Land Surveying Archives - Land & Architectural Survey Blog

How do you conduct yourself with a new client?

When you first start out in the business world, it can be easy to feel intimidated by clients, especially if they're more experienced than you are. I've been there! I was charged out to a client who was paying GBP600/day and I was just getting GBP200/day. It feels uncomfortable but you wouldn't be there if they needed you.

But when it comes down to it, new clients are opportunities for growth and learning for everyone involved. That's why I'm here to show you how to handle yourself with a new client so that both parties can come out of the meeting with great results!

But.... don't spend your time learning from them, do what you can within your abilities and scope of the job. Don't fall in the pleasing mode of just doing anything because of the imposter syndrome.

Be well mannered

This is a given when dealing with anyone, first impression matters and it is the way you leave a lasting impression on your client. Being polite and well mannered will go a long way in making sure that your reputation stays intact.

Be polite and courteous
Respect the client's time and resources
Be professional
Be honest about your subject matter knowledge, especially if you don't know something. If you've never worked with a particular software package, or the client is not familiar with a certain industry jargon, don't be afraid to admit that! Clients value honesty over pretending to know everything (and they will respect your honesty).
Flexibility - Clients often have many questions throughout the course of a project. Embrace this as an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise and knowledge; however, resist the urge to give lengthy answers unless the client asks for them.

Ask questions and listen to their pains.

In terms of getting work from a new client it might be worth reaching out to them before the end of a recent project of theirs. This is the perfect opportunity to ask questions about their recent pains on the project and how they can potentially try someone new if the previous service they had were not decent.

Asking questions is an important part of any business interaction because it helps both sides get clear on what they want out of the relationship. It's also more effective when you can use these questions as an icebreaker rather than filling an awkward silence with idle chitchat. Getting to know their pains during their previous projects will help you understand what you can improve on to wow them when delivering your service to them.

Ask questions on potential new tasks or jobs that are coming up, or any other problems that they may have which they can help on. Try not to sell your services for every sentence that comes out of their mind but I would suggest to look at listening for their problems to see where you can offer your services. People do like to talk about their problems and be listened to.

If they are not taking the hint on offering your a new service, it is always good to ask the hardest questions "do you have any services you'll need from me" or even "do you know anyone who would benefit from my service". It's always good to try closing.

Don't push your service.

When working with new clients, you don't have a lot of information about the project or person. That makes it important to be careful not to push your service. It's easy to assume that a client is looking for what you offer, but they may not actually need your services—or they might want something different than what you offer.

Don't try to sell your service or push yourself on them if it feels uncomfortable (to them). If they don't seem interested in learning more about what you do, try asking open-ended questions instead of answering all the questions that come up in their mind right away (and selling yourself).

It can also help if you keep yourself open and flexible so that even if someone does ask about pricing or availability, there aren’t any awkward pauses when the conversation comes back around again later down the road after learning more about each other through follow-up emails sent over time since first meeting face-to-face.

Try to be as positive as possible about the client's current situation.

While it may be tempting to give your client the benefit of the doubt and assume that they know what they want, it is important to understand how the client feels about their situation.

You can do this by asking open-ended questions such as:

How did this problem come about?
What were you trying to accomplish when things started going wrong?
What brings you to looking at my service, and why now?
What are your current projects and where do you feel they are not doing well?

Try look at asking detailed questions of where you can help specifically and discuss potential solutions to see if they really need your service or not. In one instance I had a conversation with a Managing QS who was struggling with applications for payment as he had to do 30 of them or so in 3-4 days. I said instead of hiring someone in you could always amend your application dates and get the parties to agree to it, you can then stagger the applications and give yourself more time.

They would appreciate you more with this and potentially recommend you to others with offering a quick solution within your scope of service. (of course don't give them recommendations for things you're not competent in).

Be professional with integrity and honesty

When you're meeting a new client, it's important to be professional and respectful. You should also be honest and consistent in your behavior—don't lie or behave unprofessionally. If you are considering engaging in unethical behavior, don't do it!

Be flexible.

