Blog | Estate Agency Kiosks

The news that house-buyer inquiries in the UK increased for the seventh month in a row in May and that the number of mortgages taken out increased by 16% in April bodes well for estate agents. It also reminds me of what I have long felt is one of the best ideas for the use of kiosks which has yet to be fully exploited. Over the years, we have heard hundreds of ideas for the profitable use of kiosks.  We’ve helped to bring many of these to fruition.  Others have been tried and failed.  But some ideas, which we think have great potential, have yet to be tested.  I think this is one of those.

The printing and circulation of property brochures must be expensive and time-consuming.  And how many properties can the branch of an estate agent display?  A few hundred perhaps.  Someone looking for property can now search big databases on the web, but they will only see a handful of these if they visit their local agency.

Public employment services like DWP in the UK and DEWR in Australia faced a similar problem with job vacancies.  Job vacancies are very much like vacant properties.  They have similar characteristics of location, description and limited shelf life.  DWP and DEWR solved their problem by making their database of job vacancies available in all their branches using simple-to-use touch screen kiosks.

One could do exactly the same with property details.  By simplifying the user interface of a typical web-based property searching system and making this available on a self-service kiosk, customers could get the same level of choice in the branch as they can on the web - but with the added advantage of help on hand if they need it.

Gary Rowing-Parker

10 June 2009