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Episode 16 - Part 3: How to increase your fees through better reports
65 Plays2 years ago
Kate Charrington joins us for the final part of our first episode of Season 2 of Survey Booker Sessions.
Kate is the Director of Projekt3 and is focused on helping residential surveyors future-proof their business by introducing and developing sustainability into their products and practices.
We discuss 3 topics together and in this third and final part, we are discussing how report auditing and discussing the environment can help you add to your USPs and help you boost your fees.
In this video, we discuss:
🚨 What are the common pitfalls and easy wins to providing better reports?
🧘 The importance of writing reports focused on customer concerns
📣 The benefit of writing a report in first person
⭐ How to make a customer confident in your report
📊 How to boost your average fee and improve your USPs
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Transcript
Biggest Mistakes in Reports
00:00:00
Speaker
So for our final topic, I'd quite like to tie together, I suppose, a bit of what we've been talking about in the last two topics, which is, you know, the environment and then the benefits of the auditing aspect. So I suppose one of the things before we start on, before we move on, sorry, to how you personalise your reports better and then how you get better feeds after that is
00:00:19
Speaker
the context of what are the three biggest mistakes you see in reports? Not in terms of like, you know, surveyors are missing, you know, not doing the right things in terms of the compliance aspects. Obviously they'll know what they're meant to be doing when they're there. But what are the, I suppose the common pitfalls where you see easy wins on improving reports and providing better outcomes for customers. Yeah. So over the past kind of three years, it's interesting because I would have thought that actually
00:00:48
Speaker
And the pitfalls that I would see would would kind of change. But obviously if as you kind of get new clients as you see more reports and actually it's it's funny the common pitfalls seem to have have kind of remained the same.
00:01:02
Speaker
So they typically stand from standards not being quite met, particularly actually from a level two and level three perspective or equivalence. Also, where survey reports actually just speak to everyone rather than being specifically kind of client centric.
00:01:27
Speaker
which I think really relates to the USP element and that again actually ties on to the kind of third one which is delivering the same report as everybody else.
00:01:43
Speaker
which I think really stems from the template aspects. That's not to say that I dislike a template. I love a template. I think it's really helpful. I think it can make it really easy for surveyors to do their job. But actually, say you do use a template of whatever kind, might even be a custom-built template that you actually use. The question is, well, what's the content like?
00:02:13
Speaker
The template is one thing, the content is entirely different. And whilst you might talk about, of course, the same things, you'll talk about roofs, you'll talk about walls, you'll talk about ground, you'll talk about this, that and the other. What you can cover within those things obviously depends on the type and level of survey that you're trying to deliver, but ultimately you need to be talking about different things to set you apart from somebody else.
The Power of Personalized Language
00:02:44
Speaker
Yes, it's a very good point. I'm definitely not trying to plug a survey book here, so it's about the ultimate process you have in. But one of the things we focus on is having clear job records that give you all the correspondence in one place. You can see everything you've discussed on email, you've got your notes, all that type of stuff. So if you're out on site,
00:03:02
Speaker
you can be viewing that and understanding very easily and quickly the context in which you're writing that report. So it's, as you say, it's not just that I'm writing a report on this property as I'm writing a report on this property for someone who has a particular concern, a particular state, there at a particular stage in life, you know, that that's the difference between a four star and a five star review or three star and a five star review. It's, you know, how relatable is it to that? How much care has gone into writing it for that individual? Yeah, exactly. And I think
00:03:32
Speaker
you know, I'll probably answer maybe a question which maybe you'll ask, I don't know. Actually, like one of the things that really strikes me is the lack of personalised language in a report. Again, I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, but there are so many reports which I read which actually say the surveyor noted or the surveyor
00:04:01
Speaker
XYZ. And that's very, that creates a real kind of separation between yourself as the surveyor, and what you are reporting personally to a client. And if not for the fact that also, and sometimes it makes it makes me sorry, let me rephrase, it would make me think potentially as a client, okay, well, did the surveyor actually write this report?
00:04:28
Speaker
or is it being written by someone else on their behalf? So, you know. My question actually, there's going to be actually, do you see that more, sorry to jump in, but do you see that more happen more often with people that get reports transcribed for them in terms of someone writes it or to people write it in third person? I don't necessarily know the answer to that because I don't necessarily get into the nitty gritty of their entire process.
00:04:55
Speaker
But, you know, that is a question and an aspect of my kind of quality assessment is, you know, when I actually look at property, when I look at reports, I will kind of ask myself these internal questions as I go. And when it comes to a report that is written by a surveyor for a client, I'm very much an advocate
00:05:22
Speaker
this will probably be controversial, I'll probably get a lot of stick for it. But I really like the use of I. In a report, you know, first person to me demonstrates that the surveyor has written the report, the surveyor is actually talking to you as the client.
