Forty calls before lunch
A residential conveyancing team's phones start at nine. Estate agents' sales progressors are working through their pipeline and ringing every conveyancer for an update: have searches come back, has the mortgage offer arrived, when can we exchange. The same questions come about the same files every few days.
Each call is short. Together they eat the morning, and the case handler has to find each file and read the latest notes to answer.
Why agents keep calling
The agent's commission depends on the sale completing, and their client (your client's buyer or seller) is ringing them too. They have no view of the file, so the only way to know what is happening is to ask. Some sales progressors call on a fixed schedule whether or not anything has changed.
Most of what they want to know is already in your case management system as milestones or tasks: draft contract sent, searches received, enquiries raised, mortgage offer received. It just is not shared with them.
| What the agent asks | Where the answer already is |
|---|---|
| Have the searches come back? | Search results filed on the matter |
| Is the mortgage offer in? | Offer received task or document |
| Are enquiries answered? | Enquiries log or task status |
| When can we exchange? | Outstanding items list and case handler's view |
What the calls cost
Case handler time is the main cost, and it comes from the people whose time most decides how fast files move. Interruptions make mistakes more likely and slow the actual work. Agents who feel ignored also refer less work, which matters for firms that depend on agent introductions.
Clients suffer too: every minute on an agent's call is a minute not spent progressing someone's file.
How we build agent milestone updates
- Consent and contacts: the agent and sales progressor for each file are recorded at instruction, along with the client's consent for them to receive updates, which your client care documents can cover.
- Milestones from your system: we map key steps in your case management system (contract pack issued or received, searches back, enquiries raised and answered, mortgage offer received, ready to exchange) to plain update messages.
- Automatic notices: when a milestone is reached, the agent gets a short email or message. Case handlers can mute updates on any file.
- Weekly status note: each agent gets one weekly note listing their files with you, the current stage and what each is waiting for, drafted from the system.
- Waiting-for list: where a file is waiting on the other side, the lender or the client, the note says so in neutral terms, which often lets the agent chase the right person.
- Record: every update is saved to the matter, so the firm can see what the agent was told and when.
Updates share progress, not advice or anything confidential. Your firm decides what goes into each message.
What case handlers notice
Fewer calls, and the ones that come in are about real problems. Agents get information when it changes, so they can update their own clients and the rest of the chain. The weekly note gives sales progressors a picture of every file at once, which is what they were really ringing for.
Your firm also becomes easier to deal with for the agents who introduce work.
Does this sound like your office?
- Case handlers spend much of the morning on agent calls.
- The same agents ask about the same files every few days.
- Milestones are recorded in your system but not shared.
- Agents chase you for things the other side is waiting on.
- Introducing agents have commented on how hard it is to get updates.