Conveyancer Insights has been keeping a close eye on the state of the conveyancing market for a few years and showing a particular interest in the way in which conveyancing practices and departments are perceived by introducers and the wider public.
The market has been very buoyant over the past few years, but clearly things have changed and that is likely to have a significant impact upon many firms’ profitability and future.
Last year some friends of mine moved home and mentioned just how difficult it had been to instruct a conveyancer. I was shocked by this and decided to find out why that was the case. Given just how busy firms have been, I had assumed that firms would have finely honed skills when it came to engaging with new business; but the opposite was the case.
Conveyancer Insights set about mystery shopping hundreds of conveyancing practices across England and Wales to see exactly what was happening. Was it commonplace for firms to be falling below what many might deem to be decent levels of customer service?
As a business we have a vested interest in the success of conveyancers. So decided that if there was anything we could do to support the industry, the impact would be positive for everyone. Sadly, many business owners, marketing executives and decision makers within firms must be completely unaware how their staff are behaving, otherwise home movers would not be treated in the way that they are.
Our recent concerns have been around the perceived necessity to reduce fees to compete for business. Given just how much financial headroom many firms have and the volume of enquiries that a market can deliver, it appears that fees should be going up if only staff were able, or trained appropriately, to engage with new business effectively.
The changes required to win new business and to improve the way that a business is perceived are, in the main, very small. If only firms knew which ones, they needed to improve upon!!
We decided to publish an overview of our findings that highlight the current state of play. We hope that many firms will pause and take a moment to consider how they can improve their first contact with prospective home movers.
Our report reflects the way in which we mystery shop firms to enable them to implement training or staffing appropriately. It is worrying to see some of the practices being adopted by firms that, if interrogated, would surely be seen as wholly inappropriate.
Conveyancer Insights make their Market Insights reports available to firms that wish to understand how they perform, how they compare to their regional competition and how they are perceived by introducers. We also make available our entry level ‘Mystery Shop Me!’ report to simply identify how new business is engaged with.
Please us the link below to access our National Findings report and, if you wish to know how you compare to the National Standards, feel free to get in touch.
https://www.conveyancerinsights.co.uk/national-findings
By Mike Stainsby, Commercial Director, Conveyancer Insights
This article was submitted to be published by Conveyancer Insights. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Conveyancer.
