Foxtons: Showing round prospective buyers

A suite of online customer research tools notable for its comprehensive range.

The Site

Foxtons, an estate agency/realtor focusing on the prosperous UK south east and US east coast markets, has a comprehensive suite of online tools on its British site to help house-hunters in their search for properties.

The tools range from virtual tours, floor plans, maps and aerial photos to slide shows, SMS property alerts and summary information about localities. The site search includes intuitive clickable area maps and detailed filtering to enable users to concentrate or expand their search quickly. Registered users can access a ‘My Foxtons’ area, with options to save and rate favourite properties, add notes and share a list with a friend or partner.

The Takeaway

While many of Foxtons’ tools are commonplace, few sites in the sector offer such a comprehensive range. Together, the combination of rich information with research options, personalisation and sharing features makes the creation of a short list of properties to view as painless as possible for users. It also encourages self-selection among potential buyers so that the amount of time agents have to spend dealing with poor prospects or the initial phases of gathering and matching profile material is minimised in favour of one-to-one selling.

The range of tools also directly reflects and addresses the needs of Foxtons’ target market of cash-rich, time-poor young professionals. While its pricey upmarket brand has taken a knock recently in negative media coverage on both sides of the Atlantic, Foxtons’ online real estate gives a clue to its success.

First published on 02 May, 2006