Tom Hayman-Joyce from the multi-award-winning Cotswold agency Hayman-Joyce, explains how Reapit supports every element of their business, from Sales and Lettings to Property Management and Client Accounts, and the benefits of using a single platform. We also discuss how they use our reporting tools to maximise every opportunity and the importance of blending modern technology with exceptional customer service.
Tell us about your agency
I’m Tom Hayman-Joyce, our company’s called Hayman-Joyce. We’re estate agents, letting agents, auctioneers, and valuers, based here in the North Cotswolds with a team of 15 in this office; and we do everything to deliver the very best old-fashioned agency service, blended with modern technology, full support and high service.
What business challenges does Reapit help you solve?
We joined Reapit in 2012, and one of the biggest things that I loved about the Reapit platform is that it put people first, so people were central to the platform. That means that we can really drill down and deal with people as individuals, in the sense that we see to their individual needs rather than just being a person on the list, and that’s pretty key for us.
The new AppMarket that you’ve brought in is great because it means we’ve got lots of integrations where we can outsource to third-party companies; and the third-party companies that we already work with, we can feed in and out, which just saves loads of time on an admin front but also gives us a record and an audit trail, so we know where we stand on everything. In an ideal world, we’d love everything in one place that we can always refer to, and that’s the whole idea of Reapit, it’s giving us the possibility to do exactly that.
We joined Reapit in 2012 and one of the biggest things that I loved about the Reapit platform is that it put people first...
What's your favourite thing about Reapit?
You’re always in control of your business. The reporting function is really clear, you can very easily dip in and see your hit rate on your pitches, you can see your data quality, the analysis; and it really allows you to take a very quick, easy snapshot into all the different types of your business and size of your business, just to make sure everything is running to its full potential.
They’ve also got a very personal service and our amazing Customer Success Manager, Jo, is always there at the end of the phone whenever you need anything; if we’ve got a problem, got a query or we want to work on some development, she’s always there to help feedback and support in every way possible. So, I think that human element is really important too.
What are the benefits of using an all-in-one system?
An all-in-one system where everything is in the right place is just very simple. In the sense that, if we’ve got a landlord and they’re selling a house with us, it automatically tells us that they’ve got those two roles within the company.
Having that central contact record where all the roles come off, be it lettings, be it commercial, be it residential, be it professional valuation work, you can just look at that one individual and see where and how they’ve interacted with your firm.
It saves an awful lot of potentially embarrassing situations. For example, if we’re asked out to go and view the property for a lettings side and the lettings team have no idea that they are a long-standing client of the sales side of the business, and vice-versa. So, it allows us to keep in complete control, but also to really maximise the potential.
It allows us to keep in complete control, but also to really maximise the potential.
How does Reapit support the growth of your business?
Reapit’s got all the data, as many CRMs or databases do, but the reporting structure, being able to dig into that, being able to set up task plans and auto reminders. You can therefore prioritise the right parts of the database and the right people to speak to at the right time to generate more business for us as a company. It’s just the ability to drill down into the system, take the data and use it.
What's your favourite integration?
I think the lettings team love the Touchright integration. It just allows them to run the mid-term inspections – or visits as they now call it – really efficiently and quickly and the landlords absolutely love it, they really like having that integration.
Another one that’s recently come on board is SalesRook, allowing us to have a WhatsApp business account generate outgoing messages from WhatsApp, and then that integrates and links back into Reapit as well. So that’s a really smart, nice solution.
How valuable do you find the AppMarket?
The AppMarket is brilliant. It means that other suppliers that we’ve been using can literally integrate straight into Reapit. It saves us loads of time on administration and just means we’ve got a full audit trail as well.
Why did you want to use MyAgency?
Having an interface where a seller, a buyer, a landlord or a tenant can log in and see the live position of their property or their search requirements, is invaluable. I think to be honest, it’s essential in modern-day agency. So, I was incredibly pleased it was coming along and very pleased it’s there. We’ve been working with Reapit on the development of it as well. We’re still working with them on it too, and I’m excited to see it properly up and running and working.
Having an interface where a seller, a buyer, a landlord or a tenant can log in and see the live position of their property or their search requirements, is invaluable.
How do you use technology to enhance your business?
Technology is critical. If you’re not adopting technology, then, you’re left in the dark ages. People need to be able to have access to services 24/7. Technology can bring that. It’s like Amazon, there’s zero human interaction, but everyone thinks the service is exceptional.
If we can get technology right and blend that with old-fashioned agency, that for me is the holy grail and where we want to make things move forward to. So yes, technology is critical. With regards to Reapit and technology. Reapit is an incredible system. It is very reliable, and it delivers.
What advice would you give to anyone considering Reapit?
We chose Reapit originally because of the way it was set up. Having that key individual record with all the roles filtering off it. I think for me that is key and also having the fact that it is very reliable, tried and tested, you can completely rely on it to cover all parts of your business; from our sales side, the commercial side, the lettings side, lettings management side, we’ve got the Client Accounts bolt-on, so it does all of our client accounts work. It really is, for us, a solution that covers every element of our business and I think that’s pretty key.
It really is, for us, a solution that covers every element of our business and I think that's pretty key.