As a business owner, you're used to being your own boss and leading the charge. That's great in many ways (hello, flexible schedule!), but it can be a little disconcerting when you're trying to help someone else achieve their goals. It can be hard not to feel like they're encroaching on your territory—and if they do, that's okay! You don't have anything to prove at this point; just remember that you're working with them because they value what you do for them more than anyone else could.

That said: it is totally okay for clients to ask questions about what's going on in your business and ask if there are certain things or processes that need improvement based on their experience with other designers or agencies (or even previous experiences as a freelancer). If this happens, try not taking it personally—these people are paying customers after all! They want what’s best for themselves too so give thoughtful answers while being mindful of where your boundaries lie when answering questions like these

Be respectful of them and past clients, don't bad mouth others

Be respectful of your new client, and of your past clients.

Don't badmouth other companies to the new person you're talking with. If someone does something that rubs you the wrong way, take a deep breath before commenting on it.

If you badmouth others they may feel that if they don't do well with you that you would badmouth their experience with others. It's always bad to place new clients in this position.

Friendly and enthusiastic

In your interactions with the client, it's essential that you be friendly and enthusiastic. You want to put them at ease and make them feel confident in your abilities. You should also be positive about their current situation, even if it's not ideal.

Don't be afraid to ask questions! This is a great way for you to gather information about what they're looking for and how they want things done, but also provides an opportunity for you to showcase your expertise and knowledge of the industry by sharing some tips or ideas of your own. (But don't be too intellectual and just dumb down the content, you're there to listen and identify issues that you can resolve).

Don't push your services on them immediately—only offer services that they actually need or request, otherwise there's a good chance they'll get turned off by seeming too aggressive right off the bat (and maybe even end up taking their business elsewhere).

Be professional with integrity and honesty, especially when describing what you can do for them—your clients will appreciate it if everything goes smoothly without any concerns over whether someone might take advantage of them later down the road because that means less stress overall which leads into...

Listen to your client.

When a new client comes to you, it's important to listen. Listen to what they are saying, but also listen for what they are not saying. Pay attention to the tone of their voice and how they respond to your questions. Listen for any changes in their facial expression or body language that may indicate discomfort or disagreement with something you've said.

A good listener will also be able to read between the lines when a client is telling his story, which can help him understand why the client wants certain things from this work relationship (or lack thereof). This can help save time by allowing both parties to avoid spending too much time discussing irrelevant details about the project at hand - instead focusing on all aspects at once!

Be honest with yourself about what you can handle versus what you can't handle.

When you're first starting out, it can be easy to take on whatever work comes your way. But as you grow, you'll want to make sure everything you do actually fits into your brand and is a good fit for the type of experience that clients expect from working with you.
That's why it's important to know yourself: What kind of clientele do YOU like working with? Are they relaxed or high-pressure? Will they give me room to be creative or will they be more concerned with results? Do I need a marketing background before taking on this new client?
If these questions are making your head spin, ask for help! A mentor or colleague might have insight into whether something is right for where you are in your career. Or if there are certain things about the project that don't feel like a good fit (like being unable to offer time frames), say no—and find someone who can deliver what this new client needs from them instead.

Stick to your strengths.

To be the best you can be, it's important to know what your strengths are. This applies to everything in life, not just business. If you're a good surveyor, don't try to force yourself into being a project manager, designer or planner as well (even if you can use p6 or ms projects).

It's also important for you to stay realistic about your own limitations (and those of others on your team) and know when it's time to call in backup or hire additional help. For example, if one of our surveyors gets sick and has trouble getting his work done on time during an important project deadline crunch period, I may need an extra pair of hands or another surveyor or technician who can pick up some slack until he recovers from his illness so that no deadlines are missed or projects suffer delays due to unexpected staffing issues like this one. (of course you have to let the client know of these delays and expectations)

Manage expectations

things will not go to plan, for example today I was suppose to finish a time impact analysis, and 4 quotes for a claim. This didn't go to plan, I was only able to produce the quantum and couldn't finish the validity of the variations. At 1pm I informed the commercial director to let him know that I will be done with the submission by tomorrow morning as I had more work than expected when I produced the time impact analysis.

