Client Care

Question 1

What is client Care?

Answer 1

Client care is looking after the clients’ best interest and providing an appropriate level of service that satisfies the client’s need and achieves VfM.

Client care can be provided through: Professionalism, competence, Punctuality, Trust, Reliability, Presentation, Regular communication, review of services provided and standard, KPIs to monitor client satisfaction and client Performance Feedback.

Question 2

Why is client care important for surveying firms?

Answer 2

• Majority of work is developed through repeat business from existing clients (In the South West we generate over 80% of our turnover in repeat business).
• Encouraged to repeat business where possible.
• Positive testimonials can be achieved, and word of mouth recommendations will be generated.
• Dissatisfied clients can be very damaging to reputation as negative feedback and experiences can spread quickly.
• Providing excellent client care can also reduce the potential for negligence claims to arise.

Question 3

What is CPF?

Answer 3

• Client performance feedback is the process of gathering and acting on fb from the client. (every 3-6 months)
• Motts will send out a client care Questionnaire at the end of a project and ask for feedback during the project.
• The feedback sets the standards for the company and identifies areas of improvement. Encourages open discussions with the client to ensure satisfactory service is delivered and that goals are achieved.
• Provides an opportunity to gain future work for the company.

Question 4

What type of questions are in the client care questionnaire?

Answer 4

• How would you rate your overall performance throughout the project (1 poor performance, 5 excellent performance)? Please tell us more…
• How satisfied were you with the level of support provided during the project? Please tell us more:
• What did we do that exceeded your expectations.
• Were we proactive in keeping in touch with you?
• Please let us know what we could do better and/or share any other feedback etc.

Question 5

What is your company’s procedure for client’s feedback?

Answer 5

• Undertake formal project reviews with client every 2 months.
• Obtain regular informal feedback verbally and email communication.
• Undertake a client care questionnaire (satisfaction survey questionnaire) at the end of each project.

Question 6

How do you continually improve your service and learn from mistakes?

Answer 6

Post project reviews are undertaken with the client to establish their thoughts and create lessons learnt.

Question 7

What is your company’s procedure for complaint handling?

Answer 7

RICS specifies 2 stages as a minimum:
* Stage 1 – The complaint is reported to a Senior Member of the firm or the designated complaints handler.
* Stage 2 – if the complaint cannot be resolved this is referred to the independent redress mechanism.

MM Complaints Handling Procedure – 8 steps – AINI - ICF – HN
1. Allocate the complaint to an appropriate person
2. Identify timescales for a response (7days to acknowledge from receipt, 28 days to respond)
3. Notify insurers for PII purpose
4. Investigate the complaint
5. Identify outcome / course of action
6. Communicate response to client
7. Formally record CH log
8. Have an internal lesson learnt
*if the complaint cannot be resolved, it will be referred to an independent redress scheme, MM uses ombudsman

Question 8

How do you identify your client’s needs and expectations?

Answer 8

Always make sure to ask questions and listen to the client on key challenges and issues they are facing.

I also use client’s briefing checklist where applicable

Ask for further clarifications if client briefing is not adequate t enough information to understand the client needs and expectations. 

Question 9

What kind of questions are in a post project review?

Answer 9

o Rate our overall performance
o Rate our best competitor
o Technical content
o Adherence to programme
o Communication
o Staffing

Question 10

What kind of feedback have you had from clients?

Answer 10

Communication and cost plans have been very good.

Question 11

How would you identify the needs of a client?

Answer 11

• Look to achieve this by holding client account planning sessions
• Each client & project is different, and their needs would be assessed on their own merit, this could be achieved by
• Holding discussions regarding project key deliverables & their scope of services.
• Reviewing past CPF scores and identifying key areas for improvement.
• Reviewing any complaints to identify mistakes and best practice methods of working.

Question 12

What is a client brief?

Answer 12

• Purpose of a client brief is to provide a firm foundation for the initiation of the project.
• It is a formal statement of the objectives and functional and operational requirements of the finished project.
• It should be in sufficient detail to enable the integrated project team to execute the specification and detailed design of the work and is therefore an essential reference for the team.

Question 13

What should be included in terms of appointment for a surveyor, to comply with RICS rules and by-laws?

Answer 13

Confirm terms of business in writing.
Confirm standard limitations in writing.
Detail the services to be provided.
Confirm the basis of fees to be charged.
Identify the complaints handling procedure. 

Question 14

What information is contained in a client brief?

Answer 14

The information contained within a client’s brief
Introduction/background
Design/scope
Budget information
Programme
Third party stakeholders
Legal issues
Health and safety
Procurement
Other constraints

Question 15

When should you decline an instruction of new work from a client?

