Tag Archives: engineer

Pick Up the Phone! (Tues Tip)

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phoneToday’s Tip is a simple one: Pick up the phone to ensure good communications on the construction project.  Too many of us naturally default to email or text message when communicating on the fly.  Without the tone of voice, however, many times things get misconstrued or taken out of context. 

I’m sure you’ve had the experience of emailing someone, and later learning they are mad or offended at something you said.  You thought the comment was innocuous.  They took it the wrong way.  Apologies were necessary; feelings were hurt.

While telephoning the other party can take more time, it keeps things on an even keel.  Tones can be “read” and misunderstandings can be cleared up right away. 

The next time you need to have a substantive communication with the Owner or Contractor, try the telephone.  You know, that email-checking/text-enabling device that is always with you?  It can telephone folks too.  Try it.

This post was in no way inspired by any misunderstood emails involving the author.  (Am I serious, or kidding? Hard to tell, isn’t it?).

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Photo:  (c) Victor Manuel via Creative Commons license.

 

 

Standard of Care for Engineers- the Jury Instruction (law note)

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Not perfection I’ve previously talked about the standard of care for design professionals on construction projects. 

As you should be aware, the standard is reasonableness, not perfection.  To illustrate the point, consider a standard North Carolina jury instruction on the standard of care for engineers:

 “Under our law, a professional engineer is required to exercise that degree of care which a professional engineer of ordinary skill and prudence would exercise under the same or similar circumstances, and if the engineer fails to exercise such degree of ordinary skill and prudence under the same or similar circumstances, the engineer’s conduct would be negligence.”

For an architect, just substitute the word “architect” for “engineer” in the jury instruction above.    Sometimes it can be challenging to meet a client’s expectations, and some clients believe that plans should (and can) be perfect.  In your discussions about the project with the client, be sure the client has reasonable expectations.  It is not reasonable to expect perfection in design plans.  Unforeseen conditions, changing criteria, and differing code inspector interpretations are all to be expected.  Educate your client about typical errors & omissions at the start of the construction project.
 
Do you have a question about the standard of care?  Drop me an email at mbrumback@rl-law.com.  Be sure to sign up for email delivery of blog posts directly to your inbox so you never miss a post!
 

Online Marketing Primer for Architects & Engineers (Tue Tip Guest Post)

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 Today’s Tip is a guest post by Andy Durban, who manages Inspired Builder Marketing Solutions in Greensboro, North Carolina.  Inspired has been providing marketing services to the building industry of North Carolina for nearly ten years.  Andy has been involved in marketing and media since the late 80s and currently specializes in online marketing strategies.  The back link referenced in this article belongs to Inspired client Cirrus Construction.

There are still a few industries that benefit from a yellow page ad, if you are reading this blog you’re probably not in one. The internet search has been in popular use for quite some time and that’s not going to change anytime soon. No doubt you have been exposed to the hype surrounding social media, but no one is ‘Facebooking’ Architect, they ‘Google’ Architect. You may have great website which in itself has value but if doesn’t rank well then it will only be available to those already aware of your business. There are businesses looking for you and they use Google (and sometimes Yahoo or even Bing). And as you know from searching yourself they rarely go beyond the first ten results.

open phone book

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Every business with a website at some point has asked the question “how do we increase our rankings?” Let’s start with a somewhat simplistic view of the process.  The search engine’s job is to find the most qualified results for your search and they normally do a pretty good job. The way the search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing) do this is somewhat simple. Let’s use Widget manufacturers to demonstrate. Widget manufacturer ‘A’ has 100 employees; they have a full marketing staff including a copy writer, a technical writer, a PR writer, a webmaster and a team of engineers. Widget manufacturer ‘B’ works out of his garage and has himself a part time helper and sometimes his wife. Why does manufacturer A have an advantage?

