When I first started looking for a job after university, I wanted to be a policeman but my eyesight scotched that idea. The next stall in the careers fair was an estate agents and my friend nudged me in their direction, probably as a joke. The chap manning the stall came over and we started chatting – 10 minutes later I had an interview and a week later I was a trainee negotiator in a large Bath corporate agency. Almost two decades later I’m still loving the job for all the reasons I first did – I’m a naturally nosy person, I love meeting new people, discovering new properties and learning every day. There’s so many aspects – problem solving, crisis management, research, advertising, marketing, counselling and so on – that every day is completely different from the last.
So, thats why I love my job but I was wondering last night what the perspective is like from the other side. What do clients really value from their agent? I’ve been inside the industry too long to know and I’ve read plenty of articles about what owners SHOULD look for but I thought I’d attack the problem from a different direction. I find experiences are always best viewed with hindsight so I’ve worked through the testimonial feedback we have received in the last few years (http://www.thebestof.co.uk/local/bath/business-guide/feature/madison-oakley/87427) and tried to pull out some of the themes that clients have repeatedly highlighted. Here are some of the key words that crop up time and again (the bigger the word, the more it has been mentioned in feedback);
