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Edward Mellor sought to provide an enhanced and tailored conveyancing experience for their clients, strengthen relationships with their panel of local conveyancing solicitors and improve business intelligence around the large volume of transactions their agency generates. They embedded Hoowla’s cloud based conveyancing panel management software at the start of 2015 to achieve just that.

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Hoowla’s panel management software is used by over 70 members of Edward Mellor’s team along with their panel of conveyancing solicitors and their clients. Hoowla generates instant conveyancing quotes for home-movers and refers them directly to Edward Mellors panel firms. Edward Mellors team monitor successful instructions and help win work for their solicitors, all supported and streamlined by Hoowla’s conveyancing technology. A suite of business intelligence reports provide detailed insight from quotes right through to completions across the agency. Built in accounts ensure all financial matters linked to referrals are covered too.

Edward Mellor’s panel of conveyancing firms have also embraced Hoowla’s conveyancing technology by adopting their case management software to progress cases from instruction through to post completion. The firms spared no time embedding the software into their practices and quickly familiarised themselves with Hoowla. The intuitively designed software and round the clock support from the Hoowla team ensured the transition went smoothly.

Suzanne Wharton, Operations Manager at Edward Mellor comments; “Our staff and the solicitors in our panel find it easy to use and it has streamlined the process of referring clients to our panel. With complete visibility of the progression of all of our properties we can quickly react to anything that may slow down progress and step in to support our panel firms. Hoowla helps us maintain a great working relationship with our solicitors and provide a fantastic conveyancing experience for all of our clients. The back-office set up is also very easy to use, including setting up users, managing invoicing and reporting. The team at Hoowla have been supporting us every step of the way, listening to our feedback and have been quick to react and enhance their service incorporating our ideas.”

Adam Curtis, CEO of Hoowla, comments; “We’ve worked closely with the team at Edward Mellor, with every member of their panel and most importantly listened to their feedback to ensure Hoowla really delivers results for them. Our customisable workflow technology has allowed Edward Mellor and their panel firms to really tailor the home-moving experience for their clients. Our team thoroughly enjoys working with such a modern, progressive agency and group of conveyancing firms.”

Hoowla now helps to keep Edward Mellor and their clients in the loop on the progress of all their property transactions. The home-moving experience has been enhanced with the team regularly seeing clients log in for updates on their case, to ask questions and provide information. Everyone benefits from access to the online case tracking and collaboration tools and an improved level of transparency Hoowla brings.

Hoowla, an online conveyancing case management provider and recognised alternative to the Law Society’s Veyo platform, also provides panel management software which allows estate agents and mortgage brokers to manage their own private panel of solicitors. Hoowla keeps everyone in the loop throughout the conveyancing process through a modern, professional interface. Hoowla offers 24 hour support and works closely with customers, quickly integrating feature requests into the system at no extra cost.

 

 

We published an article that looked at six common options for law firms to generate new conveyancing leads. Each option has a different approach, level of involvement and an element of risk:

  1. Nurturing business relationships
  2. Pay Referral fees
  3. Paying for leads
  4. Joining a panel
  5. Repeat business and client referrals
  6. Converting clients online

In the article we discussed each option to conveyancing lead generation and challenged the questions:

  • Are you exploring all your sales avenues or relying on only a few?
  • Do you know the cost of obtaining a new client?
  • Are you in touch with where your new conveyancing business comes from?

You can read the full article we published on Inside Conveyancing

 

We are sponsors of the conveyancing chapter in Modern Law Yearbook 2014-15.

CEO Adam Curtis features in the yearbook with his insight into online conveyancing in the modern world. His insight can be found on page 39 titled ‘Online conveyancing systems can help even the smallest law firms compete more effectively‘.

Readers of the Modern Law Yearbook will also find a special offer for our conveyancing platform.

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Recent news has highlighted the increasing pressures that home moving professionals are facing as the market continues to improve and transaction numbers grow. With this added pressure, it’s only natural to see performance strained and it’s all too human of us to find a scapegoat to blame. It’s no surprise to see estate agents and conveyancing solicitors come to blows with professions that are so intertwined and reliant on each other. However, we must not forget that upturns in the market (that do look like they are here to stay) can only be good news for our industry.

It is understandable that estate agents will vent their frustrations when they see transaction times increase however it’s unfair for them to place blame solely on conveyancers, labelling them as ‘slowlicitors’. This increase in workload has undoubtedly led to pressures in the work place and longer working hours for conveyancing staff, fielding ever increasing demands from buyers, sellers and estate agents.

Firms are fully aware that resourcing is an issue that needs addressing. At present the job is stressful, risky, entails long working hours and requires qualified staff able to confidently operate in an industry under ever increasing regulation. This can’t be solved by simply hiring more people. They all left when the market turned. Firms also face competitive fees, squeezed profit margins, negligence risks and soaring professional indemnity insurance. A survey commissioned by the Conveyancing Association last year stated that consumers blamed poor communication between lawyers, lenders and estate agents for nearly one in four failed housing transactions since 2008. It also show that 47 per cent of respondents believed better communication between the various agents would have significantly sped up the purchase or sale process.

So how can high street solicitors process more transactions with fewer resources in less time whilst continuing to manage the expectations of everyone involved. Can technology help? Well technology has already completely transformed the way we buy and sell property.

  • Rightmove is one of the top 10 busiest sites in the UK (over 13 billion page views in 2013).
  • Estate agents can instruct a seller and market their property to thousands online within hours.
  • Over 95% of house hunters start their property search online.
  • Buyers receive instant property alerts and can book viewings at the click of a button.

The answer is yes. Technology will deliver innovative solutions that help conveyancers process more work, automate standard tasks, reduce operational costs, support compliance and help firms meet regulatory requirements. Online conveyancing platforms will provide a complete picture of transactions as they progress, allow everyone involved to collaborate and communicate together, reduce calls chasing for updates and mitigate the frustrations and implications of a lack of communication. Today’s house buyers and sellers are evolving to expect updates instantly and on their own terms. Conveyancing firms and estate agents need to work smarter together and it’s now more important than ever for the industry to embrace technology because it is changing.

 

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