Google (and the others) use two basic parameters to determine rankings, ‘content’ and ‘back linking’. A back link is a hyperlink on one site pointing to another. Metal Building Greensboro is a valuable back link to a local commercial builder. Google sees this as vote of confidence of that site and gives the builder ‘brownie points’. Content is simply the number of times key words are used legitimately on a website. Those key words will be found in the URL, the page file name, the page’s title tag, page copy, and alt attributes (used to identify images and graphics). Widget manufacturer A is adding keyphrase rich content to their site at very high rate, articles, case studies, news, instructions, FAQs, etc., even the engineers are helping by blogging technical information. Some of that content will warrant back links from other websites like the Widget Manufactures Association, Widget Digest and the Widget Buyers Guide. Widget manufacturer B is exhausted at the end of the day and barely has time respond to his email. His website is the same as it was five years ago.  Widget manufacturer A will likely rank top 5 in the top three search engines while Widget manufacturer B will not likely appear even on the first few pages and as stated searchers rarely check beyond the first page (ten results per page).

I have had clients express concerns about too much content on their websites– people don’t have time to read anymore! Well I agree to an extent: the website on its surface is a brochure. When we design a brochure for a client we do keep it brief and to the point. Your website is a brochure but potentially so much more; embedded links provide the opportunity for further investigation on a particular subject. So you are serving different personality types by providing more information. A marketing Director visiting the site may browse critical bullet points, while an engineer wants to gain as much information as possible before making a decision.

It’s that simple but of course not that easy; it takes effort. First, know what are your most valuable search terms. Then make a concerted effort to impact your website in a significant way on a daily basis with the intent of serving your client base. Eventually your site will rank top ten for your most valuable search terms. Once you get to this point, an analysis of your site’s stats will reveal opportunities that you never considered before. There’s gold in those ranking!

Comments or questions about your online marketing efforts? Share with Andy and me in the comments section, below.

Photo (c) How Can I Recycle This via CC.

Why words matter (aka Shakespeare for Architects & Engineers) (Law note)

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“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

Romeo & Juliet balcony

Words do matter.  In the context of construction law, there are some words that you should avoid at all costs.  Top of the list is the word inspect.  If your contract gives you the responsibility of inspecting the contractor’s work, stop.  Do not pass go.  Do not collect $200.  Inspection (at least to some owners and juries) connotes that a thorough review will be provided, and that every fault will be identified.  Instead of Inspection, a better word for your construction contract is Observe.  You should not be providing periodic inspection.  Instead, provide periodic observation.

Am I nit-picking? Perhaps.  But inspect implies a much stronger duty than observe.  (Just my personal observation!).  There are other words you should also avoid in construction contracts.

Instead of certify, try review

Instead of approving shop drawings, try No exceptions noted 

Instead of best (or highest) standards, try meet the professional standard of care

Instead of immediately, try without undue delay

This list is just a sample.  There are many other words to be leery of, including guarantee, warrant, insure, and ensure. 

In doubt about whether your contract contains dangerous words that may expose you to extra legal liability?  Write your contract as if your attorney is looking over your shoulder.  Keep in mind, both Romeo and Juliet learned the hard way that words do indeed matter.

Welcome to my new readers.  If you have not already done so, sign up for email delivery so you never miss a post from Construction Law in NC.  I welcome your comments & thoughts.

Photo:  (c) freefoto.com.

 

Free money for design professionals (and other lucky folks)? (Tue Tip)

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free money bridge sign

Okay, I’m technically cheating.  Today’s Tip is not specific to architects or engineers.  However, it is something that might put a little dough in your pocket that you didn’t even know you had coming to you.

Have you heard about the websites that can help you locate money due to you from a state government’s unclaimed property account?  This is money that is due to folks from old utility accounts, cell phone accounts, and the like.  If the company cannot locate the person they owe the refund to, they escheat it to the state.

Spend 5 minutes the next time you are internet surfing to see if you are owed any money.  Start with MissingMoney and plug in your name (and likely misspellings of your name).  You will note that many states (including North Carolina) are not yet listed with that national site; however, the MissingMoney site will give you the quick link to those states’ websites for “lost money”.  (North Carolina’s website for unclaimed money is here).

In playing around with these sites the other day, I found money owed to my Uncle, a cousin, and a college roommate.  While I didn’t find any money due to *me*, it was still a worthwhile exercise.  Everyone can use “free money” when they happen upon it, right?

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Photo (c) jazza2 via Creative Commons license.