I recently hired an inspector and am trying to figure out the best way to handle client calls with questions about a report.
We perform mostly investment property inspections for out-of-state clients therefore 95% of them don’t attend the inspection.
This results in likely a higher quantity of calls to our office with a desire to discuss the report/ask questions about defects.
My inspector is a 9-5 employee and he is booked every day performing actual inspections and doesn’t have the time for calls so usually I take the call for him outside business hours after my inspections.
However is this a good method? Would it possibly leave a bad taste in a client’s mouth? They of course could speak to the inspector if they attended the inspection but they almost never do. Is there a better way?
If you’re going to take the calls you better go over every report, front and back and sideways, with the actual inspector.
Obviously you can’t answer questions about items that weren’t in the report so you better have your 9-5 guy put in some regular office hours to field questions. The way you’re doing it he may have too much going on to even remember aspects of properties that didn’t make the report.
The question you need to answer is; Are you running an assembly line or providing a real service for your clients?
We always have the inspector who did the report answer the questions - never found a way around that. Even if you know the report, there are going to be things that only the one on site can answer.
That’s a great question Bob. I feel maybe our current way makes it feel more like an assembly line. That is my primary concern that as we grow, my customer satisfaction drops, and therefore business also declines…
With that level of call-back, you should build it in as part of the schedule. If the inspector is running 2-a-day, then set them at 10am and 2pm and do call-backs from the prior day at 9am and 1pm to answer questions (or whatever time works for everyone). That way the client expectations are met and the inspector plans his day to include these calls.
And then there is the root cause of the callbacks… WHY do you get so many calls to begin with?
Are the Reports lacking in some manner?
Do the Reports not go into enough detail of the property, not just the item of concern?
I have to assume you are doing on-site reporting. IMO, this is a huge reason Realtors love them, and Clients hate them… DETAILS, or the lack of them!
Consider posting one of your (older) Reports that had many callbacks here for comments from others.
A few fresh pairs of eyes may reveal what is really going on.