Being prepared is the most vital aspect of the survey.
You have to remember that each quote/survey, actually costs you time and money, so it is in your best interest that you do everything that you can to land the job.
However, the request comes in, you should obtain as much relevant detail as you can concerning the likely services that your prospect requires, this will help you when you actually visit your prospects premises, after all surveying a school is different to surveying an office or warehouse.
You should ensure that your survey form is tailored to the type of property you are surveying, make sure that you have plenty of forms! You should also leave plenty of space to make freehand notes. Also make sure you have at least 2 pens, sods law can come into play!
Taking photo's, at this stage, is not a good idea in my opinion, perhaps after landing the contract, to use as a benchmark perhaps, with the clients permission, of course. You could also use the images within your advertising, again with the clients written permission.
Your assumption that you should jump straight in to the actual survey, is a mistake. One that is repeated by nearly all contractors every day.
How can you ascertain your clients needs, without first undersatnding their problems and requirements!
You should suggest that you find somewhere to sit and have a chat about service levels, their exact requirements, cleaning problems etc. You should lead the conversation so that you gain an insight into exactly what they want from your service, you should listen to what your contact has to say very closely, making detailed notes.
When you are confident that you have obtained all the information that you require, you spend a few minutes explaining to your prospect how you work, and what makes you different from your competitors, you can usually tell if your contact is taking this on board, and this will again help you decide on the quality of this lead, and so will determine how much effort you put into the written quote.
You should then suggest that you carry out the detailed survey of the premises, filling in your survey form with the relevant details, making notes about problems, specialist items or tasks etc. You should never, ever,
criticise their current/previous cleaners!Let me explain the above!
Your contact, will only be to aware of the problems, they will not thank you for rubbing their nose in it! You may well have to take on the current staff under TUPE, so please, tempting though it is, please refrain from doing it.
There, are of course, subtle tricks of the trade that you can use, but I will not go into that here
.
After the survey has been completed, you should always ask if your contact has any questions, or feels that you may have missed something. Assuming that your contact is happy, then you need to thank them for their time, and hand over your business card and some advertising material/brochure etc.
Once back in the office, you should then preapre your written quotation, using the information that you have gleaned from your site visit, once ready, deliver it in person
ALWAYS, this speaks volumes to your prospect, it says quite clearly, that you have taken personal responsibility for this contract, you dont need to see your contact, they will hear that you deliverd it, that will be enough!
As you are quite new to the industry, nerves, will obviously play a part, cleaning has become more technical over the years, so learn and educate yourself, this way you can serve your clients better. The more surveys that you complete, the easier the process becomes, practice does indeed make perfect!
Regards,
Rob