza-Jane: Particularly on Saturdays, where we feel it’s very important that our negotiators are out on viewings, showing properties and then, equally, we have lots of people coming into the office and ringing up, enquiring about property they want to see or they’ve seen on our website, so, sometimes, at particular times in the day on Saturdays, it gets incredibly busy and Moneypenny deal with those calls brilliantly and they email the enquiries through, so they can be dealt with that day by our negotiators and managers.

What makes Moneypenny stand out from the competition?

Liza-Jane: The calls are being dealt with by professional people and we’re proud to work with Moneypenny and I would highly recommend Moneypenny to any service business and I have done so many times.

What are the benefits of using Moneypenny?

Frank Webster, Director, Finders Keepers: I think we discovered that we were not taking all our calls, to our cost, and now, having had Moneypenny for, I think, nearly 5 years helping us, we realised the value in having somebody to take our calls professionally and with a personal service. So, when our staff are busy, the calls are being taken and we’re not missing those very, very important leads. So you’re helping us with our daytime coverage and also into the early evenings and at the moment we’d be lost without it.

How important is the personal touch when it comes to answering calls?

Frank: It’s very important to us that the service is, such as our service is which is personal, we’re dealing with people; they don’t want to hear voicemail systems they want a human being answering the call, so it’s very important. I think the other added benefit, that I’m thinking of now, is that the staff that answer the calls at Moneypenny, they’re specialised in certain areas, so for us we want someone who specialises in property and Moneypenny are able to provide that.

Does Moneypenny enable you to extend your virtual opening hours?

Frank: We’re a bit unusual in the industry because our staff are very lucky in that they get to go at 5 o clock. So we had quite a problem, but Moneypenny have taken that problem away from us because we extend our hours seamlessly and that’s really useful.

How useful is the management information you receive?

Frank: The data we receive is extremely useful; all our managers receive that overnight and it helps them plan the following day and they can see where the calls are peaking, so the data we get is very useful and the messages, more importantly as well, are always accurate. Yes, I would most definitely recommend Moneypenny, I think they’re wonderful.