What makes us who we are

GL&Co Estate Agents, opened for business in 1992 as Guy Leonard & Co and the original values remain with a modern touch; there are a core set of values at the heart of the firm which the team are passionate about and implement throughout the business.

We know from talking to our clients that they want the personal touch – to know who they are dealing with and what progress is happening every step of the way with telephone calls and personal contact that is so important to our clients. We strive to exceed these expectations so keep in constant contact with our clients; proactively and thoroughly checking the sales chain, then managing these through to completion, rather than just getting the sale agreed and moving onto the next

We have a concierge service for our clients who need additional support with their move, visiting them at home to help with administration and making arrangements for their onward move. Our core value, ‘exceeding expectations through measured and effective effort’, is supported by our clients’ comments on our customer satisfaction questionnaires – we regularly change their perception of estate agents which is our goal!

In addition to our exceptional client service, we have extensive brand presence, through weekly e-newsletters to every client, extensive board coverage and high profile for buyers looking in the South Downs. Our ‘sticky marketing’ keeps us in people’s orbit with telephone calls and traditional mailshots as well as engagement on social media. 

We exceed our clients’ expectations and assess how we are doing by proactively requesting feedback. As one of our values is to create ‘lasting partnerships with our clients’, we're very proud of our online reviews, which show that 100% of customers completing an online review*, would recommend us. One of our team members summed it up by commenting ‘it’s simply our team spirit and beliefs together with our attention to detail. We have objectives which are based on customer requirements not motives that are based on numbers.’

GL&Co stand out due to our core values, which help ensure we provide our clients with exactly what they need; whether a traditional approach with home visits to complete paperwork and discuss marketing with them. or more modern methods where they prefer to use emails and social media. Our core value of ‘relevant, timely and consistent communication’ ensures whatever the clients’ needs, we are available to them.

We take immense pride in our marketing, and have a bespoke approach to each property, assessing the best way to bring that particular home to market, whether through an open day, online auction, social media or press editorial, supported by high quality brochures and photographs. We thoroughly qualify every applicant ensuring our vendors sales complete in the most efficient timescale possible and supporting them right through to exchange. This is reflected in our low fall through rate. Many of our clients choose us as we have been recommended to them by our previous clients.

One of our core values focuses on integrity and knowledge - in addition to their property knowledge, our team pride themselves on their knowledge about the local area and community so can competently assist clients, going the extra mile and giving information on schools, contractors, doctors and much more. All our staff live in or around Pulborough and Storrington, their families and friends are here, their children go to school here, they socialise and use community facilities in our surrounding towns and villages, so we know what works locally.

As a business and on personal levels, we are proactively involved with the community, supporting school fairs and raising money for local charities. 

2017 saw our 25th Anniversary of GL & Co and to mark the occasion we decided to embark on several challenges throughout the year to raise money for local charities. Challenges included a 26 mile cycle ride across the South Downs, a 26 mile midnight walk along the South Coast and a gruelling 5km mud run scaling obstacles and a lot of rivers! Our fundraising was finished off for the year with a quiz.

That brought our total for the year to over £3,000 with a cumulative total of over £10,000 which we are delighted with and what better way to celebrate 25 years of business than giving something back to local charity! 

We felt our team are best placed to comment about being a part of GL&Co…

 

I strongly believe that if you can be happy in your work you will be good at your work. Here at GL&CO we set our standards extremely high and customer service and doing things the right way is always the highest priority on our agenda. We thrive on getting the best results for our customers and appreciate that in changing times we need to be constantly adapting to the customer’s needs. We are a family run business and it feels like it, with every member of the team taking a collective responsibility to our general well-being and core beliefs. PH

I joined the company recently after working in other agencies and areas for 18 years. I kept enquiring with the directors of the business to give me a job as I had heard about the company and how high their standards are and how well they treat their staff. I did get other job offers, but for me GL&CO were the only one for me. JL

A really good team of like minded people who work hard, are professional and want the best for the customer. Years of experience amongst the team and independently owned with a great ethos, makes it a great place to come to work. SB

 

As an employer, we employ local people with local knowledge who have great empathy with our clients and we value our team – empowering them to put forward ideas and keeping them informed about news and developments through a dedicated company intranet, feedback/report system and regular breakfast meetings. We make a big investment in training and development of individuals - several staff have been promoted to new roles. We work hard to retain staff through fresh challenges and initiatives, whilst new staff bring fresh ideas into the business. 

We have a ‘work hard, play hard’ attitude with lots of social events as well as an annual company BBQ and Christmas party. The team spirit extends outside work, demonstrated through their regular volunteering for charity challenges.

GL& Co is an innovative, multifaceted company that is not afraid of change. We are always looking for the next idea, showing how we are agents who go further to achieve excellent results.

 

*as per Help Hound reviews as at Aug18