Why The Property Shop returned to Goodlord after switching providers

The Property Shop originally switched away from Goodlord in search of savings, and then discovered the hidden value of the platform they had left behind. Less than a year later, they decided to come back.

The decision to leave

For Steve Simmons, Founder & CEO of The Property Shop, the decision to switch providers was driven by cost. With increasing legislative requirements and operational pressures affecting letting agents across the industry, finding savings wherever possible felt like the right thing to do. When competitors came calling with lower price points, it was hard to ignore.

The hidden cost of switching

The problems started almost immediately after switching. What The Property Shop had assumed would be a straightforward, cost-neutral move turned out to be anything but. One of the biggest surprises was realising how much Goodlord had been doing behind the scenes.

“The integration between Goodlord and our CRM was massively time saving for us, which we didn’t actually anticipate or appreciate at the time.”

From applicant chasing to paperwork followups, tasks that had previously happened automatically suddenly became manual processes. The impact was felt across the business, particularly among the negotiators, who found themselves taking on more administrative work that had previously been handled automatically by Goodlord.

“Most of it wasn’t appreciated until we found it wasn’t there anymore.”

The decision to return

It didn't take long to reach a verdict. Within three or four months, Steve knew the switch hadn’t worked. 
“We decided fairly quickly that it’s better the devil you know, and the systems that we found out we didn’t have anymore were working really well.”

Once they returned, many of the manual processes that had increased the team’s workload were handled automatically again, helping the business regain valuable time.

Looking at the bigger picture

For Steve, the biggest lesson was that software costs should never be looked at in isolation.

“Admin is a very large cost to us on our letting side. It’s well over half our cost. Just getting people into flats and getting them out of flats is both a big time and financial burden for us. So all the help we get with the platform that we have with Goodlord does help tremendously.”

Having since moved a sister agency onto Goodlord as well, Steve is unequivocal in his recommendation.

And his advice for anyone considering a switch?

“Don’t just look at cost. Look at the overall picture. That’s one of the things we fell for when we moved away from Goodlord the first time. We thought we were going to be saving, but in fact what we were doing was spending out on other things which we didn’t even anticipate.”