The vast majority of issues in an agency often come from either a lack of process, which creates differing service levels, or the inability to manage expectation levels. As such, could you consider breaking down each task within your business and document what experience you would like the consumer and user (staff member) to have and then begin working on a plan to deliver it?

My suggestion would be that you break down each task/action within the consumer and user journey and create a working group that includes representatives from each department/ function of the business – i.e. Accounts, Property Manager, Lister, and Negotiator. The people doing the individual roles will have a far greater understanding of the job and pain points.

Be mindful that the perfect user journey may not be commercially viable, especially as you can’t control expectations, and they will always grow. Over time, you will find yourself needing to do more and more just to meet expectations and very often for no increase in fee or income.

As an example, if you take the motor car, in the 1980s - electric windows, leather seats, power steering, a cassette player, rear seatbelts, and a sunroof would have been WOW features, whereas, by the year 2000 all of the above would be expected as the basic product and air conditioning, car phone and sat nav became WOW features, fast forward 20 years and sat-nav, Bluetooth connectivity, and air conditioning have become expected within the basic product and 360 camera, the ability to turn on the heating from your mobile phone and the ability for the car to self-park could be deemed as WOW.

It’s the same for your agency, just because you have always done something in a certain way, it doesn’t mean that it still meets a client’s expectations.

The above diagram is worth reviewing on a 6/12 month basis, often needing to move the nice to haves into the basic product.

The inner circle (1) is the basic product.
Everything you must do to meet your contractual obligations and client expectations.
The middle circle (2) is perceived value/nice to haves.
This is what impresses clients.
The outer ring (3) is the WOW moment.

I always look to do a mood-a-gram on each process, for each client (landlord/tenant/ vendor/buyer/agent) plan out the touchpoints, and if possible, implement a WOW action at either the high or low points of their journey. Emotional WOW’s have a far longer impact than financial WOW’s.

As a rule, make sure you have perfected rings one and two, before spending time on the third ring.

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