NovaLoca Blog

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 3^rd Jan 2006 won’t go down too well when it’s now the 28^th 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!

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.

· 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.

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.