How do customers react post-acquisition?
Acquiring lettings businesses is a weird one, you’re effectively buying a relationship.
One thing is for sure, the real work starts on the day the business is transferred. Not only do we have to amalgamate all the new data, contact the tenants, check compliance etc etc but we have to start to build trust with our new customers who haven’t voluntarily chosen to use our services in the first place.
We’re usually met with one of three responses when we make our introductions:
1) “We didn’t choose you, who are you? Nah we’re not having it, bye!” (fortunately very few)
2) “Ok yes we’ve heard of you, we liked our previous agent but we will give you a shot” (Thank you 🙏)
3) “Brill, we’ve seen you around and like what we see, let’s do this”
Building the trust takes patience but we’ve done it successfully 6 times now. If you’re thinking of selling your lettings business then bear in mind that getting a fair price is important but selling to an agent with experience in the process, patience, and a strong reputation backing them up matters just as much.