A sales office at a new development has two jobs: sell the remaining plots, and keep the buyers who have already reserved informed for the next nine months. The second job quietly consumes the first.
Here is that week, before and after.
Monday before
The sales consultant arrives to fourteen messages from reserved buyers. When will plot 22 be ready. Has the roof gone on. My mortgage offer expires in eight weeks, should I worry. Can I choose my kitchen yet. Each needs checking with site before answering.
Wednesday before
A viewing appointment is cut short because a buyer arrives anxious about a rumour that the development is delayed. The consultant spends an hour reassuring them, and two prospective buyers leave without being spoken to.
Friday before
Completion for one plot moves by three weeks. Six buyers on the same phase hear about it informally and all make contact within a day. Nothing has actually changed for five of them.
What changes
The developer publishes a build progress page per phase, updated fortnightly, with photographs, the current stage and the estimated completion window. Specification and choices deadlines go on the same page, as described in new build sales teams and repetitive spec questions.
Buyer: Any update on when plot 22 will be ready? Assistant: The progress page for that phase shows the current build stage and the estimated completion window, updated fortnightly with photographs. Your solicitor will be notified when a firm date is set. Would you like your question passed to the sales team as well?
Monday after
Four messages instead of fourteen. The rest of the buyers checked the page. The consultant spends the morning with a prospective buyer rather than chasing site for updates.
Wednesday after
The anxious buyer arrives having read the progress page and asks a specific, reasonable question, which takes five minutes.
Friday after
When the three-week movement happens, it is published with an explanation. Buyers on the phase see it at the same time, and the ones unaffected can see that they are unaffected.
Why honesty pays here
Buyers make irreversible arrangements around completion dates: notice on a tenancy, removal bookings, school places. A developer who communicates slippage early is trusted, and one who lets buyers discover it is not, which matters enormously for a business that sells on reputation locally.
Choices and snagging
Alongside dates, buyers ask when they choose finishes, when the deadline for those choices falls and how snagging works after completion. Publishing the choices calendar for each phase, and a plain explanation of the snagging process, answers the second and third most common questions the sales office receives.
Mortgage offer expiry
This is the most stressful question reserved buyers have. Explaining how the process usually works, and that the sales team can discuss timing with them, is more reassuring than silence, though nothing on a website should advise on anyone's mortgage.
Building trust from the first contact
Confidence starts before reservation, as described in building trust with new shoppers through instant support, and off-plan questions are covered in off-plan buyer questions for new build developments.
Technical questions too
Buyers ask about heating systems, insulation and running costs, in the way described in battery storage questions solar buyers ask.
Getting started
Publish build progress by phase, update it on a schedule and answer buyer questions at any hour. SpideyChat for property businesses answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about answers on the features page.