Do Your Emails Do All They Can?

Published
by
lauren
on August 26, 2008
in Agents
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Email has become the main form of communication between commercial property agents and their occupiers, but does this form of correspondence reflect your agency’s standards of professionalism and customer care and are the sales opportunities taken?

What Has Been Said?

Commercial property search engine, NovaLoca, allows occupiers to contact the property agent directly from the website. The agents replies are then fed back to the occupier also via the site. Some of the common replies from agents we see include:

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What Does this Mean for Your Business?

  • Customer services: If you don’t send a message with an attachment or don’t bother to reply at all you are unlikely to give the impression of a commercial property agency that cares about their occupiers or that will go the extra mile to find them the best property which suits their requirements.
  • Professionalism: If you reply to say the property is sold or that you are no longer dealing with the property this is likely to give the impression that your records and advertising is out of date. This will not give the professional ‘on top of everything’ image you are probably striving for.
  • Opportunities missed: Simple one line replies such as those above don’t make the most of the opportunity you have to engage a new occupier. You have an occupier in front of you who is looking for a property, although you may not be able to fill their requirement now do they go away knowing who you are and what you can offer them? Will they contact you in the future? If they receive one of the replies above, the answer is probably ‘no’ and you have missed an opportunity.

How Can You Make the Most of Your Email Replies?

  • Introduce yourself and your agency. This does not need to be long, just enough to ensure the occupier knows who you are, what you can offer and how they can contact you in future. This could be a pre-written email which you simply attach the necessary property details to when an enquiry comes in.
  • Make sure that when you say you are sending an attachment you actually send one. If may be worthwhile noting in the text of the email what you will be attaching, therefore the occupier will know exactly what they should be receiving and can ask for anything that is missing.
  • Keep your property advertising up to date to avoid occupiers contacting you about a property that is no longer available. This will save their time as well as yours.
  • If you are contacted about a property that is no longer available or which you are no longer representing reply to the occupier and tell them this but go the extra mile and send them a list of similar vacant properties which you are currently marketing. There is still the opportunity for a sale here even if the initial enquiry does not work out so make the most of it.
  • Most importantly of all, reply to them with something! You are never going to make the most of an enquiry if they hear nothing from you.

If you have any more examples of what not to say in an email or for more information about how NovaLoca can help you find occupiers for your commercial property please contact the NovaLoca customer services team on 0844 3575 260 or email info@novaloca.com.

What Shade of Green is Your Commercial Property?

Published
by
lauren
on August 14, 2008
in Agents and Buyers
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It has been four months since Energy Performance Certificate’s (EPC’s) began to be phased into the commercial property market and only three months until they will become compulsory for all commercial property over 50m2 being sold, let or built. So what exactly do they mean for a commercial property owner?

What will the EPC tell me?

After an Energy Assessor has made an assessment of the property, the details are loaded into government-approved software which will produce the EPC for the property. This certificate will:

· Provide general information about the energy efficiency and carbon emissions of the building;

· Give a rating on a standardised scale of A to G (A being the best) of how energy efficient the property is. This allows the property to be accurately compared to similar buildings;

· Make recommendations about how the property’s energy efficiency, and therefore it’s rating, could be improved, as well as giving a realistic indication of what grading the property could achieve if the recommendations are put in place.

What Can I Do To Improve My Properties’ Energy Efficiency?

Whether your reasons for being interested in the results of the required survey are based on an environmental concern and wanting to “go green”, or the desire to save money on the buildings’ running cost during the increase in fuel prices the fact is there are some very simple measures you can take to improve the energy efficiency of your office space, retail premises or industrial unit.

· Reduce waste and recycle what waste you do have: reuse paper; cancel junk mail and think before you print.

· Use energy efficiently: turn the heating off rather than just opening a window; turn lights off when they are not needed; use energy efficient light bulbs; put electrical equipment (e.g. water cooler) on a timer so it turns off at the end of the day, and fit draught excluders on doors and windows.

· Use water efficiently: ensure water appliances are efficient and fix leaking taps etc.

