As the real estate industry faces declining client trust in agents, one CEO has shared how she future-proofs her network for success and keeps people at the forefront.
As trust in the real estate sector falls, with an increasing number of agents held accountable for wrongdoing, networks have been urged to rethink their strategies to last in time.
In a recent episode of the REB Podcast, Barry Plant CEO Lisa Pennell and deputy editor Emilie Lauer discussed the issues that plagued the industry, with trust levels at an all-time low.
She said that to build a sustainable network, agencies needed to share values and ethics, be attentive to clients’ needs, and leave ego behind.
According to Pennell, as real estate was a people business, it was the responsibility of networks to act with righteousness and a moral compass to guide them.
“I see a lot of businesses that have values up on the wall, or they talk about being a family business, but the output of that is not in line with the stated values,” she said.
“There is a clear reason why trust is at an all-time low for the real estate industry. It can only be because many agents are not acting according to human values.”
Pennell said that to build trust, agents should remove all trickery from their processes and incorporate authenticity in all client interactions.
“We’ve all heard the lines about quoting it high and quoting it low and what the outcomes of those are. How about we just be transparent with our communication?”
“The auction process or private treaty process does enable great negotiation and open competition; it doesn’t need to involve lying to people, it doesn’t need to involve manipulating the truth.”
Pennell also said that building a supportive, collaborative work culture while leaving ego behind positioned agencies for success and helped them focus on clients’ needs.
“Barry Plant is a place where success is shared, not hoarded. There is no place for ego in our business, whether it’s in our HQ team, whether it’s our director group or in our broader network,” she said.
According to Pennell, the network paid close attention to detail and delivered tailored training to its members based on clients’ feedback, ensuring they could improve.
“It’s not about just saying the words, it’s about managing the detail, because the bigger an organisation gets, the more checks and balances have to be there to ensure people are doing what they say they’re going to do.”
“We look for trends and patterns not only in what’s happening in each office, but also across what sorts of complaints.”
Additionally, Pennell said the right ethos would always start from the top, with the leaders of each agency needing to share in the same ethical stance, viewpoint and desire to collaborate.
“They don’t have to be the top business in the area. They have to be the right people to match our energy and be willing to come on the journey and have an appetite to grow.”
Regarding technology, Pennell warned networks not to overdo spending on propensity modelling to predict customer behaviour, but to use tech to build on relationships and earn more referrals.
“Our tech investment is all about improving the relationship with our customers.”
“We believe if we improve transparency and improve the customer relationship with our customer base, the best referral is from someone who is a raving fan already.”
She said the use of artificial intelligence (AI) also had to underpin the relationship between the agent and the seller, not get in the way of it or distort trust.
“AI running rampant through a business is dangerous in our view. Technology coming between the customer and the agent is dangerous, and that’s not where we’re playing.”
According to Pennell, AI can risk eroding clients’ trust by automating messages and processes, leaving a lack of human connection when an issue arises.
“When you try to get to a person to understand what’s happened, you have an AI bot or a ‘press this button’, and then eventually you end up with someone in an overseas country who’s very polite but unable to help.”
Pennell said that empathy was about genuinely wanting to take hold of a problem and solve it, not simply hearing the matter out.
“There is a place for automation but not necessarily the place where it’s playing in our industry right now. Volume isn’t the game, quality is the game,” Pennell concluded.
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