Answer 15

• If there is a conflict of interest
• If the appointment would not be in the client’s best interests.
• Motts is unable to resource the job adequately
• If project is outside of motts skillset
• If the work was unlawful or did not reflect Motts values
• A E2841 Decision to Bid form is completed and result is ‘no bid’

Question 16

What do you need to consider when preparing a fee bid?

Answer 16

• Finding out what the client’s requirements are and identifying whether this is a service that we can provide.
• A bid or no bid form is populated to identify it this is suitable for the business by considering the risks involved.
• There are varying levels of sign off depending on fee value prior to submission.

Question 17

What makes up a fee bid proposal?

The report headings

Answer 17

Executive summary – references to the scope and solutions

Identification of the client’s need & key deliverables

Identification and analyses of Project Issues

Communication of key benefits for the clients

References to relevant experience

The conditions of engagement

A methodology, Organogram

Proposed fees, supporting CVs, references to the project programme, identification of sub consultants

A list of quality assurance procedures

Question 18

What are the main elements included in a fee proposal?

Answer 18

a) Terms and conditions
b) Scope of services
c) Exclusions
d) Assumptions – e.g. programme
How would you calculate a fee proposal?

Work out workload required. Use PMD to find hourly rate for members of staff. Add 10% profit. Apply to time required.

Similar for sub-contractors but also a 7.5% management fee.

Question 19

How do you establish trust?

Answer 19

• I am always transparent and honest about my actions.
• I learn about my client and their long-term objectives in addition to key challenges they are facing.
• I work inside the parameters of my level of expertise and competence – and get all my worked checked and approved by seniors to ensure that objective is met and high standards.
• Act in a professional manner
• Always provide a high level of standards
• Follow RICS rules of conducts.  

Question 20

How do you encourage repeat business?

Answer 20

• Provide high level of service and customer care
• Only issue work that has been checked and approved, to ensure my standards stay high.
• Regularly obtain feedback and act upon it
• Regularly keep client up to date
• Organizing BD activities such as social events and CPDs.  
• How do you ensure high quality in your work?
• Committed to delivering products and services of highest quality
• GMD is responsible for this policy and for effective implementation
• GM responsible for monitory
• PD responsible for quality of our projects
• Staff responsible for the application of the quality management project
• QA system based on and confirm to ISO 9001 

Question 21

What experience do you have in working with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)?

Question 22

How have you applied KPIs in your previous work?

Question 23

What experience do you have with customer complaint handling procedures?

Answer 23

I do not have any experience, only informal complaints, such as the client worried the quality procedure is not working when the budget went over budget by 16.8 million.

Question 24

Describe a time when you had to investigate and resolve a customer complaint?

Answer 24

N/A as I only need level 1 experience.

I would follow the MM complaint handling procedure.

Question 25

How did you ensure that you were legally and morally obligated to the client?

Question 26

What measures have you taken to ensure that you are working in the best interest of the client?

Answer 26

Understanding the clients needs, clear communication, quality assurance (regular reviews, auudits and QA process for each deliverable), Continuous Imporevement, ethical considerations - act with integrity and honesty and put client's interest first, proffesional development - ensure I keep up to date with the latest industry trends and standards to provide best service to your clients.

Question 27

What do you understand by the term ‘duty of care’?

Answer 27

Legal and professional obligation that requires individuals or organizations to act in a matter that prevents harm to others. Acting in the best interests of others, not acting or failing to act in a way that causes harm, and acting within’s one’s abilities without taking on anything that lies outside of their competence.

Question 28

What kind of site investigations are there?

Answer 28

Geotechnical – to ascertain the ground conditions. (Soil, for what load it can bear, water tables, contamination, underground mines, archaeology).

Question 29

How do you communicate with the client

Answer 29

Keep them regularly updated and provide a summary of key points in a covering email when I sent out deliverables. Terms of engagement: every single client instruction must be formalised in writing, using terms of engagement. These set out the key terms agreed between the client and surveyor, in addition to limitations on liability and other caveats applying to the instruction. A surveyor should never rely on a verbal agreement, as this would not provide evidence of the instruction and scope of work in the case of a professional negligence claim.

Question 30

How to calculate fee?

Answer 30

Fee proposal is L - TEA Lump sum (% bases or daily/hourly/weekly rates T&Cs Exclusions Assumptions. Factors affecting a fee prposal is size and complexicty of project, location of consultant to site, programme and resources and scope of works.

Question 31

How would you establish a client's objectives?

Answer 31

Meet with the client and use the RICS client briefing checklist the scope of services required, applicable standards, constraints and dependencies, approach, timescales, management and comms, appointment. Take time to understand what the client requires. After meeting the client, report back the client brief so that they can confirm its accuracy.