For further ideas about improving your commercial property’s energy rating visit Business Link and use their questionnaire to help you assess your current energy efficiency level.

How Will the EPC’s affect the Marketing of My Commercial Property?

Many articles have been published claiming the positive and negative effects EPC’s could have on the marketability of commercial properties in relation to the perceived costs of high or low energy efficient properties.

The Manchester Evening News carried a story suggesting that although the “government wants to encourage tenants to move into industrial and commercial buildings which are more environmentally friendly… the introduction of EPC’s may well lead to the opposite happening over the long term, by making less environmentally friendly buildings less expensive and therefore more popular". (Read the full article here.) This implies that owners of commercial property with a good energy efficiency rating could find it more difficult to market their property and find occupiers due to the perceived higher cost compared to lower efficiency properties. However, we would suggest that this higher initial cost will soon be recouped as the running and maintenance costs will be reduced in the longer term, whereas the opposite would be true of a less energy efficient property where the initial outlay could be less but the long term costs are likely to be higher as energy is wasted. If an occupier thinks for the long term they are likely to be put off by this and choose the more energy efficient property instead.

In addition to this, owners of industrial units, offices and retail space which are eligible to have an EPC are entitled to claim tax breaks against the cost of installing systems which will help to make the property more energy efficient. This comes under a new government incentive to encourage more energy efficiency amongst commercial property as well as to help property agents and owners “stay ahead of the game” (read the full article here) and make the marketing of their property easier based on the energy rating they receive.

Marketing commercial property will now require additional focus on the energy performance rating it holds and the benefits this will bring to the occupier. To find out more information about the energy efficiency of the commercial properties listed on NovaLoca and to find out how to get your commercial property listed, contact the customer services team on 08443575260.

Credit Crunch affecting Commercial Property Market

Published
by
Christin
on August 14, 2008
in Agents
. 0 Comments

Open any newspaper and you will find articles about the ‘credit crunch’ and the impact it is having, especially on the property market. Take for example Tony McDonough’s article in the Liverpool Daily Post,”Property Sales Set to Fall By a Third” which claims that, “Property experts are predicting that the total volume of property traded globally this year will fall by at least a third because of the credit crunch”.

Having read such articles, the online commercial property search engine NovaLoca, spoke to the agents listing on the website and found that many have recently decided to stop all their marketing in order to save on expenses as they ride out the financial difficulties. However, the continued growth NovaLoca has seen over the past year is due to commercial property agents choosing to market their vacant properties, whether that be offices, industrial units, retail spaces or even land, on this property search tool. This increase in properties being advertised on NovaLoca implies that marketing using the internet continues to be a cost effective way of finding occupiers for properties and increasing property turnover as commercial agents continue to invest in online marketing even during these times when finances are a bit stretched.

Read Tony McDonough’s full article and why not contact the NovaLoca customer services team on 0844 3575 260 to find out how marketing properties online with them can help to generate more leads for your commercial properties.

Free Marketing & Marketing Tips for UK Agents

Published
by
gini
on August 12, 2008
in Agents, Buyers and Company News
. 0 Comments

This week has seen a number of news headlines regarding the commercial property industry which read something like “World Commercial Property Deals Down 41%”. With headlines like that the question has to be asked: Are agents making full use of the free marketing available to them?

To gain maximum exposure when renting out office space or if you have commercial property for sale, then there couldn’t be a better time to join the NovaLoca.com. Not only is the commercial property search engine moving up in Google rankings but in just six months they made Google sit up and pay attention marking their site as a site of importance by increasing their page rank from 0-5, driving more and more visitors to the site each month 65,000 last month.

They are, for a limited time, taking all agents with them, completely free. All companies and commercial property agents throughout the UK can easily load all of their properties, whether it be office space, retail property, industrial units or even land, on the site for free, or if time is of the essence then contact the NovaLoca team and they can do all the work for you!  The 60,000 occupiers that visit NovaLoca each month are then just a click away from the perfect commercial property for their business and the agents are one step closer to finding occupiers for their properties.

It is a match made in heaven when agents meet Novaloca. You see, some agents are extremely good when it comes to being proactive in marketing their client’s properties. However, some are still under the notion that they don’t have to do much to get their commercial property let or sold. I would say this was the case in the past but would now agree that it could be true, as long as their portfolio of commercial properties is listed on Novaloca that is!

Agents are good at what they are trained to do and NovaLoca are experts in what they do and they are offering agents opportunity to use the knowledge they have gained from hours of research by the NovaLoca team. Find some of this expertise in NovaLoca’s blog or to find out more information about listing on NovaLoca contact them on 08443575260.

‘Location, Location, Location’

Published
by
kate
on August 11, 2008
in Buyers and Company News
. 0 Comments

The location of a business is crucial. One of the earliest decisions any entrepreneur has to make is where to locate the business. ‘Am I near my main customer base?’, ‘Are there good transport links close by?’, ‘Will people be able to find me and are they the people who would use my service?’ With all these questions floating around and each one affecting whether a location is right, they all need to be considered and assessed carefully in order to find that ideal spot.

If you want to build your commercial property yourself, you have another question to ask; do the plans fit with the locality? Tesco’s recent application for a 70,000 sq ft store in St Albans, Hertfordshire was strongly opposed by the city’s residents. According to one article, although two letters were received to support the plans, the council said that it had received a petition by the St Albans Civic Society with 5,000 signatures against the plans, which raised the issues that the scheme was “out of scale, out of character, showed a lack of respect for the conservation area and would have a negative impact on the St Albans city brand” (Read the full article by Deirdre Hipwell and Christine Eade here).

As this shows it is vital to find the right location for your business which satisfies all these questions. This is essential in helping you find your place in the market and successfully attracting the right customer base around you.

Commercial property websites list thousands of industrial units, office spaces and retail premises located all over the country which are available for sale or lease. For example, NovaLoca currently lists 20,000 properties across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and with the simple search tool it helps businesses find property in the right location. To find out how NovaLoca could help you find your commercial property visit NovaLoca.com or call the customer services team on 0845 094 7902.

Valuer’s Up For a Tough Break

Published
by
Fran
on August 11, 2008
in Company News
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I recently read an article on a surveyors and valuer’s website called Cheffins which discusses how life is becoming harder for valuer’s due to the rapid changes in the UK financial market over the past year. They suggest that with the credit crunch looming over all markets at the moment, it’s of little surprise that the commercial property industry is slowing as well.

However, it’s now not just the selling that’s getting harder as peoples purse strings tighten. Life is also getting tougher for commercial property valuer’s. Previously they could rely on transactional evidence of a property to help them valuate it, but now it’s becoming increasingly difficult as the finance market is thinning and changing at such a rapid rate. With no real evidence as to where the commercial property market is heading it’s now even more crucial for valuer’s to have a true understanding and thorough knowledge of their market.

It has become clear to commercial property portal NovaLoca that commercial property valuer’s need to be very knowledgeable in regards to what has changed in the past, and especially in the past year, in order to predict what could happen in the future. One of the future developments for NovaLoca.com includes adding details of completed sales to database providing valuer’s with a tool to track changes in value of a given property and the commercial property market as a whole. For more information of this contact the customer services team on 0844 3575260.

Are Your Competitors Converting More Leads?

Published
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admin
on August 7, 2008
in Uncategorized
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NovaLoca analysed approximately 4000 telephone enquiries made to agents about the commercial properties they have listed on NovaLoca.com and a startling difference in the length of the calls was revealed.

· The average length of a call was 105 seconds.

· Some agencies were showing an average call length of over two and a half times this time.

· One company received 141 telephone enquiries with an average call length of 259 seconds.

These differences suggest that some agents are answering calls more efficiently & engaging with potential occupiers in a more positive way. When leads are harder to come by are you sure you are making the most of every chance you have to find occupiers for your commercial property?

To find out where you rank in our data of who is converting the most leads or to discuss how you could easily get your property listed on NovaLoca call the customer services team on 0844 3575 260.