With a new client, it's important that you do everything in your power to make the experience a good one. It's not just about selling them on your services; it's about getting them to trust and rely on you as an expert in your field. This can be tricky for some people because they're afraid of being seen as pushy or aggressive, but if you keep these tips in mind when approaching new clients then I promise they'll appreciate how much effort went into getting there!

How to write a short term business strategy for your land surveying company?

In this post, I'm going to show you how to write a short-term business strategy for your land surveying company.

Although there are some suggestions I've highlighted below to follow, I have mostly worked on a 3-5months short-term strategy depending on the current issues of the market. You will always have to change your strategy and goals to meet the market demand.

This blog will just give you a good indication of what to include or think about.

Start with a strong foundation.

In order to effectively create and implement a strategy, you need a strong foundation. This includes having a clear vision and purpose, as well as defining your goals.

The first step is to define your purpose. You should be able to answer this question: "What does my business do?" If you can’t easily provide an answer, it may be worth revisiting why you want to start the business in the first place—and whether or not that reason holds true today.

Next, define your vision for the future of your company by identifying how it will look in five years' time. What does success look like? How will it feel? What kind of impact would this success have on those around you? This should also include key milestones along the way (if possible).

Finally, set up an outline of all the objectives and metrics related with each goal so that they're measurable and specific (e.g., increase profits by 20% over last year).

Get clear on your purpose.

You should begin by getting clear on your purpose. Why did you start your business? What do you want to achieve? What are your goals? How will you achieve these goals? What do you want to be known for?

These questions will help shape the direction of your strategy.

Define your business vision.

A business vision is a statement of the ideal future state of your company, written in the present tense. In other words, it's not a prediction or forecast; it's what you want to be doing right now.

A business vision answers questions like: “Who do we serve?” and “How do we serve them?” It can also answer questions like: “What are our unique strengths?”, “How do we differentiate ourselves from competitors?” and even “How will our customers benefit from working with us?”

Identify the goals you hope to achieve.

Goals are the ultimate destination that you want to reach. So, before you can get there, it’s important to identify what those goals are. You probably have some ideas of your own, but if not, think about what your business needs in order to succeed.

The most common example of a goal is increasing sales or profits. But there are other ways to measure success as well:

How many clients do you want per month?
Are you hoping for more repeat business?
What would make this company better than it was 6 months ago?

Decide on the strategy for achieving your goals.

The strategy is the most important part of a business plan. It is a set of actions that you will take to meet your goals. The strategy can be defined as a plan that describes how you will achieve your goals.

In order to come up with a sound business strategy for your land surveying company, you need to understand what makes up an effective one. In this article, we've outlined some things that should be included in any good short-term business plan so that you can create one for yourself.

Make sure you have the right people on board.

You might be thinking, "But I'm the only one who knows anything about land surveying!" That's not entirely true. You're going to need people who can work on specific tasks and complete them efficiently. For example, you might have a person who is responsible for putting together your customer's surveyors' reports or another person who handles all of your accounting needs. When hiring new team members, make sure that they are fully capable of performing their role in such a way that will allow the company to operate smoothly and efficiently without any problems. Make sure you hire people who are qualified and trained enough in order to do what they're hired for without any issues arising from it.

If you want more customers but aren't sure how best to attract them without making any mistakes along the way (and losing money), then this section should help! We'll discuss some common reasons why businesses fail at attracting more clients as well as how we've been able to grow our clientele by over 300% since 2014 even though there was no marketing budget whatsoever when we started our business back then...

Determine how you will measure success and track results.

Once you've identified your business problem, the next step is to determine how you will measure success and track results. Perhaps the most important thing to remember when setting goals is this: don't worry about what other people's goals are. Your fitness goal might be different than your friend's or neighbor's fitness goal because of factors like age, gender, body type and personal preferences.

For example, if someone wants to lose weight in 3-6 months while also getting stronger and more toned (which may require more time and effort), that's okay! Just be sure that your goals are realistic for yourself so that they're attainable instead of unattainable or uninspiring. And as with any other goal-setting experience, don't expect immediate results—it may take some time for all those muscles to show up!

