Mr Frankie Wong has been in the estate agency business for over a decade and is now the senior district manager of a firm where he specialises in developer's projects, that is to day, the promotion of first-sale properties.

黃德華：代理行負責人應作出適當處理，不可姑息害群之馬。 Mr Frankie Wong: "Those who operate estate agency firms should handle matters involving professional conduct and discipline with great care. Staff members who have infringed the regulations should not be spared."

When asked for his views on the conflicts that have recently occurred at some first-sale sites, Mr Wong said that with the shrinkage of the second-hand market, developers would now tend to entrust the marketing of new units to estate agency companies. For many agents first sale properties have become their only source of income and home purchasers are their obvious targets of business. It could well be that there were occasionally some over-enthusiastic practitioners who, in their youthful indiscretion, had resorted to undesirable actions in settling their disputes with fellow estate agents, but such were matters which could have been easily resolved through peaceful means if they had cooled off and approached the problems rationally. Mr Wong was frustrated when colleagues at first-sale sites were labelled "street fighters". His view was that every profession would have its small share of bad elements and it would not be fair for the reputation of the entire estate agency industry to be tarnished by the behaviour of just a few.

Mr Wong said that he would not want to see open conflicts at the sales sites again to the shame of the profession, and asked for stricter sanction against the offenders, especially the management of the companies that employed them. When asked what he would do if the offender was one of his subordinates, Mr Wong told us that his company had always stressed the importance of discipline and, depending on the nature of the offence, the offender would be subject to a range of penalties from written warning to summary dismissal. Where money was involved, the offender would be required to shoulder all liabilities. He also maintained that self-discipline, self-restraint and professional image were always emphasised in his company's internal training programmes. There were frequent management meetings on how to manage the sales force at new development sites, and his company had devised practical measures to minimise the occurrence of conflicts. These included the positioning of senior staff at District Manager and sometimes Director level at strategic points of client contact, and making it a requirement for these responsible officers to foster cordial relationships with the senior staff members of other agency companies on the same site. Mr Wong suggested that competition within the profession should be pursued in a positive manner and no one could win from conflicts and altercations.

Mr Wong indicated his approval of the training activities provided by the EAA to the trade and noted that the talks and seminars given were all on practical and helpful topics. He suggested that more veteran practitioners be engaged as speakers so that the audience might benefit from their experience and expertise.

Mr William Chow has been working in estate agency since 1985 and is now an associate director with a group of companies.

As a veteran agent and a senior manager in an estate agency company, Mr Chow attaches foremost importance to the professional image of practitioners. He told us that in staff recruitment, his company would give first consideration to the applicant's character and conduct, and business skills, which may be acquired through training, would not be the top criterion for selection. He expressed deep regret over recent incidents in which members of the trade engaged themselves in altercations in public. In his opinion, the very small number of practitioners who pursued their business opportunities with total disregard of the image of the trade had not only bring shame upon the estate agency community as a whole, but will also impact adversely on the public's perception of agency service. He observed that the implementation of the Licensing Regulation had raised the threshold for entering the trade considerably, and the shrinkage in the property market had not been a particularly encouraging factor to those who would consider becoming an estate agent. If there were to be more instances of fighting in the street among estate agents, then it would be well nigh impossible for anyone of quality to be attracted to the trade. Mr Chow frankly admitted to his pride as a practitioner being considerably dampened as he was mocked by friends about the fighting incidents.

Mr Chow believed that while it would be necessary to step up punishment to deter potential regulation-breakers, there should be more intensive efforts to bolster training for managers. His view was that while the general professional standard of practitioners had been brought up to anticipated standard through examinations, training and the licensing system, training efforts should next be focused on the upgrading of management skills among practitioners with such responsibilities. Mr Chow suggested that the EAA should organise more public lectures and seminars for licensees at managerial levels so as to raise both awareness and understanding of effective management.

Mr Chow was all support for the research on continuing professional development being undertaken by the EAA, and he was inclined to think that this should be introduced on a mandatory basis. While he understood that the majority of practitioners would prefer to take up continuing education voluntarily, he suggested that a training regime could be implemented in two stages, starting with the estate agents and then extending to the salespersons.