It’s Time for You to Go On Holiday but Where Are Your Emails Going?

Published
by
lauren
on July 31, 2008
in Agents
. 0 Comments

It’s that time of year again… time for your annual trip away but whilst you are sunning yourself on the beach your customers are still trying to contact you. What do they do when they don’t get a reply because you’re not there to do so? The answer: they approach your competitors instead. Obviously your holiday is well deserved but we doubt you want to lose customers as a result.

NovaLoca’s analysis of enquiry data found that 55% of enquiries made to an agent over a three month period were made by email. These are going to continue to land in your inbox even when you’re on holiday. Therefore, what do you do, if anything, to ensure your email enquiries are answered and the customer is not lost?

If you have never thought about this or you’re not sure what you can do, here are a few very simple strategies most email providers will allow you to do:

· Set up an auto reply: Whenever an email is received to your inbox a reply email will automatically be sent to the sender. This email should be brief, polite and professional stating:

o that you are currently out of the office;

o when you expect to be back in the office and available to be contacted again;

o that you will contact them as soon as you can on your return;

o the telephone and email details of a colleague that can be contacted in an emergency whilst you are away.

You can set a start and end date during which these auto replies will be sent, or if you don’t do this, make sure you turn the auto reply function off as soon as you return to the office. Also, remember to update the content of the auto reply email each time you use it. A message which says you’ll be back in the office on the 3rd Jan 2006 won’t go down too well when it’s now the 28th July 2008!

Be aware that if your customers are contacting you through the ‘contact the agent’ tool on a commercial property portal, such as NovaLoca, the auto-reply will go to the administrators of the portal site and not the customer contacting you. Therefore, they remain unaware of the reason for not getting a response from you. The best way to avoid this situation is to forward your emails to a colleague (below) who is able to respond to the enquiry quickly.

In Microsoft Outlook 2007 auto replies can be set up using ‘Out Of Office Assistant’ found in the ‘Tools’ section. Alternatively use the ‘Help’ section to find out how you can set up auto replies with your email software.

· Forward your emails: Set your email account to forward any emails you receive whilst you are away to a colleague who can respond to them in your absence. This is a good idea especially if you know you receive enquiry emails from customers. Your colleague can reply to the enquiry before the customer looks elsewhere to find their commercial property which they may do if the only other option is to wait until you get back.

Make sure that the person who will be receiving your email will not be overloaded and unable to reply to the volume of emails (yours and their own). If this could be the case then set up ‘conditional forwarding’. Select emails from each source you are likely to receive emails from to be forwarded to a specific person, e.g. all emails received from NovaLoca are forwarded to your partner, emails from a property owner are forwarded to your administrator whilst emails from within your organisation are not forwarded at all.

If you do forward your emails, set up an auto reply as well so the sender is aware that you are not able to respond personally but that one of your colleagues will be in touch instead (give the details of the person they can expect to hear from).

In Microsoft Outlook 2007 email forwarding can be set up using ‘Direct replies to’ found in the ‘Options’ section. Alternatively use the ‘Help’ section to find out how you can set up email forwarding with your email software.

· On your return: When you get back to the office, make sure you follow up on all emails received in your absence. Debrief with the person who has been responding to your emails whilst you were away and call or email those who did try to contact you to let them know that you are available again to handle any further enquiries they have, and to make sure their original enquiry was dealt with sufficiently.

The most important point to remember is that your customers want a reply as quickly as possible. If they are left to wait for one with no explanation of the delay they are very likely to look elsewhere. At the very least you should inform your customers why there may be a delay in replying to their enquiry. However, it is always preferable, if possible, to answer the enquiry straight away by forwarding emails to a colleague who is available to do so.

Most email software will have a tool to allow you to create auto replies and forward emails received. We would strongly suggest investing the time in finding out how to do this with the software you use and making it a habit within your company to put these practices in place so you can relax on your holiday safe in the knowledge you’re not losing customers because you’re not there to reply to them. If you want a little help in where to start, please call one the NovaLoca customer services team on 0844 3575 260. Enjoy your holidays!

Are you available when your customers come knocking?

