Building a Home Renovating Design Dilemma

How are other designers offering remote design consultations?

4 years ago

Well that was quick! We’ve just had our first enquiry from a lady who has been self-isolating for a few days – during this time she has been pondering a long-held desire to extend her kitchen and was wondering if we could help without physically visiting her at home. And of course we can as we’ve had great experiences of remote consultations both locally and further afield.

Our process is fairly simple - instead of the standard approach of making an appointment to visit the client's house for a detailed consultation we can instead make an appointment to provide our consultation by video-call during which the client can walk us around their house to better explain the existing layout and how they'd like this improved; we can also ask them to show us elements that are important to us as designers but which they may not have considered as relevant.

Just as with a face-to-face consultation we can explore the opportunities for extending and reconfiguring their home, identify any limitations imposed by the existing structure, and provide essential advice regarding Planning Permission and Building Control approvals.

Our preferred video-call medium is currently ‘Whatsapp’ as it allows the client to move freely around to demonstrate the various areas & aspects of their house that they'd like help with, and it’s generally free to use - but we'd love to hear from anyone using any alternatives, or to hear the preferences of home-owners.

We're also mindful that the Planners’ target in N Ireland is to assess applications in a somewhat sluggish 12 weeks, and Building Control take another few weeks after this, so by the time clients come out the other side of isolation they could have all of their approvals in place ready for construction to start on their new project straight away – now there’s something to look forward to!

Share your thoughts please on video-call technology, and any experiences (good or bad) you've had with it.

Featured Answer

PRO

OnePlan

4 years ago

Hi Colin,
Pretty much all of our work is done remotely!

We use email ( screen shots ), phone, FaceTime, WhatsApp and Skype - some weeks it’s all of the above - others it’s just calls and emails.
Ideally I’d like to implement a system where we can do all of this and keep all of each clients info /contact /notes in one medium, as would make life sooooo much easier ! .... but not had time to research how we can do that yet !

Corona virus is certainly having an impact on people across the globe and that’s heartbreaking for those affected and having to cope with the fallout and changes.

Personally, I’ve now stopped using the main office and now working exclusively from home.
Come to think of it - I’ve not actually been outside since Sunday ! So I need to fit in some walks into lunch breaks like I would normally do. I’m guilty of working through lunch ( and supper ) when I work from home ! Must remember to stop occasionally!!
So this post has made me realise that - thank you !!

I seem to have received an email this week from every supplier I’ve ever bought a thing from !
Shame they are making this into a marketing opportunity !
But I guess lots of companies and individuals are just trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Good luck changing the way you work - I can imagine it’s slightly trickier making an assessment of a project without going there for you - as there’s only so much you can glean from a video call. I’ve found WhatsApp and FaceTime to offer the clearest images. But they all seem very similar !

Watching with interest - and fingers crossed that someone knows of an awesome CRM type system !

(We do site visits for our charity work - as often for people with life changing ability or function loss so that requires more one to one time to work on designs for current situation, but that are also future proof as the clients improve. )

Comments (6)

PRO
9yards architecture
Original Author
4 years ago
Thanks Karen, that's good to know. Hopefully going forward the remote consultations might continue to grow for us as they're better for the environment (not as much travel) and more flexible for clients - but I do miss the personal face-to-face contact at the preliminary stage.

I hope you find the CRM you're after - please share it if you do!
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HouzzUK
4 years ago
Thanks for sharing @9yards architecture, really interesting to hear how you're implementing remote consultations. Would love to know whether other professionals are also taking a similar approach?
9yards architecture thanked HouzzUK
PRO
M O Kennett
4 years ago
Thanks for your ideas on remote consultations, I can see how this works really well. I have one question, we need to measure to produce detailed drawings for planning and building regulations applications, and hopefully for tendering and construction too, how do you obtain the survey. Also we find that surveying ourselves helps us to understand the little, not obvious, constraints upon the design from the existing property. I am struggling to find a way to survey without visiting, any suggestions ?
PRO
9yards architecture
Original Author
4 years ago
Hi Tim & Mark,

I feel your pain on this - especially those essential little clues you get from the dimensional survey. I don't think there's an easy answer, other than 'interrogating' the client for more detail!

For example, recently I was working remotely on feasibility for a project where 2 walls were to be removed; no dimensional survey at this stage but I had a fair idea of the house type so had sketched it out to get a rough idea in front of me. When talking with the client by video I asked her to get the camera into the roofspace to show the roof structure, spans, purlins etc to confirm my suspicions that both walls were supporting, and just what they were supporting. This alone allowed the feasibility discussion to move in the best direction, given that the construction budget was too tight to allow for the necessary structural work in removing both walls.

In broader terms, the simple answer for how to get the survey done is to glean all the information you can to make an 'educated guess' as to the house layout (from external photos, etc), then draw this out for the client to add dimensions to. It's often a very iterative process whereby you might get the external walls, windows, doors, etc but find that something internally isn't quite right - so back to the client by email / video / etc for photos / dimensions of a specific area until it all makes sense.

In simpler jobs the detail in a specific area might be sufficient (eg the effected areas for a kitchen extension to bungalow with just a knock-through and roof junctions), while for other jobs we've gotten to an agreed feasibility design using the client's dimensions and then I've gone to site (Majorca, Henley, etc) to conduct the full dimensional survey for detailed design (obviously under different circumstances from today!).

I don't think there's any doubt that remote design suits the feasibility stages better than the detailed stages, but if it makes a connection with clients, and is helpful to them, without incurring expensive travel, or breaking lock-down, then it can be quite useful. Although as I said above, for me nothing beats personal face-to-face contact.

Hope this helps.
PRO
M O Kennett
4 years ago
Coli

Thank you, I had been thinking of something like this too, its good to see others, (you) are on the same lines. I'll have to give it a try, too see how willing clients are to provide the info.

I hope all is going well with you,

Mark

How are other designers offering remote design consultations?

OnePlan

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9yards architecture
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How are other designers offering remote design consultations?

OnePlan

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9yards architectureOriginal Author

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M O Kennett

9yards architectureOriginal Author

M O Kennett

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9yards architecture
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