Survey Booker Sessions

In part 2 of episode 2 with Ian Boyd from Arc Consulting, we're discussing the Built Environment and Wellbeing.

How do we make buildings and outside spaces better for the people who live and work there?

Changes to the design and build process can make spaces more appealing, improve mental health and create engaged communities.

Ian Boyd has worked in environmental conservation, ecological management and public engagement roles for over 30 years. He founded the Island 2000 Trust, the conservation charity Gift to Nature and inaugurated the Newport Rivers Group and Island Rivers.

He has worked for national and local charities, public sector and in private practice at locations across England and Wales and has managed coastal and freshwater reserves in Suffolk and Kent, upland rivers in Cumbria and lowland rivers on the Isle of Wight.

Ian is extremely passionate about what he does and has some great insights across the three parts of this episode.

In part 2, looking at Wellbeing in the Built Environment we discuss:

🏡 Designing habitats for humans with consideration for quality of life.

🏞️ Designing public spaces for mental health benefits.

⛰️ How outdoor spaces can be more interesting and engaging than generic flat areas

🏗️ Building in unfinished spaces for community involvement.

🏃‍♂️ Creating spaces based on how they'll be used and look when they're lived in

In part 1 of episode 2 with Ian Boyd from Arc Consulting, we're discussing the Built Environment and Biodiversity.

Ian Boyd has worked in environmental conservation, ecological management and public engagement roles for over 30 years. He founded the Island 2000 Trust, the conservation charity Gift to Nature and inaugurated the Newport Rivers Group and Island Rivers.

He has worked for national and local charities, public sector and in private practice at locations across England and Wales and has managed coastal and freshwater reserves in Suffolk and Kent, upland rivers in Cumbria and lowland rivers on the Isle of Wight.

Ian is extremely passionate about what he does and has some great insights across the three parts of this episode.

In part 1, looking at Biodiversity in the Built Environment we discuss:

⚖️ Legislation around Biodiversity Net Gain

🪺 Misconceptions around bat and bird nesting

🪶 How Swifts really rely on nesting in the built environment

📝 The standards we need to become conventional in new builds

🏘️ How we can adapt buildings and when these should be planned in

🚧 Why are people hesitating to make changes

👷 What to consider with facilities maintenance with wildlife options incorporated

⭐ The benefits achieved by developers and occupiers of wildlife features

Kate Charrington joins us for the final part of our first episode of Season 2 of Survey Booker Sessions.

Kate is the Director of Projekt3 and is focused on helping residential surveyors future-proof their business by introducing and developing sustainability into their products and practices.

We discuss 3 topics together and in this third and final part, we are discussing how report auditing and discussing the environment can help you add to your USPs and help you boost your fees.

In this video, we discuss:

🚨 What are the common pitfalls and easy wins to providing better reports?

🧘 The importance of writing reports focused on customer concerns

📣 The benefit of writing a report in first person

⭐ How to make a customer confident in your report

📊 How to boost your average fee and improve your USPs

Kate Charrington joins us for part two of our first episode of Season 2 of Survey Booker Sessions.

Kate is the Director of Projekt3 and is focused on helping residential surveyors future-proof their business by introducing and developing sustainability into their products and practices.

We discuss 3 topics together and in this second part, we are discussing whether or not you need to discuss the environment in your reports.

In this video, we discuss:

🌳 Do we need to talk about the environment in reports?

🌦️ What are the statistics on how environmental issues are affecting properties right now?

📝 Where do these comments fit into your report?

⚖️ Do you discuss potential legislation change?

⚠️ What are the realities of liability when discussing environmental aspects?

Kate Charrington joins us for our first episode of Season 2 of Survey Booker Sessions.

Kate is the Director of Projekt3 and is focused on helping residential surveyors future-proof their business by introducing and developing sustainability into their products and practices.

We discuss 3 topics together and in this first part we are discussing the importance of having an independent review of your reports.

In this video, we discuss:

🔍 Why is having a third party reviewing your reports important?

🪞 When is a self-evaluation appropriate?

📖 Understanding reflection and proof-reading is not an evaluation

✅ How does the process of an independent evaluation work and how often should you do it?

🧑‍🦳 Can you rely on self-evaluation as you get more experienced?

📝 What are some of the issues with standard phrases?

⁉️ Are jargon-free reports really jargon-free?

🎺 When can you really claim you offer high-quality reports?

Survey Booker is all about customer and team management and how you keep people engaged.

In this week's episode, and the final episode for season 1, we speak with Kate Healy from The Together Collective about team building.

This episode is about different ways you can engage your team and boost morale. Kate has experience running both in person and virtual team building events.

Ideas that are great for surveyors who often work remotely but would still enjoy catching up with the team.

We discuss:

👍 Moving from a side hustle to a full time business

🤖 Pivoting to provide virtual events through Covid (and beyond)

👫 The benefits to companies that run team building days

🎯 How to run different events to suit different team members

📆 How often to run events

📊 Maintaining your USP as you scale

💡 How to get started with the idea you have

In this episode we speak with Sarah Noble, Head of Early Engagement at the RICS. 

Sarah head's up the drive to get kids aware of and engaged with the different routes into surveying. It's a tough role creating awareness of a hidden profession that doesn't have the same immediate awareness as building trades or professions such as engineering, law and medicine. 

We discuss:

• What is early engagement
• The challenge of surveying being a hidden profession
• How to engage younger people with surveying roles
• Planning which pathways to promote based on expected future demand
• Measuring the impact of early engagement programmes
• Building relationships with organisations and teachers to help increase engagement
• How parents perceptions of surveying affect children’s choices
• How you can work with RICS to help promote the profession

Everyone can help to engage kids with surveying and each engagement, no matter how small, contributes to a big impact overall for the number of people pursuing a role on the profession.  Have you considered reaching out to the RICS to see how you can help engage people at school level about what you do? 

In this episode, we speak to Charlotte Surtees-Chapman who is the Group Senior Public Affairs Manager at Associated British Foods plc. 

Charlotte has worked for Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Associated British Foods on public affairs and communications and so offers a wealth of knowledge around how to correctly manage your communications to different parties. 

We discuss:

• What is public affairs and how it’s changed
• When to put something out as you or as your company
• The importance of the timing of your messages
• Checking that your communications make sense
• Using comms for internal benefits as well as external
• Understanding the different audiences your messages is going to
• Measuring the success of a message

In this episode, we speak with Lydia Elder, a marketing director and influencer who has grown her social media channels to over 100k followers.

We discuss: 

• The experience of buying a house as a first-time buyer
• The keys to generating traction on social media
• Working with HouseBuilders to boost their social media engagement
• Understanding what you’re looking to achieve with your marketing
• Generating content for other mediums
• Why Lydia chose the mortgage broker they used 
• Working with other professionals in the property process to generate trust
• Scheduling posts or posting manually

In this episode we speak with Nik Carle, Litigation Partner at Browne Jacobson LLP, about everything claims in surveying. 

Receiving a claim is a big worry and hot topic amongst surveyors. 

How does the claims process work
Where do most claims come from
What common reasons are there for making a claim
How to reduce your chances of having a claim made against you
How to prepare for a claim
What to do when a complaint or claim is made
The emotional impact of a claim

And much more. This is a big topic but we discuss how you can protect yourself and prepare yourself so you can sleep easy at night knowing you've done your best to cover all basis to prevent a claim, help prevent escalation of a claim and deal with it professionally if it's taken further. 

Preparation and process is key to every aspect of a business. 

Listen to the episode now.