Spicerhaart has invested £6m in technology that will enable its staff to use smart technology while out of the office.
The company says the investment will fundamentally change the way it does business.
It has partnered with Australian company rexlabs to create ROSIE, ‘Residential Operating System Integrating Emarketing’.
Chief executive Paul Smith said: “There is no other estate agency software in the UK that does what our new system does and it will completely transform the way we do business.
“We looked at numerous software systems before choosing rexlabs who provide software for thousands of Australian and New Zealand real estate agents. They have created bespoke customisations of their software for Spicerhaart to bring one single point of view of each customer and every interaction we have with them.
“Whether our teams are out and about or in an office, whether they are using a mobile phone, tablet, laptop or desktop, they will have access to a dashboard which contains a complete overview of their work-flow.
“They will literally have an office in their pocket from which they can list properties, add photos and videos, create marketing materials, add leads, interact with customers, create mailouts, reports and much more, using an industry-leading customer relationship management system.
“Most importantly, at every stage, they are prompted to take key actions and many of these, in time, will become voice-activated.”
He went on: “Rexlabs’ comprehensive and open API means it interacts with internal and external systems, including our bespoke FLINK software, which creates multiple versions of social media adverts and, in coming months, we will be integrating all the data from our contact centre, financial services and lettings into the same system.
“Ultimately, we are helping our people deliver a much better service to our customers. It is set to massively increase our productivity and enhance the excellent service we give.
“It’s also about speed to lead and we will be able to react within seconds, not minutes or hours. It really is a complete game changer.”
Spicerhaart’s chief information officer Steve Lamb said: “Australian estate agents have really set the standard in some of their strategies in managing great customer relationships and prospecting for new business.
“Rexlabs’ system offers a whole new set of unique and innovative features and I’ve been so impressed by the way they add extra value throughout their design process.”
Brisbane-based rexlabs, which has a team of 80, said it was delighted to have partnered with Spicerhaart.
Chief executive Anton Babkov said: “Like Spicerhaart, we are a family-run business and we share the same values, focusing on providing the best service possible for customers.
“We’re hugely grateful to Spicerhaart for working with us over the last 12 months to localise our product for the UK market – it’s been a huge undertaking and getting it 100% right was critical for us and for Spicerhaart’s team.
“Based on market testing we’ve done in the UK, we feel there are some critical learnings and tech that UK estate agents will be able to borrow from their Australian counterparts via our software products.
“Australian agents tend to have very high clearance rates on properties they list (as high as 90%). They’re also regularly able to command market share of up to 35-40% in the regions where they work.
“Much of that capacity comes down to delivering outstanding customer service – which involves a lot of regular, quality client contact and software that works to empower it.
“The product investment we’ve made here with Spicerhaart hasn’t just been about localisation. We’ve made powerful improvements around automation of manual tasks and our mobile experience that will put future clients into an incredibly powerful position to compete – not only with local competitors, but also online agents.
“Our entry into the UK is a hugely exciting time for us, for Spicerhaart and for the UK real estate industry. We can’t wait to bring some incredibly exciting tech into estate agencies around the UK.”
Comments (41)
Another stream of joy from the http://www.itwontwork.com collective.
Whatever the opinions here as to the topic of the article – whether pro- or anti-, it is heartening (not HAARTening, I must add…) that NO-ONE has stooped so low as to use the “c” word.
I thought at times it was close. Maybe even one or two did it as some kind of automatic action… then realised and edited their post. That be the case – then I for one thank ‘ee, Sai (credit: Stephen King).
It has become the norm – especially in circles where reality is known to exist but not in their little enclaves – and the merest hint of the word is guaranteed to grind my gears to the point of destruction.
But – not here. Not today, at least – and I can’t tell you how happy that has made me.
Clearly those that have posted today are CUSTOMER-friendly… CLIENT-centric and even SELLER/BUYER/LANDLORD/TENANT-focused, and don’t feel the need to encapsulate the population in buzz-word *********** (credit: Jonnie) and label people with the title “consumers”.
THERE IS HOPE FOR US YET, folks!
Innovation at its best! Whatever next… perhaps a DSLR camera!?!
Whatever the view ,negative or positive, it seems that investing in ones company from its own created income as opposed to “mugging of investors” is a more moral way of keeping ahead of change.
£6mill ! ! ! I would have thought they could have negotiated a better price than that….. Oh wait…
So now they’ve got ROSIE what’s happened to FLINK? Prefer TLA’s myself
………’add photos and VIDEOS’.
I suspect that whichever national estate agent cracks mainstream walk-through, agent -shot, video tours would lead the way that others may have to follow?