If you've got a good plan, you'll be able to grow your company to its full potential.

You'll be able to achieve your goals.

You'll be able to execute the strategy.

And you'll be able to track results and identify the right people who will help implement it.

What to include in short term strategy for your business?

Purpose of your business
Vision for your business
Goals for your business
Strategies for achieving these goals
How will you measure success? (SMART objectives)

Where to write your short term strategy for your business?

Keeping your strategy in one place makes it easy to review and refer to when you need a refresher.

You can write your short term strategy in a notebook, on paper, or type it up on the computer. If you're using a laptop or desktop computer, we recommend using Google Docs because that way it will be accessible from anywhere with an internet connection (and free). You could also use Evernote if you prefer that format for note-taking; however, if not writing on paper appeals to you more than typing on a keyboard (as is often the case), then our recommendation would be for handwritten notes rather than typed notes for this particular task.

Conclusion

We hope you've found this article helpful. If you're looking for more information on how to write a short term business strategy, we recommend checking out our post on how to create your own long term strategy.

What is client care – RICS Client Care Competency Part 1

In this series of blog post I'll be covering several topics on client care competency for the RICS.

The study list includes the following:

Appointment documents
Fees
Prequalification Questionnaires (PQQ)
Invitation to Tender (ITT)
Complaints procedures
Insurance
Understanding client objectives
Establishing client’s brief
Site investigation
Feasibility studies
Procurement reports
Project programme
Communication strategy (Part 1)
Key Performance Indicators
Stakeholder management

You can get a list of the other study checklist in your pathway guide from the RICS website.

The client in this competency is the 'client' who is engaging your services as a surveyor. In reality if you're working as a contractor/subcontractor you wouldn't be dealing with an actual client who has appointed you but a stakeholder such as your Project Manager or Commercial Director. Whomever you have to report to and you will have to use him/her as your client when advising for things in certain aspects of your other competencies.

What is client care?

In general client care is looking after your client's best interest, providing value for money and satisfies their needs.

You would provide client care through your:

professionalism
punctuality
trust
competency
presentation
working to standards
not misleading
communicating clearly (without jargon)
honest
act with integrity

More information on this can be found here.

The majority of this competency is tied in with ethics, rules of conduct and professionalism. In 2021 it was summaries into the new rules of conduct which can be found on the RICS website, please note the new rules are enforced from 2 February 2022 (02/02/2022 easy to remember).

Why is Client care important?

Client care is important for us surveyors to gain repeat business but also not to damage the reputation of the high standard of the RICS. Damaging your views and credibility can be extremely negative as you will have negative feedback.

Worst you may also avoid getting into situations of claims against you if you provide the service as needed for the client and do not go outside of your scope/jurisdiction. This also applies to being an arbitrator (which I am).

What is client performance feedback?

This is a feedback process as part of your quality management system to gain insights of how well you're doing to allow you to course correct where necessary. This should be done throughout the engagement, at the end and after engagement to get a well rounded feedback.

This is to ensure that you're providing the right level of service to their requirement.

Like any quality system, this needs to be monitored and logged to be reviewed for implementation.

What Quality management system would a land surveying company implement?

Any firm, land surveying or quantity surveying, would benefit from a written procedure. It is similar to ISO 9001. However, this is geared solely to quality management for a RICS firm.

The quality management system should include the following:

a system for preventing conflicts of interest from occurring
a process for gathering and evaluating information about a potential customer
Data handling and security processes must be implemented to keep your data safe.
a process for evaluating and providing feedback on the work of new or inexperienced employees.
a billing process to charge clients correctly
a complaints-handling procedure, including how to feedback on lessons learned.

From experience, these should start with policies written up, highlighting the rules of the business and then start implementing these processes and forms up.

How do you conduct yourself with a new client?

You have to be well mannered, well presented , respectful, professional, friendly and enthusiastic.

In terms of winning new work with them, the best way to approach clients is to fully understand their needs and problems. I normally ask them, "why us, why now" this brings up the urgent matters that they are currently struggling. I've picked this up from the salesforce.

