Playbook, estate agency
The branch being open does not mean a viewing is available
The hour the office unlocks is the least useful of the three timetables an agency runs. Viewings happen when a vendor is out or a tenant has agreed to be in, which means evenings and Saturday. Managed tenancies run on an emergency line that is not the branch number. And Saturday, the day everybody wants, is the day the branch is emptiest, because the negotiators are all standing in other people's kitchens.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for opening hours holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- Saturday is the day the viewing diary fills, which makes it simultaneously the day this question gets asked most and the day least likely to have anybody at a desk to answer it, because the staff are all out with keys.
- A viewing slot is not the agency's to hand out, since an occupied property needs the tenant's permission or the vendor at home, so published viewing hours describe what can usually be arranged rather than what is free.
- There are three clocks on one website and only one of them is the office: the branch, the viewing diary, and the out of hours line for managed properties. A tenant who rings the branch number at midnight has reached the wrong one.
- Everything downstream keeps ordinary office hours, so a Saturday question about a sale that has already been agreed has nowhere to go until Monday however long the branch stays open.
How it arrives
- are you open on saturday
- what time do you shut today
- can i view something after work
- is anyone in on a sunday
- who do i ring at the weekend about a leak
- do you do evening viewings
What has to be indexed for this to work
| Branch hours including the Saturday early close | The days, the times, the earlier Saturday finish if you have one, and the bank holidays you shut. Put the exceptions in the same document as the ordinary hours, because a wrong bank holiday answer sends somebody to a locked door. |
|---|---|
| The viewing hours you actually offer | The latest evening appointment, whether Saturday runs all day, whether you offer Sunday at all, and how much notice an occupied property needs. Write it as what can be arranged rather than as availability, since the occupier has a say. |
| The out of hours line and what it is for | The number, the hours it runs, that it covers managed tenancies only, and the kinds of problem it exists for. Say plainly what it is not for, because a landlord on a tenant find instruction ringing it at midnight has bought a different service. |
| What cannot move outside office hours whatever you do | Conveyancing, referencing, deposit registration, contractor scheduling. Naming these prevents the assistant implying that an evening enquiry buys progress it cannot buy, and it makes the Monday callback sound like the real answer it is. |
The reply
The branch hours, including the earlier finish on a Saturday, are on the contact page [1]. Viewings are a separate thing: we can usually arrange them into the early evening and across Saturday, though an occupied property needs notice to the tenant or the vendor first, so the slot is never guaranteed by the hours alone [2]. If this is about a managed tenancy and something has gone wrong tonight, there is an out of hours number for that and it is not the branch line. Otherwise leave me your name and an email and somebody will pick it up when the office opens.
It separates the office clock from the viewing clock in the second sentence, because that is the confusion behind the question. Saying the occupier has to be asked explains why a slot cannot be promised without sounding evasive. The emergency line is offered before the visitor has to describe an emergency, which is the only order that helps them.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor needs something dealt with tonight, or asks to be put into a particular slot on a particular day.
I can tell you when we are open but I cannot put anything in the diary or hold a time for you. Leave me your name, an email and the day that suits and the branch will confirm a slot with the occupier.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never say a viewing slot is free, since the diary is not something the assistant can see and the occupier has not been asked.
- Never offer the branch number as the answer to an out of hours emergency in a managed property, because that call goes unanswered while an obligation runs.
- Never quote hours read off a directory listing or a portal profile rather than off the agency's own page, as those go stale and nobody notices.
- Never promise that somebody will be in on a bank holiday or over a holiday closure without the closure document saying so.
Questions
- Our Saturday hours change in the summer. How do we keep it right?
- Point it at the contact page you already update rather than uploading a copy of the hours. A page you edit in May stays right. A document uploaded last autumn keeps confidently sending people to a branch that shut an hour ago.
- Can it tell somebody whether a particular slot is free?
- No. It has no sight of the diary and no way to ask the occupier, so anything it said about a specific time would be a guess with your name on it. It can state the hours you offer and take the preferred day.
- Is the emergency number safe to publish in a chat reply?
- It is safer there than in a document nobody opens. Put it in the answer itself with one line about what it covers and who it is for, so a tenant with water coming in gets it in the first reply rather than after three exchanges.
Keep reading
- Everything for a estate agencyViewings, fees, referencing and deposit rules are answerable at any hour. Valuing a property or discussing an offer is not.
- Handling opening hours in generalHolidays, seasonal variation, last orders and multiple sites. Keeping one source of truth so the assistant and your map listing agree.
- Where do I park is two questions and only one is about your officeA permit bay is a particular about the property, not a facility of the office. Two questions wearing the same six words.
- Take me off your list is not the same as delete my fileReferencing packs, identity copies and rent ledgers. Some of it belongs to a landlord, some to a scheme, and some cannot go yet.
- Three cancellations that share a word and nothing elseA viewing is a courtesy call, a sole agency instruction has a tie in and a notice period, and a buyer before exchange owes nothing.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.