In the mid-eighties, I was given a camera by a corporate agent and told that I had to start taking my own photos from now on.
In today’s fast-paced world do buyers and tenants want the instant gratification of ‘viewing’ immediately 24/7?
Do they reduce viewing levels and increase offer rates as they facilitate the first viewing and save everyone time?
Not a bad way to increase your SEO and social media profile either?
Imagine if PB also found a way?
Could this be the next ‘game-changer’?
You can already get pixel perfect virtual walkthroughs, they are amazing. Sadly the portals do not allow us to publish them.
Here is an example how good they can be https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=bLW5L473ReV (not a sales link)
All RM need to do is allow a tab the shows this. At the moment they have a a small link saying virtual tour, not even available on mobile!
Isn’t it available on mobile if you add it to vimeo or youtube?
RM do not allow links to virtual tours on mobiles (no idea why not!) and on the main site only allow really small writing virtual tour.
Err please sir!
He’s not doing anything innovative. He’s catching up.
As if another reason was required not to want to work for Haart now you don’t have an excuse to ever stop working.
Will the staff be getting more money for the extra hours Mr Smith?
Do any of us ever get to stop working in this day and age?
Yes thanks.
It is called time management and valuing the important things in life
Easily said, harder done in my experience.
Doesn’t sound particularly ground breaking but it will be interesting to see what their staff say as it’s implemented.
Many CRM’s and Software providers have some of the features and a mobile/tablet option. 6m seems a huge some of money but that could just be my naivety/lack of understanding of running a company this size!
From what I know, I would have thought it could be done for an investment of less than £100 per month per member of staff.
Is it just me or is this old tech?!?
I’ve been doing this for the last 12 months using our cloud based software and having all our marketing available in PDF format so you can show clients whatever you need to.
Signing documents on DocuSign isn’t new either….we streamlined paperwork years ago…..
This is not new nor will it revolutionise estate agents processes. You still need to be good at what you do. The tablet won’t get you out of trouble and doesn’t present for you!!
Safe to say, I’ve scrapped this as most people like a good, old school conversation.
We’re the same, adopted a lot of processes that make things a lot more streamlined and better for the customer.
Our tenants have their own online user area with all of their e-signed documents, statements, maintenance logs etc etc – our out of office staff can go onto this software if they need to and have online dairies etc.
Spicer aren’t doing anything new.
My Smart phone has linked me to my office, email,website and my data base to do all the above for years, it is not a game changer other than next stop being to close satellite offices and employ LPE’s!!! And turn flagship offices into hubs !
So Mr Smith has gone from paper to tablets and updated his system. Not sure this is called technology?? more like bring his company up to speed with everyone else. 1, 6m on moving from paper to modern tablets 2, 5m on Flink that fell flat on its face 3, Senior management leaving in there drones 4, A training team that create bad habits and don’t allow their people to express themselves 5, A regional team that have to go into branches and tick boxes before they leave and send to Mr Jervis so he can score them out of ten. This company was a great one and they need to see the light and make the necessary changes upstairs to maintain or grow there business. Good luck with your paperless tech.
‘Senior management leaving in there drones’? Wow! They get given tablets AND drones?
Slowly disappearing up their own collective ………………
Smith and Jervis that is and a few of the regionals in fairness.
What size were their drones?
More ‘quality’ phone or tablet pictures then?
lol…
They just need to recruit and pay for the right talent so the job can be done.
Haart Stop wasting money.
Welcome to the cloud!
This must be why they’ve just closed their office in my town. I expect there’s now three negs and a manager working out of somebody else’s pocket.
Why is the cost so high?
It’s not. It’s a lifetime expenditure.
Because as normal they saw who it was looked at his track record and came up with a price so stupid added 20% and he still paid it.
Reading about the apparently vital necessity of having all this tech stuff to tell people what to do and when to do it I really do wonder how on earth I manage to get out of bed in the morning.
Aided by an alarm?
So they don’t need a high street office any more. Meetings will be in the park and on the hard shoulder of M5 while you phone out ! Love the concept of something being better than Apple itself.
Ha, ask countrywide employees how much they hate their tablets and you will see this will not work.
For clarity it’s not the hardware that’s the problem, it’s the restrictive box ticking process that hampers the agent to do the job.
Nothing new, we have a similar system that enables us to do exactly the same from our phone, tablet, etc. Not a ‘game changer’ at all, just getting with the 21st century technology of being able to work on the move without the need to be in the office.
So, a phone then?
Lol – this comment made my morning and summed up how deluded some are about technology in this industry.