The conversation with the client should be a form of customer discovery/interview that you can do to acknowledge their problems. The idea is for you to just listen and actively make notes and pick up the right solutions to get to them. it is best to extract as much information out of them before you start selling your service. Interrupting them in the flow would throw them off. I picked this up from Michelle and Terresa. They explained how to interview people to get to know them better using empathy but also how to continuously extract information and problems from your clients, pre, during and post engagement.

Conclusion

There is not a lot of specifics detailed out from the RICS on how to handle yourself with new clients it is something that you can pick up from other industries. I guess that is why there is no manual or content on the main RICS site talking about client care specifically (other than the GBP175.00 course on client care, if it is running). But I've drafted an essential guide here on this blog.

I will gather some more content on client care in the following blog post.

Fundamental of measurements in land surveying

We discussed a lot about land surveying in our blog but there are some fundamental that we've not covered before the measurement a land surveyor does. We'll cover precision, accuracy, and errors.

What is measurement?

It's important to go into detail about what "measurement" means to explain it more fully. There is only one true distance between two points on a flat surface. Likewise, there is only one acute angle that forms when taking two lines or rays. The act of determining these measurements is called measurement. Sadly, even the most accurate measurements are estimates aren't perfect and have some margin for error. All measurements are still estimates!

Measuring is not the same as counting. Counting depends on indivisible fundamental units things or objects that can’t be divided any further. The smallest unit of money is the penny. You can’t count pennies, but you can measure them, or know how many there are without counting them one by one. If we take a £1 and change it to 50 pence, then we’ve changed the quantity without actually measuring it.

A geodetic surveyor's job is crucial to the maintenance of real property boundaries. Geodesic measurements are only able to reflect a property's current state, and they don't take into account any past changes that may have occurred.

Boundaries are defined by the location of your property's corners. Our measurements must be accurate in order to effectively establish boundaries, so we need to know what angle and distance relates to your corner of land. We'll explore the procedures and history of boundary-related measurements, but just remember that while precise measurements are really important for boundary documentation, they don't define boundaries themselves - boundaries are defined by you!

Precision vs Accuracy

"Precision" refers to the procedure used to arrive at a particular value or figure. Such as 0.0000 (4 points of precision). "Accuracy," on the other hand, refers to how close the measured value is to the "true" value. Accuracy and precision are generally not used interchangeably when referring to dimensions measured with precision instruments.

For example, two men may be requested to determine the distance between two points. Person A looked at the two points and without any tools stated that the distance is 100metres.

Person B then uses a measuring tape and measures the two points a couple of time and determines that the distance is 100.05metres.

Person A's statement is Accurate, and Person B's determination is precise.

Measurement data can be presented in different ways (units such as metres, cm, inches, etc...), and the form of presentation can tell you about the precision of the measurements. This is a hint about how precise the measurements are, but it's not foolproof. Sometimes people who report measurements without understanding exactly what they mean will say something that changes the implied precision.

The precision implied by a metric is often analyzed based on the way that it's implied. A distance given in metres can imply much more precision than one given in miles. Likewise, a directional metric such as "directions" might imply less precision than one using degrees of the compass.

Dimensions are usually measured in units, with a single unit being the smallest possible measure. 22 feet, for instance, means that a foot is the smallest unit of measure and that there can't be anything less than one foot.

if measurements were reported as the nearest inch, then distances from just over 21 feet, 111/2 inches to just under 22 feet, 01/2 inches would be reported as being 22 feet, 0 inches. The implied precision is such that these two measurements are considered different.

