The fee tendering and service quality issue revisited

Purpose – It is a little over 20 years since mandatory fee scales were abolished by UK professional bodies. During this period fee levels have fluctuated with economic demand, and new procurement strategies such as partnering have been developed, but there is still a widespread view in industry that fee levels are too low. This view is shared by many professionals, and perhaps more surprisingly by clients, even in the current construction and property boom. The purpose of this paper is to report research on the link between competitive fee tendering and clients' perceptions of service quality in the UK property industry. The main hypothesis is that there is a causal relationship between service quality and the method of appointment of the professional.Design/methodology/approach – The research involved unstructured interviews with clients and professionals and a postal questionnaire study of one 133 UK based clients. The questionnaire study was a repeat of a similar survey conducted eight years previously...