Recruiting and retaining players all comes down to trust. However, in an industry where many agents over-promise and under deliver, even the good agencies end up suffering from mistrust.

With TransferRoom’s new Player Loyalty Booster feature, agents can build trust with players by providing hard evidence of their efforts to find the best opportunities for them. By sharing feedback openly on clubs pitched and, subsequently, feedback received, you can stand out as a transparent agent and ultimately avoid losing your players to rival firms.

In an environment where 24% of players switch agents every year, this is more important than ever. 

BR Group Management is one of the first agencies to achieve High Transparency status on TransferRoom by sharing real-time feedback with their players on potential transfer activity, such as Rasmus Örqvist (pictured), of top-flight Swedish club Degerfors FC.

Keeping players in the loop with real-time feedback

Discussing the benefits of transparency between agent and player, BR Group’s Andreas Karlsson said: “Most players are interested in seeing what we’re doing for them. The feature is a good way to show players that we are actually pitching them. Many agents will say to their players ‘I’ve done this, or I’ve done that’ but they haven’t actually done it. Because of this, players can be suspicious as to why there’s no interest and whether the agent is really pitching them.

“What I really like is that when players are wondering who we’ve spoken to, they don’t have to come to ask us every time. It’s an easy way to keep them informed. We encourage them to check it every week to see exactly what’s happening.”

From a player’s point of view, trust and transparency should be the foundation of any player-agent relationship, but often they are kept in the dark with no real visibility of what conversations are taking place with clubs and their feedback. 

On TransferRoom, players can be assured that their agent is working in their best interests, rather than just focusing on earning a commission.

Örqvist told TransferRoom: “From a player’s perspective, it takes away the worry. I can see all the clubs Andreas has been in contact with and pitched me to. 

“We don’t talk transfers all the time, so it’s good that I can go in at any time and see what Andreas has been trying to do for me. It’s interesting to see if clubs are saving pitches or rejecting them.”

Standing out as a High Transparency agent

Another benefit of the feature for agents is in attracting new talent. Two thirds of agents say recruiting new players is a top priority for the year ahead. 

By enabling sharing with over 50% of their players, BR Group Management have earned High Transparency status on TransferRoom. This label appears on their Agency Public Profile and within the TransferRoom platform, helping them stand out from the crowd as a transparent agent and gain a competitive advantage. 

Karlsson added: “Having High Transparency status is a positive thing and helps us stand out in a world where agents can be shady or work in grey areas.”  

While giving players access to real-time feedback is usually an advantage, there are situations where this isn’t appropriate. BR Group are also making good use of the flexibility of the feature, switching off sharing for players where it might not be currently appropriate, for example a player with a long-term injury. 

With honesty often hard to come by in football, agents and players using TransferRoom’s transparency features are taking their trust to the next level, working together to deliver the best possible opportunities for the player.

To find out more about our Player Loyalty Booster feature, read our Q&A with TransferRoom CEO Jonas Ankersen.