Client Care

Question 1

What is a client?

Answer 1

A company or individual who commissions a project and makes the overall decisions within that project.

Question 2

Can you have more than one client?

Answer 2

Yes.

Question 3

In what scenario could you have more than one client?

Answer 3

In a Joint Venture.

Question 4

What is client care?

Answer 4

Providing an appropriate level of service which satisfies the clients needs and achieves value for money.

Question 5

How can client care be provided?

Answer 5

Through clear communication, professionalism, competence, trust and reliability.

Question 6

Why is client care important?

Answer 6

To achieve repeat business from existing clients.

Develop trust between my firm and it’s clients.

Avoid negative feedback which could be communicated throughout the industry.

Question 7

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

Answer 7

If there is a conflict of interest.

If I would be unable to provide the relevant service.

If the work was unlawful.

Question 8

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

Answer 8

My firm has it’s own procedure’s for preparing fee submissions which comprise finding out the client requirements and providing a breakdown of our services to fulfil these requirements.

Question 9

How would I limit the risk of working with a client who may be financially unstable.

Answer 9

My firm has a screening process for each client which they carry out by gathering their account information from companies house.

I would refer this information to my firms in house Chartered Account for their review.

Question 10

If a client asked me to lower my fees what would I do?

Answer 10

The client would have to pay the required price for the level of service required or reduce the scope of work involved.

Question 11

How would I calculate a fee proposed?

Answer 11

I would review the work involved and the level of information available.

I would then calculate the time and number of individuals and apply an hourly rate to that resource whilst also adding an allowance for overheads and profit.

Question 12

What is your companies procedure for client feed-back?

Answer 12

At the end of each project, my company issues a Client Feedback form, this includes,

Client information
Scope of services
Quality of service
Professionalism and compliance
Overall satisfaction
Additional comments

Question 13

What is included in your companies client feedback form?

Answer 13

Client details

Scope of service

Quality of service

Professional compliance

Overall satisfaction

Additional comments

Question 14

What is my companies complaints handling procedure?

Answer 14

A Senior Director is named in charge of the project and is the first point of contact for the complaint.

Once a complaint is received, this will be acknowledge by the Senior Director within 3 days.

The Senior Director will then conduct a formal review and provide the outcome to the client making the complaint within 7 days.

Should the client still be dissatisfied with the outcome, a second Senior Director is brought in to conduct another review.

All complaints and correspondence in relation to that complaint are forwarded to our complaints email addressed so they can be stored accordingly in our complaints log.

Question 15

What would I do if a client disagreed with my assessment on a variation?

Answer 15

I would discuss this with them via a call to identify which elements in particular they did not understand.

I would then demonstrate my breakdown of assessment and showcase how I arrived at my opinion.

If they still did not agree with my assessment, I would go back to the contractor and negotiate further with them.

Question 16

What is a client brief?

Answer 16

It sets out the project objectives and will generally cover,

The Scope of Works

Design requirements

Project budget

Programme requirements

Regulatory and compliance requirements