INTEGRITY
These are tough economic times and a lot of businesses are looking for ways to bridge this current recession. Some businesses are cutting prices to bare minimums in order to stay-a-float long enough to see the rising tide of economic change, but at what cost? There sometimes is a dangerous tradeoff in the quality or amount of service that one can afford to give when prices are reduced. The question arises as to whether it is worth it to give a lesser quality product and compromised service just to gain a new project.
Earlier this month, we were asked by an architecture firm to propose on a rather large project to be built here in Southern Nevada. Due to the nature of the project we were asked to sign a confidentially agreement that precludes us from discussing any of the details of the project, suffice to say it is fairly large and we were pleased to respond with our proposal which too would significantly boost our projected revenue for the year.
A couple of days after we submitted our proposal, the potential client told us that our cost was double that of our competitors' and asked us to reduce our design fees by fifty percent. We were perplexed and reviewed our proposal to see where we might have gone wrong.
You see; NBD understands what it takes to construct a project and we base our designs on constructability. When we propose a fee for a project, we take the time to walk the site, research the proximity of existing utilities, identify site defects that must be mitigated, and account for the number of submittals that need to be approved by regulatory agencies. And, because we do our homework, our scope of work is spelled out in total detail leaving nothing to surprise. What that means to you, the Client, is that NBD does not come back with "ad-on's" or "scope creep" and raise our price midway through the project because we did not propose a drainage or traffic study or some other service that we knew would be needed but was not requested in the RFP. We feel that it is our ethical obligation as a professional and expert in our field to inform the client up-front of all the items necessary to properly design and permit the project. So, unless the project itself changes our price does not change. A very important element when you are going to the bank for construction financing.
We had indeed properly looked at this project and accurately estimated the amount of work we feel is needed to complete the civil design. So of course, we elected not to compromise our integrity by lowering our fee. We realize that it is a very tough decision to make between a lower fee firm and Nevada By Design. Most importantly we understand the importance of providing you the client with quality services; and we feel that our fee reflects the level of effort we believe it will take to produce a quality set of plans and specifications that are constructible.
If a possible client receives proposals from other civil engineering firms that are around ten percent less than our proposal, our response is - 'they know best what their services are worth.'
So, how important is the scope of work in determining the value of your civil engineering proposal? Are you comparing "Apples to Apples and Oranges to Oranges" when you compare proposals?
You have a choice; hiring a professional firm to represent your interests and help you to achieve your goals, or go for the lowest dollar. At NBD, we will continue provide to our clients with un-compromising quality and service, no matter what the economic conditions. INTEGRETY at a fair price!
