UK Challenger Portals Point the Finger at CRM Companies

Some leading CRM services in the UK are hindering the uptake of challenger portals by their agent clients. That’s according to Adam Piggott, CEO of UK challenger portal OpenBrix, who made the remarks in a webinar hosted by proptech marketplace company Kerfuffle. You can watch the webinar here.

Although Piggott did not name names, he did mention a few CRM companies that were helpful when setting up a flow of properties from an agent’s CRM to the challenger portal’s listing database:

“It seems there are two types of CRM out there – those like 10Ninety and Acquaint which have been really helpful and work with their agents to integrate with us, and then there those which are being unhelpful and even obstructive.”

Piggott’s thoughts were echoed by representatives of other UK challenger portals in attendance including those from Residential People and Homesearch. 

This is clearly a big issue for up and coming property marketplaces looking to convert agents from more established portals and one which could render their outlay on marketing to agents useless. CRM service providers may be perpetuating the status quo of a property portal landscape either because of legitimate tech integration issues or because of something more deliberate.