I’ll start by saying thank you to our amazing team. 

Over the course of the last 12 months, we’ve had the best part of our 110 strong team working from home, with a few people still working in our Lincoln office.

This has been a totally new challenge for the Referencing Team, who would normally work together as one unit in our open-plan office. As each day has gone by, I’ve continually been immensely impressed and proud of the resilience, flexibility, and determination that my team have shown when it comes to serving our all-important customers during the pandemic and doing what’s right.

We know that people still need to move home for many reasons, and some moves have been made more urgent by the pandemic. We’re proud to say that our customer service has not been impacted on the back of what is happening across the country. If anything, our service levels are better than ever, and we are returning over 90% of our references within the first 72 hours. Our same-day intelligent referencing has been a real hit, too, with 98% of our checks being returned in the first day – typically within 2 hours!

"98% of our same-day intelligent referencing  checks are being returned in the first day - typically within 2 hours!"

While working from home, we’re still carrying out our Referencing checks in a robust way and completing thousands each day. It’s important to complete a thorough check on each applicant referenced to prevent the risk of fraudulent tenants being accepted for properties, especially when some letting agents aren’t always able to meet the applicant in person themselves before they move in due to Government guidelines.

Live webinar: This week, I joined Chris Turner on a live webinar for our agents; we talked about the increase in fraudulent and suspicious applications and how we’re innovating with Open Banking technology. I really enjoyed it; it’s great to have those live sessions to help answer any questions that customers have.

Tenant referencing is in our DNA: Our focus is on protecting our customers and delivering the highest quality checks; our mix of experience and technology has supported the excellent service that we’ve continued to provide for our letting agents.

Thanks, hope you’re all staying safe, Rebecca Baker, Head of Referencing