Addressing Client Concerns
00:05:41
Speaker
And, you know, they are making sure that you
00:05:44
Speaker
you are being taken care of and that your concerns are being kind of covered within the quirks of the report. And actually that would lead me to say something as simple as, sorry, can I also just say actually, I have actually run like a free
00:06:06
Speaker
half an hour webinar, which people can sign up to. So yeah, if you want to do that, then hopefully we can maybe share the link for that. And this will kind of talk maybe about some of the things that we've spoken about.
00:06:22
Speaker
But we, you know, often in my kind of quality assessments, I'll actually get somebody to think about, okay, well, if I've reviewed the entire case file, and in the terms of engagement, a client has specifically asked a surveyor to cover a particular thing. Have they actually stated in the report, you asked me to cover this?
00:06:44
Speaker
or you noted in the documentation that you were concerned about XYZ, that's not something that I come across. I would probably say in the majority of the surveys that I see. And if a client hasn't mentioned any concerns, then equally I would actually reflect that.
00:07:10
Speaker
in the report and say, you know, you haven't mentioned anything as a cause of concern to me in terms of engagement. So, you know. Yeah. Yeah. That's a very good point. Sorry to jump in a bit. Yeah. I think it's a really key point, which is the other importance to not overloading your diary, having time built into review, having proper processes at the start to log those conversations, those, you know, those concerns.
00:07:36
Speaker
is then being able to make sure before you submit that report that it answers that question. Otherwise you then have the back and forth of, yeah, but what did you think of that? And then immediately, I suppose the confidence isn't in the report at that point if the call question hasn't been answered. Exactly. Like a report should tell a client everything they need to know and everything that they've asked.
Highlighting Report Uniqueness
00:07:56
Speaker
A call can merely kind of go just a little bit further in creating that rapport and actually being able to maybe perhaps talk things through.
00:08:05
Speaker
you know, rather than necessarily provide further advice on a call, you're actually just merely kind of running through what you've actually covered. And I think that's fundamental. I think every surveyor should be doing that. In fact, home survey standards actually do require you to speak to a client in some capacity.
00:08:32
Speaker
Overall, I just think that when it comes to reporting, surveyors should really make sure that they can be able to say, okay, well, if I were to give you this report and you were to get this report from another surveyor, here's how mine's different. I think that's real fundamental because if you can't do that,
00:08:56
Speaker
then you can't sell the value of you. And that's, you know, that's the- That brings me on to the next question really is how do you personalize your home server reports and use that to increase your fees? And which I suppose ties into the flip side of the question we just had, which is what are the sort of best things you've seen that mean people charge more? Yeah, yeah. So first and foremost, when it comes to personalizing your report, and like I say,
00:09:25
Speaker
use the language, which I've actually just kind of covered and spoken about, you know, I versus the surveyor or we, I think makes it particularly important. What do you know about your client? You know, if you talk to a client, you may well find out that they live on their own, which may potentially mean that they are more concerned about security, could do.
00:09:52
Speaker
you may find out that they have a particular chronic illness or something. Now, whilst I'm not saying we need to have a full medical history or know everything and sundry about a particular client, it's those kind of conversations which can lead to golden nuggets of information, which may potentially allow you to talk more about stuff in your home survey, so particularly
00:10:20
Speaker
if I kind of relate this to climate change, if you talk to somebody who is clearly conscious about energy or cost of energy or energy efficiency or whatever it is, then you know that that client would likely appreciate you to focus on climate-focused elements in the report.
00:10:45
Speaker
Personally, I think that should be done each and every time because it will impact every single person and everyone. But at least it gives you that kind of inroad to say, hey, do you know what? I know my client. I know what I can report to them on, but I also know what I could report to them on based on their particular circumstance. And that's really why
00:11:11
Speaker
personalizing your reports is really important, but how you can also demonstrate to potential clients, look, here's what I do, here's how I'm different, and just go from there.
Turning Audits into USPs
00:11:25
Speaker
Yeah, so that's my
00:11:29
Speaker
a slight bugbear in marketing I suppose that I see and my question is how do you turn the report auditing, the type of things you put in your report into USPs that are tangible for getting your average fee up because
00:11:47
Speaker
I think what we discussed is off call, but one of the common things you see a lot on surveyor sites or marketing is, you know, I'm RSCS, I'm local, I'm driving free reports, you can start reading stuff off, but everybody's saying, and so of course when it comes to, well, why would I pay you more, you know, 10 other people just said the same thing, maybe 10 other, maybe two or three others, but
00:12:09
Speaker
that's obviously not going to get you the higher fee because it's the same point as everybody else. So what are the things that you see in reports that can be manifested into a USP that you can then tangibly explain to someone to get that fee up? Yeah, that's a really good question. And I would say having some kind of independent quality assessment is one thing.
00:12:37
Speaker
But aside from that, it is really difficult. I would say that actually surveyors don't always value themselves enough. I mean, I've spoken to surveyors who carry out level two plus surveys for 250 quid.
