Following his investigation, which probably took and hour or so online, the potential client decided not to purchase a property all for the right reasons.
So where does this leave the Architect? Perhaps 2 hours down for travel time and a 1hr meeting and then an hour or so of research online. This may well have amounted to £200 - £250 of his time, unpaid!
Is this right or wrong?
I know that we certainly offer a free consultation simply as a way to show our potential clients about the issues that face them if they do embark on their project but there is no doubt that this time out of the office mounts up during the course of a year. So how do we stop it?
I don't have the answer but it surely needs to be something across the industry. It needs to be a 'mechanism' which is policed from on high and ultimately sets a basic fee level for this 'free consultation' process.
Alternatively, we just charge for it and agree to spend 2-3hours with the client and maybe even provide some on site sketches and ideas allowing them to understand in more detail what is or is not possibe.
We will win some appointments this way but the fear is that we will lose more appointments that we win and we need as many appointments as possible in today's economy to secure the confidence of as many clients as we can.
Is there a right or wrong answer to this one?
Please post your thoughts below.
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