Williams & Donovan in the Community

Fri 28 Feb 2020

Kay Fogg, Benfleet Sales Administrator

Estate agents have a poor reputation, with a trust rating that regularly puts them in the top 10% of least trustworthy occupations in the UK.  This untrustworthiness is something that reputable agencies struggle to overcome. 
 

Here at Williams & Donovan, we recognise that we have a social responsibility to our community and strive to give back whenever we can, and in the six years that Williams & Donovan have been open in Benfleet, we have tried our utmost to demonstrate this in a variety of ways. 

One of our most high profile ways of helping the local communities is in our sponsorship of events at local schools. 

In Benfleet, we are proud to have supported a number of schools including Jotmans Hall Primary School; The Holy Family School; South Benfleet Primary School; Montgomerie Primary School, and most recently, Cedar Hall School at a variety of events, including Summer Fetes, Christmas Bazaars and Circus Days.  We also have an annual Easter colouring competition at Jotmans Hall Primary, where the winners not only receive Easter Eggs, but also have their winning entries displayed prominently in our front window, and we've also sponsored the Christmas fund raising at the local church.

 

For us, not only do these sponsorships really help the local community and raise our profile as an estate agent who gives back but it also, slowly but surely, changes the public perception of estate agents. Hopefully, trust is gained from potential clients who begin to see that estate agents do want to make a difference and that we do want to be a valued part of the community.

 

We have also sponsored a hole at Boyce Hill Golf Course for a number of years, and in 2018, played an important part in supporting raising funds for Christmas lights to be put in along the High Road, using our office presence and social media platforms to help promote events and provide updates to local residents, as well as having a place on the committee and attending fund raising events.

 

Williams & Donovan have hosted MacMillan Coffee Mornings, baking or bringing in scrummy cakes and making lots of lovely cups of coffee, raising funds for this tremendous cause, while encouraging lots of positive interaction with various members of the community of all ages, and we also sponsor the flower beds outside our office, with them being regularly maintained and replenished throughout the year to provide a welcome splash of colour outside.

 

At Christmas, we’ve donated hampers and food stuffs, and provided collection points for toiletries for the hospital and the homeless.  We’ve also sponsored quizzes and support members of staff involved in school Governance and with Southend United’s Junior Blues.

 

Most recently, we’ve provided a prominent outlet for distribution of the free copy of the Echo on Thursdays for local residents.

 

The age old saying that ‘people buy people’ is never truer than in the case of an estate agent. Having a local presence is one of the many benefits which online agents do not enjoy.  It is vital that estate agents are in touch with the community they operate in. It is only by doing this that we build our client’s trust in our brand and, in turn, a successful business.