00:12:55
Speaker
if you think about the, and this not a disrepute to estate agents, I used to be one, so, you know, but you know, if you're paying an estate agent thousands of pounds, because people don't see it go out of their pocket, because it tends to be all kind of coming from completion money, so whatever, people are more willing, whereas actually you hold an
00:13:19
Speaker
a great deal of liability, you're giving professional advice, you need to value yourself. So, I mean, you can potentially go down the route of providing kind of example surveys, which I do see on a lot of surveying websites. Obviously, it's kind of down to you how much information and content you actually put in your report, but ultimately,
00:13:48
Speaker
like I say, evidencing that you actually undertake external quality assessments.
00:13:54
Speaker
providing example surveys, actually talking to the client first and foremost should actually boost your USP anyway. If you merely do everything remotely rather than actually picking up the phone, then that in and of itself may potentially add value. I'm not a marketing expert, but I know that if I want to, I don't know, if I want to buy new carpets, I wanna speak
00:14:23
Speaker
to somebody face to face and get advice on what I maybe should get. If you provide things like Zoom calls versus just a telephone call or that thing, I think having demonstrating access to you as an individual is a real key element and demonstrating that you ask questions about
00:14:52
Speaker
your clients that maybe other other surveyors don't is another key element as well. Personally, I think the whole concept of fees is, I don't know, maybe I'm being a bit utopian here.
Balancing Speed and Quality
00:15:09
Speaker
I would want people to do the best job that they can.
00:15:16
Speaker
and not just kind of put up a fee for fee's sake. You should show value if you put your fees up or you know that you charge a fee that is probably the highest in the area, then you should be able to validate this is the reason why. And actually saying this is the reason why versus here's what we do.
00:15:39
Speaker
can sometimes be totally enlightening for people. You know, it might look on the face of it if you say, you know, I'm an RICS surveyor, I've had this many years experience, blah, blah, blah. That might not kind of land in the same way as, look, here's what everyone else does, here's what I do. And that, you know, being explicit about your difference is really important.
00:16:02
Speaker
Yeah, that's a very key point. It's not about seeing the customer as a cash cow and how much can I get out of them, but how can I justify the level of work I do and therefore the fee I charge for it rather than having to.
00:16:13
Speaker
want to provide that, but drop down to another level because I can't explain the difference. Yeah. Sorry, Matt. I was just going to say that if you are providing, and again, this isn't a kind of slight on the surveyors that do, if you are providing surveys within a 24 hour turnaround, can you evidence or can you demonstrate how your quality still remains high?
00:16:40
Speaker
Um, you know, because if you're bashing out a survey, um, in a very short period of time, I might as a potential client think, Oh, that's a bit fast rather than necessarily think, um, you know, that time has been taken over it. Um, of course that'll be dependent on if a client actually really needs something very quickly or not. But, um, I don't, I think in given the scale and the length of time that property transactions actually take, I don't think 24 hour
00:17:09
Speaker
surveys aren't necessarily needed but hey that's just a view. Yeah I suppose from the potential claims aspect and obviously it all completely comes down to the processes you've got in place to make sure that you're going back to what the customer wanted and not running out of time just putting a generic report about that property out but
00:17:28
Speaker
Um, so I suppose, yeah, I suppose it comes down to, um, you know, how good the process are in advance as well. But the, I think the, the risk from a claims perspective is you, you start to get that pressure of you over book or report takes slightly longer to write up that you then go, Oh my God, I got to get this out. Then you're more worried about the time perspective than you are necessarily about the quality, but potentially, um, and then that could obviously lead to not having the reflection time and.
00:17:53
Speaker
and plenty of other things. So I think the time you're right gives you that chance just to breathe a little bit, be a bit more relaxed and then put potentially better quality work out. Yeah.
Aligning Fees with Quality
00:18:04
Speaker
And actually, I mean, when I was kind of prepping for some work that I was doing, I carried out a lot of research and spoke to a lot of surveyors and one of their key kind of issues in delivering surveys was time related. So that kind of told me
00:18:22
Speaker
Um, one thing really was, you know, are you kind of charging the value of the time that you're actually putting into, um, into your surveys? Because if you're not, then you, you, you know, you're not doing your, doing your best service really to, to a particular client. So yeah, making sure that your fee aligns to your time, um, as well as the output, I should say, um, is.
00:18:49
Speaker
is fundamental in making sure that you have the time and the space, as you say, to deliver a high quality survey. Awesome. I think that's been really interesting going through work today. So thanks for coming on, Kate and sharing your thoughts.
Contact Information and Services
00:19:02
Speaker
If anyone wants to get in touch to learn more about your services or to listen to the webinar you mentioned, how do they go about that?
00:19:10
Speaker
Sure, so they can go to www.project3 and that's project with the K and the numeric3.co.uk and you can also feel free to just email me at kateatproject3 again with a K and then 3.co.uk as well. Awesome, I've seen lots of positive comments about your services on LinkedIn so I'm sure it's worth getting in touch. Thank you very much for coming on, I appreciate it. Thank you very much.