New feature for smart sellers utilises 'social proof' messaging to encourage quick action by buyers

Hatched has innovated once again, bringing another world first to the estate agency market. The new feature, on the recently updated website, reveals a pop-up that interchanges between the number of times a property has been viewed online and the number of bookings for physical viewings with real-time information to the potential buyer.

The pop-up banner appears towards the bottom of the listing and is an example of 'social proof' messaging. Other examples of this technology include its use on hotel booking sites to show the number of bookings over the last 24 hours. Bringing a sense of urgency to the process of hotel reservations, the technology is ideally suited to the competitive world of house sales.

The new feature is currently rolling out and will be included within the standard service fees from Hatched by 29 April. Offering fantastic value for money, house selling packages start from just £598 including VAT.

Adam Day, Managing Director of Hatched, says: “This is an innovation sure to be popular with sellers. When a potential buyer sees that a property has been seen 150 times in five days or has had 11 viewings booked, there is undoubtedly going to be a quick conversation within the household about when to book a viewing, rather than sitting on their hands considering other properties. We're pleased to continue with our work as trailblazers in the online and hybrid estate agency space. Can our competitors keep up technology wise? We don't worry about that.”

The technological stride comes on the back of Hatched becoming the first estate agency to allow viewings to be fully arranged by text messaging through an automated text recognition system, a move taken in autumn 2014. Bookings of viewings by text message now account for 40% of appointments with clients commenting on the ease and efficiency of the service. In addition, the 'Social & Digital Marketing Package' add-on, available to vendors using Hatched, has been incredibly successful since its launch, with Day revealing that “in February this year, we had more clicks to our properties on the Hatched site from Facebook advertising campaigns, than we had from Rightmove, an incredible amount of clicks.”

For more information on house sales with Hatched, visit www.hatched.co.uk or call 0333 999 7699.

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For further press information please contact:
James Brooke / Julie Aguilera / Kevan Barber
Rooster PR
T: +44 (0)20 3440 8930
E: Hatched@rooster.co.uk

About Hatched
Launched in 2006, Hatched is a leading fixed fee estate agent and one of the original pioneers of the online estate agency model.

Providing a full estate agency service but without the expense of a shop front, Hatched's use of technology drives efficiencies in procedures and processes, producing low overheads, which ultimately lead to cost savings for the business, the ability to offer more competitive fees to clients,  as well as more streamlined and innovative customer services.

With savings ultimately being passed onto customers, Hatched offers homeowners a smarter way to sell their homes.

Now favouring the term 'hybrid' estate agency as opposed to 'online', which detracts from the high value and quality service the estate agency offers, Hatched combines the use of smart techniques and a forward thinking approach with the defence of honourable ethics and values of traditional estate agency to ensure the best possible consumer experience.

Hatched's fees are, on average, 85% lower than a traditional high street estate agent's. This equates to an average saving of over £4,000 per property, or £15m worth of savings for homeowners since Hatched's inception.

Lettings fees for a fully managed property start from just £50 per month.

The Hatched team has over 50 years' combined estate agency experience and with a network of regional offices across England and Wales, the estate agency offers national coverage, local knowledge and a personal service.

To find out more, visit www.hatched.co.uk or call the team on 0845 678 0908.