We tuned into another brilliant webinar from Peter Knight’s Property Academy this week that featured Economist Rodger Martin-Fagg. His predictions were uplifting and encouraging and made a lot of sense. To put it simply, as he did, we’re all stood on the pipe, and when the pressure is relieved there will be a big surge – be ready.

Now his predictions might surprise you, but he predicted Trump would get into power so his crystal ball carries some truth. According to Rodger, these are the issues agents will face towards the end of this year:
- Staff shortages
- A need for more premises
- Supply chains not keeping up with the demand
- Inflation

We aren’t economists, so we aren’t even going to begin to tell you how to deal with the inflation issue, but a clear solution to the top three issues and again something Rodger highlighted is something we do feel comfortable talking about – and that is automating your systems.

Now, before you start shooting us down, we know estate agency is about people and we aren’t suggesting you lose the personal side to your business. In fact, if there is something lockdown has taught us, it’s to be real – be human, emotionally connect. So we aren’t telling you to lose that, we’re just suggesting you find partners that can help you work smarter and more efficiently. With that in mind, here are some of the industry suppliers that we are recommending agents check out at the moment:

Acaboom
This is a great service in a normal market and it was described by Leaderfox as ‘indispensable’ at the moment. With its hyper-local comparable information and reports it only serves up what is of importance to potential vendors and its tracking facilities enable agents to precisely time the right point to ring those potentials just as they are thinking about it. Exclusively for kerfuffle members, you can get the first month free, their trailblazer onboarding package that targets your archive database for business, AND for multi-office agents, once you’ve had a demo I can negotiate with them a reduced fee.
Check them out here.

Moneypenny
If you have call overflow issues due to high inbound call levels or staff shortages here’s your answer. They’ve recently launched a product that uses voice recognition to divert calls to the right person or department and they’ve done a deal on this for kerfuffle members. For a limited time, kerfuffle members can sign up to Moneypenny's fully automated Digital Switchboard tool completely free for 3 months. That’s free set up, free transfers and free transcriptions! No catches and no commitment!
Check them out here.

Matterport
Taking floorplans to another level – they provide what they call digital twins of properties where you can see spaces from different angles, build functionality on top of it, incorporate accurate measurements, provide 3D walkthroughs and so much more. Their exclusive kerfuffle offer is 25 FREE Insta360 One X cameras (worth £409) available to kerfuffle members! Sign up for the Matterport Annual Professional Plan (£564 for 1 year) to claim your prize. Please note: This is on a first come first serve basis so don’t dawdle!
Check them out here.

Lettspay
Automated rent collection. For their exclusive kerfuffle offer, they’re giving 3 months free. Check them out here. 

ASAP
Outsourced sales progression specialist, with a focus on better lead conversion than normal solicitors, reduced exchange to completion times, and a unique no completion no fee service. This is perfect for companies that have furloughed those teams responsible. 50% off for kerfuffle members
Check them out here. 

Starberry
Website and digital marketing specialists creating “awesomeness”. They are offering free consultations to kerfuffle members to help anyone that wants help setting up free virtual valuation and viewing platforms
Check them out here.

View Agents
It’s always been important to have a good customer service ethos echoed on a review site so that prospective clients can see that as well as doing the numbers they’ll be taken care of. The challenge has always been that it's like the portal V.1 in the early days where the stock was scattered on loads of sites. That’s the same with review sites now; you can be perceived as a hero on Facebook, whilst seen as a villain on Google and a host of other views on other sites. View Agent solves this issue. As well as being a review site in its own right the secret sauce of their proposition is that it collates all of those reviews from the main sites so that you can see a realistic overall view of how the public sees you. Of course you can fool yourself by just focusing on one review site as many agents do but it's naïve to believe that the market will do en-masse. The review site of View Agent is free to kerfuffle members and there are exclusive discounts for the reputation management element too. It launches this month.
Check them out here.

VLOJ
They create white-labeled video blogs (vlogs) for estate agents. Kerfuffle members get a free video to try it out. Indispensable communication at a time like this, sensibly giving advice and being a resource to your community.
Check them out here.

AgentOS
Provider of CRM software for estate agents and lettings agents with a widely used, popular solution that’s been around a long time (previously known as LetMC). This knowledgeable bunch have created a fantastic free ebook on Beating Covid 19 – Agent Insights. This white paper is a must-read.
Check them out here. 
Read the ebook here. 

Able Agent
Furloughed staff are able to undertake training and development. It’s important to the culture of your business, the mental health of furloughed team members and the long term goals of your business that you do use this opportunity to upskill them – get bounce back ready! Able Agent is an online learning tool and exclusively for kerfuffle members we’re able to offer a 30 day free trial, gain access to 8 of the 15 courses completely free and then on sign-up there’s no limit to user numbers per branch.
Check them out here.