In addition to the four types of numbers, fractions also have implied precision. “One half of 1 foot” is not the same as “6 inches,” nor is either one the same as “0.50 feet.” The implied precision of 1/2 foot, for instance, is that there are smallest unit of measure was 1/2 of a foot; the implied precision of 6 inches is that there are smallest unit of measure was one inch; and the implied precision of 0.50 feet is that there are smallest unit of measure was one-hundredth of a foot. One-fourth mile isn't equal to 15 minutes (and 1 acre isn't 43,560 square feet) when we're considering plausibility! Many a real estate maven has multiplied an area given in acres by 43,560 (square feet in an acre) to arrive at a square footage - which would make their sale predictions inaccurate by 21,780 square feet either way!

construction tape measure isolated on white background — #image_title

Errors

Measuring typically depends on the comparison of the thing you're measuring to a standard or known value. Variations in accuracy, precision, and other factors can change the way you measure. These variables are called "errors." If a Land Surveyor or scientist says that they had an error, they mean something different than it does if someone who doesn't know how to measure said it. Errors are reduced by training, attention to detail, quality instrumentation, and a well- thought-out course of action.

There are three general categories of errors: systematic, random, and blunders. Systematic errors occur when you press a touche in reverse order. Random errors occur when devices give inconsistent feedbacks. Blunders are errors that occur because you pressed a touch early or late.

Systematic Errors

Systematic errors can be recorded inaccurately every time that a measurement takes place, which is an oversight in the system. For example, if you were to measure with a ruler that's short by a small fraction, then all measurements would end up being inaccurate. You would mistake objects as being larger than they really are.

Random errors

Random measurement inaccuracies occur when there are systematic errors in how much one side of a piece of wood is aligned with the other, or how the end of a ruler gets lined up with one side, for example. These errors are not the same each time you measure something and can't be predicted because they tend to offset each other out.

Blunder

Blunders come about when a measurement has been misinterpreted. For instance, someone might not be measuring carefully and mark the cut line 4 feet upwards. These mistakes can happen for many reasons and will typically involve two things that were intended—but in a different way. In the saying “measure twice and cut once”, it is an old saying that reflects the same idea of blunders—to work on your measure and act more carefully.

Blunders are random and extremely large. They most often cause conflicts, confusion, and economic loss in the survey profession. One way to reduce the risk of blunders is to employ rigorous measurement procedures.

All measurements have errors

Errors exist in all measurements, even precise ones. Imagine the following experiment. A classroom of high school students was instructed to attempt to measure with a ruler the dimensions of a teacher's desk. The teacher requested that each student measure each dimension to the smallest fraction of an cm that he or she could estimate. As one would reasonably expect, some variations in the reported dimensions for the desk were submitted.

For example, the width of the desk might have ranged from 100cm to 105cm. If the average reported measurement was 102.5cm, then that means that there would be no error in the measurement of
+/- 2.5cm. The actual width of the desk would never be known.

The distance from the first molecule of desk on one end to the last molecule of desk at the other end is so small, it can't be precisely measured. A school ruler isn't calibrated, and the length of the ruler and the width of the desk are both likely to change with humidity and temperature (depending on the material). The different people doing measurements will also affect how they measure things. The difference between what you see as an absolute measurement and what others see as a reported average is much wider than our measurement error suggests.

The students could measure the end to end while recording the humidity, temperature, and other factors for each reading to keep it constant and work out a more accurate. But even if you used lasers, or any other tools you might get a higher precision but you'll never know the true measurement.

There will always be a range of values that can result from correctly and legitimately applying any measurement procedure.

Reducing Errors

The process of measurement is considered the study of procedures or methods that are used to remove the blunders, account for systematic errors and reduce the errors created by random events.

If you want to avoid mistakes, there are a few things you can do. Repeating measurements and keeping an eye on the results are just two of them.

Technically, systematic errors are unexplainable. That said, there are ways to account for such errors. One way is by standardizing the equipment used in experiments. Understandings of the effects of the environment can also help eliminate such errors. Finally, analysis of results will reveal any potential deviations due to systematic errors.

There are three ways by which the effects of random errors can be reduced: refining instrumentation, increasing observation volume and counting analysis. This process in the modern land survey is discussed in detail below.

Conclusion

The land survey is a complex process that requires the use of advanced technology to help take measurements for measured surveys, setting out, monitoring and topographical surveys. Even in the advent of satellite imagery and GPS technology making it easier to collect the data, we provide a better precision but things will never be true measures but better accuracy and higher precision (Depending on the equipment).