Good Morning,

Firstly, I would like to introduce myself. My name is John Sweeton and I am the new Branch Manager at Bridgfords Buxton. Unfortunately I only took over the branch in November, after this post, and it has only just been brought to my attention by my Regional Manager, Anthony Bevan who came across your feedback whilst conducting a customer care call with a client who's property we had recently been out to value.

I have spoken with Anthony and both us would like to express our sincerest apologies about the service you received from us as a buyer recently. Both me and Anthony have a strong history attached to the Buxton office having both previously started our careers with Bridgfords here and it has been hugely disappointing to us both to read your comments. I would welcome the opportunity to speak to you in person about your feedback if you wish, as our reputation locally and nationally is hugely important to us. You can contact me on 01298 26136.

With regards to your feedback about Alison I regret to advise you that in the short time of being in charge here I have received similar feedback about her from two other clients and whilst I have also received positive feedback about Alison, as a business we recently came to a mutual agreement with her that it was time to part company and Alison is no longer an employee of Bridgfords in any capacity.

I have been involved in Estate Agency now for 15 years and for me the need to provide a high standard of service to both sellers and buyers of property has never before been as important as it is today, with increased competition on the high street and online. As the country's longest standing and most experienced estate agency group we have looked very strongly into the overall service we are providing to our customers and various steps have been put in place to ensure that nobody is ever left feeling the way that you quite clearly did after completing on your house purchase.

Not only is every estate agency employee in the process of obtaining a City & Guilds qualification in Estate Agency, but we are also 5 weeks in to a Countrywide "Hearts and Minds" programme that is all about providing a positive experience and great customer service all of the time.

For me, customer service is unique every time. In my own life I receive customer service almost every day, but generally speaking I only ever tend to remember and/or highlight the poor service I have received and I only need to look every now and again at various social media sites to see my friends and family doing the same. As part of our "Hearts and Minds" programme we have been encouraged to share what we feel good service looks like, who has provided it to us and what was "good" about it. In addition to this we were also encouraged to share the "good service" we feel we have provided, what was "good" about it and to also discuss how we feel this would have made the customer feel in return. I am sure that by the time we have completed our 13 weeks training we will have an even better understanding of what good service looks like to our customers and how we can best deliver this on a day to day basis.

Regretably, I/we cannot go back in time and change your experience with us, but rest assured we welcome your feedback and I can personally assure you that we will use it to continue the work already under way to ensure that other customers do not feel as disappointed as you clearly did at a time that from my own experience should be one of the best days of your life and that moving forward everyone who comes into contact with us has a positive experience.

I would completely understand if you do not wish to resume contact with us, but if you do, then please do get in touch.

Kind regards

John