Somebody notices a crack above a door. She photographs it, searches online, reads four contradictory articles by midnight and convinces herself the house is subsiding.
She sends the photograph to three engineers asking whether it is serious. It is not a question anybody can answer from an image, and she needs somebody to say so kindly and then help.
Why these enquiries are difficult
The enquirer is frightened, the information is minimal, and the one thing they want is the one thing nobody can responsibly provide without attending.
What goes wrong at the first contact
Either an engineer offers a reassuring guess, which is unprofessional, or the enquiry is met with silence, which sends a worried person to whoever replies with an opinion.
Say plainly what can and cannot be assessed remotely
That photographs help decide whether a visit is needed and what equipment to bring, and that no judgement can be made without attending. Honest and reassuring at the same time.
Ask what prompted the enquiry
New or long standing, whether it has changed, whether anything else has been noticed and whether anybody has said something. The trigger shapes the urgency.
Ask when it appeared and whether it is moving
The most clinically useful question. A crack that has been there for fifteen years is a different matter from one that appeared in March.
Ask about the property
Age, construction, storeys, extensions, conversions and any history of works. It determines what the engineer expects to find.
Ask what else is happening nearby
Building work next door, a large tree, recent drainage problems, a new driveway or heavy vehicles. Context frequently explains the whole thing.
Ask who needs the outcome
The owner, an insurer, a buyer, a lender or a neighbour, which is the ground in site investigation and ground condition enquiries.
Ask about any deadline
A sale, an insurance claim or a dispute. It determines how quickly the consultancy must respond to be useful at all.
Publish the assessment process
Visit, inspection, findings, a written report if required and any recommendation for monitoring or further investigation. People want to know what they are buying.
Publish the fee range
For a visit, for a report and for anything further. Frightened people need to know whether this is hundreds or thousands before they will act.
Explain that monitoring is a common outcome
That many assessments recommend watching something over time rather than immediate work. It is reassuring and it is honest.
Explain the insurer route
That some situations are matters for an insurer first, and what a claim typically involves. Advising somebody to speak to their insurer before paying you builds real trust.
Explain what the report can be used for
People frequently need the outcome for somebody else, and a document written for the owner may not satisfy a lender, an insurer or a solicitor. Saying at the enquiry stage what form the report takes and who may rely on it prevents a second fee for a version that says the same thing to a different reader.
Respond quickly and kindly
These enquiries arrive at night from people who cannot sleep, and structured capture is what makes a fast response possible, as in receptionist screening questions, project enquiries for engineering consultancies and commercial survey and dilapidations enquiries.
Getting started
Publish your assessment process and fee ranges, say plainly what cannot be judged from photographs, and capture the property and the trigger at any hour. SpideyChat for professional services firms answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about capture on the features page.