Client care questions
Client care is closely linked to ethics and is questioned alongside it. RICS defines the client broadly: not only the party who appointed you but the stakeholders you engage with on the way. Expect the panel to start with how an appointment begins and end with what happens when it goes wrong.
Client care
Manage client relationships, expectations and complaints; deliver a quality service. 'Client' means every stakeholder, not only the party who appointed you. Mandatory to Level 2.
What the assessor is listening for
- That an appointment starts with written terms, and that you know what is in yours.
- That you manage expectations before there is a problem, not after. The timing of a difficult conversation is the answer.
- That you distinguish the appointing party from the stakeholders you owe a duty of care to, and act accordingly.
- Evidence of a service you delivered, not a description of what good service would look like in general.
Level 1
Knowledge & understanding - you can explain the principle.
- What goes into your terms of appointment, and why does each part matter?A strong answer covers: Scope, fee basis, the limits of liability, the complaints route and the parties' obligations. Then why the scope clause is the one that decides most later arguments.
- Who is your client, and does anyone else have a claim on your duty of care?A strong answer covers: The appointing party, and then the wider stakeholders you engage with. Where a duty could extend beyond the contract, and what a firm does about that (collateral warranties, third-party rights, or a clear statement that reliance is not offered).
Level 2
Application - you have done it yourself and can describe how.
- How did you take the brief on a recent instruction, and what did you do when it turned out to be incomplete?A strong answer covers: The questions you asked to close the gaps, what you wrote back to confirm your understanding, and the assumptions you recorded so they could be tested rather than buried.
- Tell me about a time a client asked for something outside the agreed scope.A strong answer covers: How you spotted it was outside scope, the conversation you had at the time rather than at the invoice, and whether it was varied, absorbed or declined. Say which, and why that was right.
- How do you keep a client informed on a job where the news is bad?A strong answer covers: The reporting rhythm agreed at the start, the escalation you make outside it when a figure moves, and the principle that the client hears it from you first. A concrete instance beats a policy.
Level 3
Reasoned advice & depth of judgement - you have advised others and can justify decisions and trade-offs.
- A client complains about your service. Walk me through what happens.A strong answer covers: Acknowledgement, the internal stage under your firm's published procedure, the timescales, and the independent route beyond it. Then the advice you would give a colleague receiving their first complaint.
- Your client wants a decision that you think is against their interest. How do you handle it?A strong answer covers: Advice with the reasoning and the consequences set out, in writing, and the client's right to decide anyway. Where the line sits between a decision you disagree with and one you cannot be party to.
- How would you advise a firm to improve how it looks after clients?A strong answer covers: Something you could actually implement: what you would measure, what you would change in the appointment or the reporting, and how you would know it had worked. Advice, not a list of virtues.
How candidates lose this one
Hiding behind 'we'. The panel is assessing you, and an answer with no first person in it reads as someone else's work.
Describing a happy job. Client care is demonstrated under strain: the change the client did not want to pay for, the deadline that moved, the complaint.
More RICS APC questions
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