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Generally most new clients go for the lowest price or fastest service.
Some new clients don’t like to shop around, so they’ll just go with whatever you tell them if it doesn’t seem too outrageous to them.
Only repeat clients and referrals are there because of you, your product, and your reputation.
So when someone calls you wanting a survey, what do you give them, and what do you call it?
I tell them we won’t be the cheapest and if they are looking for the cheapest i can provide them appropriate contact info and save us each time and effort. If we move past that i tell them i can provide a lump sum contract (for topo) or an hourly contract (boundary work) with an initial cost estimate. Sometimes I can also use a lump sum boundary contract if I have completed sufficient work in the area to know what I am up against. The key is a clearly outlined scope of the project which identifies which monuments we expect to find.
- Posted by: WA-ID Surveyor
So when someone calls you wanting a survey, what do you give them, and what do you call it?
I tell them we won’t be the cheapest and if they are looking for the cheapest i can provide them appropriate contact info and save us each time and effort. If we move past that i tell them i can provide a lump sum contract (for topo) or an hourly contract (boundary work) with an initial cost estimate. Sometimes I can also use a lump sum boundary contract if I have completed sufficient work in the area to know what I am up against. The key is a clearly outlined scope of the project which identifies which monuments we expect to find.
So you give them a price?
- Posted by: WA-ID Surveyor
So when someone calls you wanting a survey, what do you give them, and what do you call it?
I tell them we won’t be the cheapest and if they are looking for the cheapest i can provide them appropriate contact info and save us each time and effort. If we move past that i tell them i can provide a lump sum contract (for topo) or an hourly contract (boundary work) with an initial cost estimate. Sometimes I can also use a lump sum boundary contract if I have completed sufficient work in the area to know what I am up against. The key is a clearly outlined scope of the project which identifies which monuments we expect to find.
If you tell them that you’re not the cheapest and give them a name of someone cheaper, why would they want to hire you, assuming that they don’t know of you prior and weren’t referred to you by a friend?
If you’re also telling them that you’re better, and that’s why you’re not the cheapest, then you may be crossing the line into unethical conduct.
- Posted by: WA-ID SurveyorPosted by: FrozenNorth
With the exception of Brooks Act work, I really don’t know how you think cost could be removed from the equation. Providing someone with an estimate/bid up front is not going away. The problem isn’t that we’re asked to provide an estimate or a bid up front, the problem is that boundary surveying is generally considered to have a low value in our society. That is NOT the result of bidding or estimating.
You would ask for an estimate from an architect to design your house, from a doctor to perform a boob job, from an accountant to handle your finances…and from a contractor and/or plumber to work on your house. In all of those cases you would perhaps get several estimates and weigh cost against reputation. Neither cut-rate boob jobs or cut-rate plumbing are much of a bargain. Our problem as surveyors is that the value of our services is often perceived as lower than both many professions AND skilled trades. You very well may strictly price shop for snow removal, routine landscaping, tree removal, oil changes, and house painting. As noted above, the public simply cannot distinguish among different levels of survey “quality” and only rarely would they care to do so anyway.
In the rare cases where they do care to discriminate based on quality, they seem happy to pay through the nose (like in some of the boundary cases that JBStahl shares). But my understanding is that this is often well after the lawyers have entered the room, so surveying starts to look cheap!
Fortunately you are wrong. Obviously other areas of the USA run by a different set of rules than around this area. For the majority of our projects over the last 15 years we are selected based on a quality based system. Cost is not even discussed, nor can it be, until the consultant is chosen. There are RFPs coming out by the dozens on a daily basis that follow this exact criteria.
I wish I were wrong. I would venture that you are doing almost exclusively government work, and almost exclusively on public works projects. If that’s true, then the RFPs should be in compliance with the Brooks Act (as I mentioned at the beginning of my earlier post), and QBS rules the day. There’s a whole other world of work out there, though, especially boundary surveying for private clients, where RFPs for QBS would be exceedingly rare.
There’s a whole other world of work out there, though, especially boundary surveying for private clients, where RFPs for QBS would be exceedingly rare.
I am very aware of that and lived in that world for about 15 years or so early in my career while watching the companies i worked for struggle. A business model with a race to the bottom is not a good business model. Ever since I ‘found the light’ I have been making considerable more money with considerably less headaches.
- This is an excerpt from a typical reply to a client requesting a price.“More research will be necessary to see what the intent was for the creation of this tract of land to be severed from the original estate.I would suggest you consider a budget of $3,000. It is too early to know an actual expense.For a moderate expense, it would be helpful to obtain a copy of deeds (with property descriptions) to the surrounding properties and from GLO archives to study before proceeding. Some of this can be done online.”
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