Consumers relying on estate agents to decide conveyancer

A recent survey has revealed that most home buyers rely on recommendations from their estate agents when looking for a conveyancer.

The annual report was carried out by the Property Academy in association with the TM Group and more than 4700 consumers across England and Wales took part.

The findings showed that 68% of home buyers would ask for advice from their estate agent when choosing a conveyancer, with 46 percent making their choice based on an estate agents recommendation, a five percent increase from last year’s survey.

Surprisingly, the results also demonstrated that home movers were less concerned with finding a firm with the cheapeast fees and more tuned into how much communication a conveyancer would offer, with only 18 percent of home-movers making a choice based on low fees, whereas 38 percent wanted a conveyancer to keep in touch once a week.

Customer retention fell by four percent from last year’s survey with the data also showed that customer retention is falling, with only 31 percent of home movers returning to a previous conveyancer, down four percent from the previous year’s findings and that online searches only accounted for seven percent of conveyancer selection.

The Home Moving Trends survey did show that an overwhelming majority of 78 percent of consumers said they would return to a previous conveyancer, with positive remarks about the service they had received centering on the words professional, efficient, helpful, friendly and thorough.

TM Group recommended in the report that solicitors should strive to build strong relationships with estate agents and stressed the importance of a robust Customer Relationship Management, with clear strategies to encourage current clients to return and make referrals to their friends.

The full survey can be downloaded here.

Want to have your say? Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Read more stories

Join nearly 5,000 other practitioners – sign up to our free newsletter

You’ll receive the latest updates, analysis, and best practice straight to your inbox.

Features