Hybrid agent Yopa has opened a new customer service centre at Croxley Park in Watford, Hertfordshire.
It will provide support to Yopa’s customers as well as its agents in the field.
The new premises have 7,357 sq ft or space and will create over 100 jobs, including roles for estate agents wanting desk jobs.
Yopa said yesterday that these new employees will “play an important role in turning the world of estate agency on its head, refining the customer experience to ensure that a seamless service is delivered to all parties involved throughout the transaction process”.
The Croxley Park business park also provides access to an onsite creche, gymnasium, driving range and pilates classes.
Yopa CEO Ben Poynter said: “It’s an exciting time at Yopa as the company continues to grow, driven by customers who want great service for a fair fee.
“At our new customer service centre, we’re looking to appoint local people who are passionate about customer service and are keen to be involved in transforming the traditional estate agent industry.
“We are looking for experienced estate agents looking to transition into an office position and exceptional experienced customer service specialists.
“Croxley Park will play an important role in cementing our credentials as the customer-centric, full-service estate agency of choice.”
Yopa, which was launched in 2016, will operate its new service centre between 8am and 9pm on weekdays, on Saturdays between 9am and 5.30pm, and on Sundays between 9am and 5pm.
Yopa has recently raised a further £20m as it bids to overtake Purplebricks.
Comments (17)
I never knew estate agency was broken.. why are people always trying to reinvent the wheel.
I want to work for yopa, me me, me me.
It’s got crèche.
Oh hang on I might be a little old to play in it (not to mention eyebrows raised!!!)
Oh well
back to the drawing board.
Have purplebricks got battleships, or a sand pit or sumfing like that for my consultancy work?
An office of 100 staff has to be a £5m annual cost to run.
Where is the turnover to cover these overheads coming from? Most of these staff aren’t e en fee generating and need to be paid out of the sale proceeds AFTER the sales rep.
This is why the model makes no sense. At least not unless you somehow secure massive market share.
I’m an agent in Watford and you’d do well to find a dingle YOPA board across the whole town.
£20m won’t last long on my maths.
Coleface there’s a yoga board on the outskirts of Christchurch that you are welcome to have, we’re fed up seeing it since it was erected about 2 years ago! You’ll need your gardening gloves to trim the greenery and it’ll need a wash down with some bleach as it’s gone a bit grimy. It says for sale so no good if you need it for a sold property, but then again. …. did they make any sold slips?
😉
‘Full-Service Estate Agency of choice’
It’s not ‘full service’ it’s Call Centre Listing. Call centres and full service estate agency do not go together.
‘Fully serviced clients’ want to know the person they are talking to knows them, their property, their buyers and what is happening with everything.
They try and justify their low fee offering by saying they cut out the costs of “expensive high street offices” and then put their staff in a facility that includes a gym and driving range.
Oh, and spend gazillions on endless celebrity endorsed TV advertising
What nonsense.
Why aren’t these people just honest and rather than pretend to be on a crusade to “save the consumer money” just come clean and say they think they can make a fortune by scaling up what is essentially a “cut costs by cutting corners” offering.
Only problem is when you cut corners, somebody has to pay. Usually the client.
I would love to work somewhere that had an onsite gym! Especially if there were punching bags…
I guess they could just use the negs… oh hang on a minute, they haven’t got any!
The amount of churn of LPE’s between Yopa, Emoov and Purplebricks is ridiculous.At the beginning of the year the Bedouin experts at Bricks and Yopa were being enticed into Emoov where a number of LPE’s joined some having only been employed by Bricks for a short period of time
This bus seems to have been slammed firmly into reverse with some of Emoov agents now going to Bricks . Long standing NE expert Kath Taylor at Emoov ( 2 year 9 months) joined Bricks in August. Although as of this morning still appearing in “the team”on Emoov’s website
Lee Hassan worked for Bricks from May 2016 to 2017 joined Emoov in Feb 2018 lasted 3 months there now given up the ghost with onliners and now working for Countrywide
Now Tim Dyke takes the biscuit 4 moves in 5 months. Bricks LPE for Stourbridge for 2 years Left in May to join Reeds Rains in Dudley enticed from there in in June for Emoov Lasted 2 months at Emoov and now back at Bricks as LPE for Wolverhampton He probably has just crossed out Stourbridge and replaced it with Wolverhampton on his business card
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-dyke-1024467b/
These guys are on the online merry go round for only one reason….
They aren’t getting enough valuation leads.
It;s a ‘great’ idea in principle that having a big bank of LPE’s all self generating leads and business by flinging leaflets through doors, networking etc., etc., will provide the onliner with cheap instructions, but…
Your average LPE is far too lazy and unmotivated to do that.
They want to sit on their ass waiting for the leads to be fed to them and there simply aren’t enough to go round.
It’s the law of diminishing returns, the more LPE’s you take on, the fewer leads each one gets and the more likely they are to jump ship.
THAT is the real reason why the online model is flawed.
Yopa would do well to focus on retaining its existing staff. Like Purplebricks they are starting to see a huge turnover in “LPEs”, i spoke to one last week who has left as in his words “People just dont know who we are”
“Yopa, seriously, why bother”
absolutely agree. you have to questions how their turnover is so high both in the field and in their management team. Its like a revolving door. They just use and abuse their staff and they enjoy making statement of just sacking people on the spot to make a point to the other staff that they can and will do what they want. All you have to do is look at the amount of former staff on linkedin and ask them why they left. You would have to be desperate to go and work for them with their awful people management reputation. Hopefully the ‘snakes’ they have in the business will be pushed rather than them pushing all the good people out!
Can you imagine the quality of an High Street Agent opting to work in a call centre?
Try as you may, the online model doesn’t work, not for the investors or for the punters?
Hybrid, what is hybrid? Something High Street Agents who pioneered going online have been doing for years?
The truth will out!
The pinnacle of any experienced Agent’s career, being a call centre operative in Watford.
Watford today, Lancashire yesterday. Which area of the UK are you going to pan tomorrow 😀
Anywhere with a call centre agent or managers smoking in doorways 😉