MAIN IMAGE: Berry Everitt – CEO of Chas Everitt International Property Group
Chas Everitt Property Group
These are the words of Berry Everitt, CEO of Chas Everitt International Property Group, who shares his philosophy on the roles and responsibilities of real estate agencies towards their agents in this, the first of a series of articles in Property Professional.
Agents may all be employees, but I believe they should be treated and served as VIP “customers” quite simply because they are our connection to home sellers, buyers, landlords and tenants and, thus, our most precious resource.
I also strongly believe that if we expect agents to really care about those customers, and deliver the kind of individualised, one-fits-one service that engenders mutual respect, trust and lasting relationships, they need to experience that level and type of interest themselves, from the leaders of our business.
I want our agents to feel and know that we are truly invested in their success, not just as salespeople but also as individuals with specific hopes, goals, and plans for themselves and their loved ones that we not only want to know about but will actively seek ways to help them achieve.
I see it as the responsibility of the leaders in our business to anticipate and remove obstacles to agents’ progress, to create a safe space to enable transparency, and to provide first-rate career and personal development resources.
In short, we should be there primarily to serve and provide support, not to occupy hierarchical positions of power. In addition, we, and each agent who joins the company, all need to be in alignment with and feel at home in a business that is built and will continue to be based on the following three pillars:
A shared philosophy
This shared philosophy, along with a set of values that are part of our DNA, sets us apart from other real estate companies in the way that we treasure each one of our customers, work to ensure the best outcome to suit their individual circumstances and seek to become their trusted real estate advisor for life.
These include scrupulous honesty and impeccable integrity, of course, but also a large measure of genuine and empathetic curiosity about each customer’s life, situation, family and motivation for the sale, purchase or rental they are seeking to make so that we can deliver tailor-made outcomes.
For everyone in our company, there needs to be a realisation that real estate is absolutely not just about transactions on the board; it’s about creating smiles by “seeing” individual, real people and helping them to make their lives better.
Accountability
This is a cornerstone of our methodology because we like running our company like a start-up, with a flat management system, less oversight and more autonomy for our agents. We would rather coach than correct, and we appreciate that most people would rather work where they are seen, have a voice, and can easily share ideas for solving problems or improving things.
However, this necessitates a high level of trust that goes both ways. As leaders, we have to know that our agents will stand by the values to which we are all aligned and are prepared to take responsibility for all their actions, even if they make mistakes. In our business, it is also important to be flexible and ready to think of solutions in new situations.
The other side of that coin is that our leaders have to be open to acknowledging and incorporating great ideas, no matter who they come from, in order to maintain a company that is nimble and highly responsive to changing customer preferences and needs.
A preference that has emerged in recent years, for example, is to get to know and work with just one property professional for all transactions rather than a different one each time one buys or sells a home in a different area. This is why we have no set areas in metropolitan areas; it enables the development of longstanding agent-customer relationships that transcend boundaries.
In addition, I think leaders also have to be prepared to be accountable at the highest level. At the end of the day, customer problems that cannot be resolved by an agent or their principal should and do end up on my desk – and I am quite prepared to take that responsibility.
Technology
Technology that is not just an overseas off-the-shelf business or administration system that is essentially designed to record activity and monitor agent performance or results. Our technology platforms and apps are built for the SA market and to streamline the processes involved in South African property transactions.
They are also the product of input from a lot of different people and have been built primarily to assist our agents, often in response to specific requests or customer issues they have encountered. A recent example is the FICA compliance system that we have built into our app, which enables agents to obtain all the information they need from a customer online and, at the same time, provides customers with the assurance that their private information is completely secure.
The idea is always to free our agents—our first customers—from having to spend time on administrative tasks that would be much better spent nurturing their relationships with their customers. So whenever we set out to build or introduce a new piece of technology, we always consider whether it is likely to make customers choose to work with our agents again, bearing in mind that repeat business is one of the best ways to create revenue.
Property Professional will host a webinar with Berry in November to discuss this and other factors that promote agents’ success – we encourage agents to dial in and ask this industry leader their questions. Watch this space for more information.