Published
by
lauren
on July 10, 2008
in Agents and Company News
. 0 Comments

Every commercial property agent is aiming to attract potential occupiers to the property they have on their books. If this is you, then you need to be available when your customers call. If they can’t speak to you then they may go elsewhere to find their commercial property. But with meetings and site visits filling your day and often taking you out of the office, how do you know when your customers are likely to call and when you should be available to answer their enquiry?

When Do Your Customers Contact You?

Here at NovaLoca we analysed property enquiry data over a three month period and found that 45% of enquiries are made by telephone suggesting that people want to speak to people when looking for commercial property. 55% of enquiries where made via email. With this in mind we analysed the data further to discover at what times throughout the day these enquiries were made.

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· Telephone enquiries are fairly consistent throughout the working day (9am – 5pm) with peaks at 10am and midday.

· Few calls are made before 9am or after 5pm, with no calls at all between 10pm and 7am.

· Email enquiries peak between 11am and 2pm.

· Enquiries via email drop off after 4pm, but increase again at 8pm before declining throughout late evening.

· Email enquiries are made throughout the evening and night.

When should you be available to speak to your customers?

The data suggests that the first hour of the working day is important for ensuring enquiries made overnight (by telephone and email) are responded to. The data indicates that replying to emails may be where your time is most needed first thing in the morning. Overnight telephone enquiries should also be followed up during this period.

Mid morning to mid afternoon (10am to 3pm) appears to be a busy period for both telephone and email enquiries. Therefore, it would be beneficial to ensure there are sufficient people available during this period to speak to customers directly as well as responding to their emails.

Although the number of telephone and email enquiries decline during late afternoon they do continue, especially emails. Therefore, your time is well spent responding to enquiries during this part of the day too. However, fewer resources may be needed at this time than during the middle of the day.

Read our full article to discover more about how this information could affect your commercial property agency or contact the NovaLoca customer services team on 08443575260 or email info@novaloca.com to find out how you could conduct your own research and analysis of how and when your customers contact you.

Empty Property Rates Reform Leads to Demolitions

Published
by
lauren
on July 2, 2008
in Agents and Company News
. 0 Comments

The recently introduced requirement to pay full business rates on empty commercial properties is already having a startling effect. In some cases property owners are even resorting to demolition of empty buildings to avoid the extra tax burden they would otherwise face under the new legislation, which came into force in April 2008.

Empty industrial properties are now liable for full business rates after six months, whilst vacant office spaces and retail units become liable after just three months. The reform aims to encourage landlords to refurbish properties where necessary so they can re-let or sell their vacant commercial units boosting the supply and in turn reducing rental costs. It has provoked a storm of criticism from the commercial property industry, which believes it may have the opposite effect, discouraging speculative development and damaging flexibility and competitiveness.

Demolition is clearly a last resort. But as one landlord commented, “If we hadn’t had to pay rates on it, we wouldn’t have knocked it down.” If no tenant or purchaser can be found, this is the only way to avoid the increased tax cost. Secondary legislation is under consideration to combat avoidance measures, such as deliberate damage to buildings to render them unusable and remove them from the ratings list. Fears are growing that attractive, non-listed buildings will be demolished purely to avoid tax – a move that would never have been considered before the new legislation took effect. There is concern, too, that newly established businesses will struggle to find their first commercial premises if lower-cost buildings become scarce as a result of demolitions and refurbishments.

The RICS commented long before the reform was introduced that it could lead to instances of deliberate damage as well as higher service charges, increased dilapidation claims and more rating appeals. “This is a repeat of the situation in the 1970s, when an empty rate was introduced in the form of penal rating surcharge. However, it didn’t create new lettings and led to the deliberate vandalising of property to avoid rate liability,” the institution noted.

The emphasis should be on finding tenants for your commercial property to avoid such drastic measures as demolition. NovaLoca is a commercial property online listings service which can market your empty property to fifty thousand of clients at the click of a mouse. . To find out how they could help you fill your commercial property please visit NovaLoca.com or call 0845 094 7902.