Who to bring back and when?

This article is NOT going into the H&S aspects of re-opening, that has been talked to death and is very much a personal choice for each agent to make

Woah… this is THE million-dollar question. The one that is on most agents’ lips.

Bring too many back without producing income and we run at a deficit (basically we are insolvent)

Don't bring anyone back and we can’t fulfil the service to our clients

Leave certain staff on furlough and they may suffer more than others mentally

So how do you do it – Well, no one and I mean no one can tell you other than you.

They don’t know your business like you do, they don’t know your finances like you do, they don’t know you or your staffs mental state like you do.

BUT what we/I can do is give you some points to think about and consider when making your decision:

Finance

• Has to be a massive consideration. If we don’t know or make decisions based on the finances, then we will be in trouble.
• Who are income producers and who are admin support?
• Who make the business money faster than others?

Financial Planning

This is critical and I mean CRITICAL to this. It HAS to be at this level of detail.

You should know how many calls you receive to get a viewing, how many viewings to a let

• What’s your valuations to listings conversion?
• What’s your listings to sales agreed conversion?
• What’s your fall through rate?
• What’s your average time to money in bank?
• What’s your average fee?

Use lettings phrases to replace the sales ones and for the different income streams but keep the process the same

Using the above questions to get the answers you need to produce a cash flow based on current business activity and also forward planning on what you think/believe the activity to be in the coming weeks

This document is fluid and should be reviewed a couple of times per week – you need to react to this immediately – waiting could be damaging to your business

Customer Support

If we don’t have people to answer the phones, then will we miss business?

Will the customer experience be poor and we damage our reputation?

Of course, we can have telephone answering services in place but is that damaging the brand in the short term?

How can we bring people back to help support the business income producers?

Welfare considerations

Some staff are coping better than others on furlough – If it came down to a choice either person A or B then who will benefit more from a mental perspective by being back at work?

Will you get more from them as they are so appreciative at being back at work?

Going to this level of detail is crucial to make this re-opening a success

We are bringing back 11 people this week as its been planned out meticulously based on current activity levels

You have to go through each aspect of the business and drill down to the minute detail to make this a successful re-opening

Thoughts, comments?