Estate Agency of the Year - Best Large

It is a pleasure to award the gold in this category to Connells for the second year running. Its success in this category reinforces the view that it has not rested on its laurels but has actively sought to build on the recognition of 2010 and strive to improve its already exemplary service standards further. Quality shines at every level from the people to the initiatives and from the service to the systems and processes. The spend on training is unrivalled amongst its competitors as is its staff retention rate and there is a real emphasis on promoting from within with schemes and programmes to facilitate this. The judges felt this agency provides the best of good, down to earth estate agency, recognising that people are at the heart of it. From the CEO down, every member of the team understands this and they get the basics right, knowing that profit and an excellent reputation will follow.

Shortlisted in 2010, Hamptons International showed itself to be a ‘joined up' company where the team successfully bring together a number of different departments to cross sell and provide the best and most complete service they can. Recruitment and retention is based on employing the best in the business and free thinking is actively encouraged with forums available for all staff to share ideas and initiatives. This company does not just talk about a network but acts on it; it wins customers over for life and beds down the relationship through customer service and innovation. Impressive.

Another agency which was shortlisted in this category in 2010 and has upped its game accordingly. Chancellors offers a bespoke, personalised service which is impressive in an agency of this size. Over the past year, they have re-written and re-designed all customer communication to cover any and all advice which might be needed. Clever use of local branch sub-campaigns is innovative and resulted in a marked income increase. Chancellors' IT system is bespoke providing measurable parameters for the team; built by in-house developers, it has freed up time for the teams to sell houses. The training and development plan is impressive with personal mentoring available and a programme based around both technical awards and more vocational qualifications. Chancellors should be congratulated on fulfilling its desire to offer a service solely based around the requirements of the customer experience.