Providing gold-plated service in a rapidly evolving property sector has proven to be a winning formula for EweMove as its presence in the Elite Franchise Top 100 and over 15,000 reviews on Trustpilot attests to.
The property sector has undergone a huge amount of change over the last few years with the emergence of online, no-fee businesses, and a raft of new ‘self-employed’ style operating models.
Throw in changes in consumer choice as a result of lockdown and social distancing, courtesy of the pandemic, and the sector is now more open than ever before to embrace new ideas when it comes to property selling and letting.
EweMove is a hybrid franchise, meaning its franchisees can operate from wherever they choose, either at home, a serviced office or a more traditional high-street shop. EweMove’s key point of difference sees franchisees closely managing a smaller stock of properties, with a focus on exceptional customer service, rather than churning a high volume of listings that don’t complete.
MD Nick Neill is a former franchisee from early on, after quitting a career in the city.
“Like most of our franchisees, I wanted to control my own future, time and earnings – and critically for me, I wanted to test myself to see if I could start, grow and run a successful business,” he explains.
“It worked, and I ran the business for three and a half years before being asked to run the UK network for the franchisor, who acquired it from the founders in September 2016.”
The idea for EweMove was simple. Unlike traditional estate agents who would specialise in either sales or lettings, EweMove agents would be experts in both sides of the equation, allowing them to thrive in any housing market.
The key focus was to deliver great customer service and with the aid of new technology, make the customer journey simple and hassle-free.
But, of course, disrupting the property market is nothing new. Neill, however, says EweMove offers a crucial difference.
“Rather than have a traditional set-up which would see a team of people, let’s say five staff, each being involved in a small part of managing 100 properties for sale, we have one person (the franchisee) managing 20 properties entirely, from start to finish.
“So, with a smaller stock inventory, we can give customers a very personal one-to-one service, both sellers and buyers, or for that matter landlords and tenants too.”
Neill says EweMove doesn’t just attract experienced estate agents wanting to steer their own ship. For didn’t he himself come from a completely different background?
“We tend to attract, and look for, people who are either experienced in estate agency or those from other business backgrounds. Either employed or having run their own business before. As a result, our franchisees tend to be second or third stage career people. So, they have significant customer service skills, great sales skills and have developed the ability to engage with people on multiple levels.
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“People are attracted to our franchise primarily due to the brand look and style and the embedded customer service delivery built into our core processes. These things set us apart from the everyday bland imagery that estate agents tend to adopt. The ability for people to go out and deliver the estate agency service that people have been craving and demanding for years is amazing. It turns the job from one derided by the many, to something that people can really be proud of. It makes them happy to call themselves an estate agent!”
EweMove maintains a close relationship with its franchisees and even has its own Facebook group called, wait for it… Flockbook.
“Personally, I know everyone’s name, location and back story and we meet regularly at conferences, training events, regional meetings, webinars and communicate multi-times per day on Flockbook.
“Our franchisees also share their success stories with each other through our Success-Summit presentations which always go down well.
“As part of the recruitment process, I interview every single applicant. And they interview me too! We both must be happy that we’re each making the right decision.”
Success for the company, first and foremost, is to help franchisees hit their own business targets.
“AND we see that they are upholding the values of our brand in delivery of customer service, as we want to retain our number one status on Trustpilot. Excellent customer service is the primary focus above all else.”
And being represented and included in the Elite Franchise 100 is critically important for us, as it provides a thorough and trusted external validation of our business and franchise model.
“For us at EweMove we love to be the best – and feature where it matters – so we can reach more people. So, I do hope being included in Elite Franchise 100 will prove as effective as I expect in helping give prospective franchisees the confidence that we’re a solid, tried-and-tested business, and we’re here to stay.”
Neill offers one crucial piece of advice to current and future members of the EweMove flock.
“Follow the plan. Too often people think they know best and try to change things, but our systems and process are so finely tuned, tweaking something could have an adverse effect on sales and sales conversion, or customer service delivery.”
That’s it. Stick together and don’t stray too far from the flock. Wait a minute… is there a theme here?
