There are still a significant number of failed viewings due to a lack of information. Both agency and customer time is wasted on viewings that fail on one or two critical issues that could easily have been discounted by better and more informed preparation. 

A digitised methodology used by companies such as Dell is referred to as a choiceboard – the ability to specify in detail exactly what a customer is wanting to purchase. In the agency context, this would involve taking what the portals like rightmove do and extending the process to a level that is only possible by having direct contact with an agents in-house software like Aspasia. Within Aspasia, properties would be logically categorised in a much higher level of detail to include criteria such as size and environmental surroundings. An applicant would be able to visit an agency’s site and state a series of preferences within these categorisations to a level of detail way beyond what is currently possible with portal sites. At each stage the applicant would be interrogated about “must haves” and “nice to haves” to examine the degree of importance around each attribute. Statistics can provide numbers of properties available at each stage to allow the applicant to refine their choice until arriving at a manageable selection to physically view. Data from other sites would help by providing all the background information about school catchment areas, transport etc. 

At this stage, the applicant could register his interest and request viewing appointments all without any human contact with the agency at all. The benefits to all include: