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Owning, securing and measuring your website properly"The importance of our website and valuation tools cannot be underestimated in our recent 25% increase in sales and rentals."
Balmforth is a strong, independent agency serving Mildenhall in West Suffolk, with a long standing presence in the town. As a busy single office agency handling both sales and lettings, its growth depends on two things: being visible online, and making every enquiry count. When Managing Partner Robert Lewis began looking for a new website, he was working around a supplier that made both harder than they needed to be.
Customisation was difficult, so tailoring the site to the way Balmforth actually works was rarely straightforward. The traffic the website did attract wasn't converting into valuation enquiries at the rate it should have been. Support came through a rigid, bureaucratic process that slowed down every change and every fix. And qualifying enquiries by hand was absorbing hours of branch time, much of it spent on leads that were never going to proceed.
Balmforth didn't simply need a website that looked good. It needed tools that would actively drive the business forward, whether by generating growth, saving time or streamlining how the branch operates.
Balmforth started by moving onto one of Homeflow's high performance template websites. The team was trained on the content management system, the launch was managed by a dedicated member of Homeflow staff, and the benefits were immediate.
Balmforth now has real control over how the site looks, feels and functions, and can align it with what the business is trying to achieve. Time sensitive content goes live when it needs to, published by whichever member of staff is closest to it rather than waiting in a supplier's queue. The result has been a substantial increase in speed to market, and a more tailored, higher performing site that serves both the agency and its clients better.
Support changed too. Instead of being routed through a call centre, the team now reaches expert support staff directly, on the phone, by email or over live chat.
As website leads started to increase, Balmforth turned to Homeflow's Lead Manager to take control of them and save time. The benefits were clear enough that they quickly moved all their leads into it, including enquiries arriving from the portals.
Workflows, automations and integrations mean the team now has a fuller picture of every prospect before anyone picks up the phone. There's no question over who is handling which lead or which leads are progressing with which member of staff, and the reporting gives Robert clear insight into enquiries, customer behaviour and team performance.
Automated profiling and follow up also changed which leads get attention first. Balmforth can prioritise the highest value opportunities and identify valuation prospects far earlier than before, including some that would previously have been missed altogether.
The effect on branch workload has been significant. Manual lead processing is down by 50%, and better information is gathered on applicants before contact is made.
With the website performing and lead handling under control, the remaining opportunity was conversion. Balmforth implemented Homeflow Valuations, the instant online valuation tool, to draw more enquiries out of the visitors already coming to the site.
That produced a marked increase in website conversions and a larger pool of people to contact, all of it handled through Lead Manager alongside everything else.
Balmforth also works with a specialist Homeflow account manager, who provides strategic advice on digital marketing and helps the agency navigate SEO, social media and online visibility. That ongoing support keeps the online approach competitive, and gives Robert confidence in the overall strategy rather than leaving him to work it out alone.
Since implementing Homeflow's solutions, Balmforth has:
Robert credits Homeflow's website and valuation tools as key drivers of Balmforth's recent growth, further cementing the agency's position in its local market. Time and energy that was previously absorbed by manual processing is now spent productively elsewhere in the business.
In his words:
"The importance of our website and valuation tools cannot be underestimated in our recent 25% increase in sales and rentals."
