Operating since 2003, The Property Jungle is a specialist developer of award-winning websites for estate agents, letting agents, and new home developers throughout the UK, Europe, and Africa. Their services help small businesses compete with larger corporations by bringing the best technology to bear for the lowest possible price.

The company’s business objective is to achieve continuous revenue growth through a focus on customer service while providing great-value websites for clients. However, over the last couple of years, the Property Jungle has found it difficult to meet its growth objectives.

Managing Director Mike Smithson explains, “With all the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, the property market slowed down considerably, so our natural client base found marketing budgets and spend on websites hard to find. The average order value halved, and the actual sales volume fell by 20%. New business usually finds us because we have a good brand, reputation, and an excellent Google ranking. We need to convert as many enquiries as possible but have found that our sales cycle has gone from a sale from an inbound phone call to one that requires a lot of follow-up and relationship creation.”

“With as many as 50 inbound enquiries a month, we needed a very good system to capture inbound enquiries and keep them engaged with us until they were either won or lost.”

Finding the right CRM system

In 2007, Property Jungle built their own CRM system, however, the software proved to be too basic and little more than a database of client information.

It was clear that an established CRM system needed to be implemented.

The company then engaged with another CRM system which they found also didn’t suit their requirements. Mike recalls “The CRM appeared to be the answer to our problems, with a huge amount of promise based upon the information on their website and what we were told by their integrators. The reality was very different. Our data got corrupted, the Office365 integration didn’t work reliably, sometimes duplicating emails, and at other times, it wouldn’t record them at all. “

“Despite this obvious setback, I remained convinced that CRM technology existed that would meet our needs.”

For the first time in our company history we are able to see who we have as clients, what services we deliver for them and where upsell opportunities lie.
Mike Smithson, The Property Jungle

Implementing SpotlerCRM

After signing up and a few days of testing, it became clear that SpotlerCRM was the CRM system they were looking for.

Mike expands “For the first time in our company history we are able to see who we have as clients, what services we deliver for them and where upsell opportunities lie. We can also track opportunities properly, measure our performance and make improvements.”

“For me, as the business owner, being able to see what we have done and accurately forecast what we are likely to do is like breathing, and after 17 years, I have come up for air. My CRM dashboard is where I look all day long because the numbers and trends I see from it give me so much advance notice of where we are and where we are going.”

A versatile CRM

Mike continued to explain how The Property Jungle uses the CRM. “SpotlerCRM paid for itself in the first week as we could view data tables for the first time. We were instantly able to see where £1,000 of recurring fees were being missed.”

“We are now using the Marketing module to keep recurring dialogues open with clients and prospects, keeping them aware of product and service opportunities, as well as legislation changes. The level of marketing automation the software provides makes what used to take us days and weeks to achieve now takes hours.”

The CRM has been able to adapt to fit us rather than us adapt to fit it. This is a huge win because people always dislike change and to be given an intuitive system makes adoption and use so much easier.
Mike Smithson, The Property Jungle

“The absolute flexibility of SpotlerCRM allows us to name fields and create new ones that totally match our own internal terminology. In other words, the CRM has been able to adapt to fit us rather than us adapt to fit it. This is a huge win because people always dislike change and to be given an intuitive system makes adoption and use so much easier for my staff.”

“We are currently planning the implementation of a new way of working. As we can expect anything up to 50 inbound requests for project changes every day, any productivity improvement or client service improvement has a big opportunity footprint. These changes are expected to achieve an increase of 30% productivity improvements, and this is all thanks to SpotlerCRM”.

CRM benefits

Mike Smithson lists a few of the key benefits The Property Jungle has experienced since adopting SpotlerCRM:

• We can take an almost unlimited top-down view of our client data, allowing us to make knowledge-empowered, rapid decisions, based on the data
• We never lose track of a prospect or rely on them to come back to us, while existing clients are engaged with regular, substantive communications
• Since implementation, the company has seen productivity benefits like never before
• The Office365 integration and customisation of field names have really allowed us to create a single source of truth for all client and prospect information

The results of these changes are evident in the Property Jungle’s sales record. After just four months using SpotlerCRM, their order value started to increase each month (despite an uncertain external market). And in January 2020, they achieved the highest total order value the company has seen in 14 months.

Mike summarised their experience “For us, SpotlerCRM is now an integral part of our business. It informs our decisions, gains us opportunities, improves our processes, improves our customer service, connects us with our clients and prospects and gives me, as the owner, a view of the company I have never had before.”

“On top of all this, I have to say that the customer service we have received has been exceptional. The support team has helped us to sculpt and shape the way we use SpotlerCRM regarding how we capture and use our data. The team has been attentive, technically excellent, and very pleasant humans for techies.”

“For anyone considering using a CRM, I would say, as a business owner, don’t wait any longer, and if you are evaluating different systems, stop looking. SpotlerCRM is head and shoulders above the rest.”