Will Your Firm be Ready?

We all know that good news regarding the business economy has been scarce in the past couple years. Architecture firms have certainly not been spared the downward spiral. In January of this year, the AIA’s Architecture Billings Index (ABI) dropped to the lowest level in history. The good news is that a few rays of sunshine may finally be breaking through the gloom. Regardless whether you are trying to survive the storm of a recession or be the front-runner in an economic rebound, to be successful you must know to what degree your clients value your services.

AIArchitect Architectural Billings Index

According to the April 24, 2009 AIArchitect, although generally weak conditions still prevail at many architecture firms (particularly in the West); fewer firms are reporting declining billings in the last several months. In March, the  AIA’s Architecture Billings Index (ABI) rose to its highest level since August 2008.  Growth in inquiries is reportedly the highest in a year.

When the economy in general and the construction industry in particular rebounds and growth returns, will your clients come to you for the services they need? Just as your firm’s survival depends on client loyalty in the worst of economic times, your firm’s growth depends on it during economic recovery. In both cases, your staff must strive to meet client needs to ensure client satisfaction and loyalty. First, they must be aware of the clients’ needs. Then, they must respond to those needs. Lastly and most importantly, the architect or designer must know to what degree the client felt his needs were satisfied. They must ask, act and react.

Now, if there was just a tool that could help do all this…  DesignFacilitator’s Feedback Tool was specifically designed to help architects and designers become aware of not only their clients’ needs, but their satisfaction with the designers’ actions in fulfilling those needs. The tool helps you to continuously collect feedback, analyzes it and presents the results in simple understandable reports. See how this simple yet powerful web tool works here.

Source: http://info.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek09/0424/0424b_otb.cfm