SERVICE EXCELLENCE AND PROFESSIONAL EXPECTATIONS:

                                                         Figure 1: Service delivery with integrity

                                                       Source: NHS Leadership Academy (2012)

The apparent behaviours of Estate Surveyors and Valuers or professional estate firms that demonstrate honesty and integrity will:

• Communicate effectively with individuals, appreciating their social, cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds and their age, gender and abilities
• Demonstrate apparent honesty and ethical behaviour in all their business transactions.
• Not steal, or assign to self-property or ideas of others or belonging to their clients.
• Ensure that company/professional standards are
• Be sincere and professional activities is characterized by truthful
• Keeps
• Take appropriate action if ethics and values are compromised.
• Uphold personal and professional ethics and values, taking into account the ethical values set by the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) and Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria (ESVARBON) and respecting the culture, beliefs and abilities of clients

b)   Dealing fairly and openly with clients

In Wikipedia (2012), client or customer is defined as “a recipient of goods or services in return for monetary or other valuable considerations”. It means the person for whom you act (i.e. your principal), and where the content permits, includes prospective and former clients. Dealing fairly and openly with clients will require that professional Estate Surveyors and Valuers and their respective estate firms will:

•  operate to high standards and always ready to provide clients with good quality advice and a thoroughly professional service.
• continually aim to be the professional that will make clients happy to the extent that such existing clients will be happy to recommend their firms to friends and family members for business transactions.
• conduct business in an honest, fair, transparent and professional
• ensure that clients are provided with terms of engagement and incorporate details of complaint-handling procedures.
• deal with complaints in line with procedures that may be laid down by their respective firms in a quick, fair and efficient manner.
• give correct information and adequate explanation to enable clients to make informed decisions.
• endeavour to honour any promises made and deal with matters in a timely and efficient manner.
• agree an appropriate level of service with client, for example the type and frequency of communications and providing the required information in a clear and accessible form which is appropriate to the needs and circumstances of the client concerned.
• clearly explain their responsibilities and those of their clients without any form of ambiguity.
• give a realistic assessment of the likely selling, buying or rental price or associated cost of occupancy to the client based on market evidence and using best professional judgement.
• ensure that all advertisements and documentation about their practices and professional activities are clear, informative, legal, decent, honest and truthful.
• ensure that professional services are regularly benchmarked and evaluated in order to constantly improve their firms’ competitive edge in the marketplace.
• be open and honest about business products and services and telling clients what they want to know, including what their firms does and demonstrate social responsibility.
• ensure that if something goes wrong, their firms will acknowledge the problem and sincerely deal with it.
• listen to their clients as thus helping their firms improve the products and professional services being offered to them.
• where an Estate Surveyor/Valuer receives a financial benefit as a result of acting for a client, he/she should be honest enough to do any of the following:
  • paying it to the client concerned;
  • offsetting it against the collectible professional fees; or
  • keeping it only where the Valuer can justify keeping it, and he/she have implicitly told the client the amount of the benefit and the client has agreed that the Valuer can keep it.
• ensure that disbursements included in the Valuer’s bill reflect the actual amount spent or to be spent on behalf of the client concerned;

Other constituent part of dealing fairly and openly with clients towards rendering professional services, qualified Estate Surveyors and Valuers will need to:

• act promptly, diligently and with due professional skill and care
• keep their professional and business knowledge up-to-date
• act within clearly established guidelines
• keep clients informed in a comprehensive and timely manner
• act in accordance with all the relevant professional guidelines as may applicable to the specific professional

c)     Disclosure of all relevant facts

Estate Surveyors and Valuers are expected to always disclose all known relevant facts about a transaction and give their clients the opportunity to obtain independent advice. This means that the Valuers must tell their respective clients everything they know about a particular property including profits they may gain from any potential transaction on such property. For instance, if the Valuer shows a property to a potential buyer, knowing fully that the developer has gone bankrupt, then it behoves on the Valuer to disclose this piece of information to such buyer. Where a Valuer represents both the buyer (likely a third party) and seller (likely his client) in a transaction, both parties should be made aware of this fact and the possible monetary compensation (i.e. professional fees) which the Valuer would earn as a result of handling the transaction for both parties. The client has the right to know all the facts to enable such client make an informed decision (Underwood, 2009). The bottom line is that the Valuer should discharge his professional duties in such a situation with the sole purpose to protect the interest of both parties.

The duty of disclosure however, is owed to those with whom the Valuer has a contractual relationship (specifically, his client) with as he (the Valuer) is bound to protect the interest of his clients. As part of his duty to disclose all relevant facts, the Valuer should be aware of the legal implication of falling to disclose all known and relevant facts to his clients as the situation may demand. For example, if a Valuer knows that a property is in a flood plain, then he must disclose this information to his client as he could face legal actions if this fact is hidden from a client. This duty to disclose all relevant facts also require that the Valuer keep his clients informed in a comprehensive manner, and timely too, all issues concerning his particular interest in the property of his client.

d)     Disclosure of conflicts of interest

In Business dictionary (2012), conflict of interest is defined as a situation that has the potential to undermine the impartiality of a person because of the possibility of a clash between the person’s self-interest and professional interest or public interest; or a situation in which a party’s responsibility to a second-party limits its ability to discharge its responsibility to a third- party. MacDonald, McDonald & Norman (2002) defined conflict of interest as a situation in which a person, such as a public official, an employee, or a professional, has a private or personal interest sufficient to appear to influence the objective exercise of his or her official duties. McDonald et al (op cit) goes on to explain the three elements of this definition as follows:

• A private or personal interest means something like a financial interest or concern for yourself (i.e. oneself), a friend, or a relative.
• An official duty arises from an office or position held.
• There must be an appearance that the personal interest influences the official duty by interfering with objective professional judgment.

The implication of this definition is that official duty is supposed to trump or take precedence over private or personal interest.

In Legal Dictionary (no date), conflict of interest is described as ‘the situation in which a public official or fiduciary who, contrary to the obligation and absolute duty to act for the benefit of the public or a designated individual, exploits the relationship for personal benefit, typically pecuniary’. In certain relationships, individuals or the general public place their trust and confidence in someone to act in their best interests. When an individual has the responsibility to represent another person – whether as an administrator, attorney, executor, government official, or trustee – a clash between professional obligations and personal interests arises if the individual tries to perform that duty while at the same time trying to achieve personal gain (Legal Dictionary, op cit). The appearance of a conflict of interest is present if there is a potential for the personal interests of an individual to clash with fiduciary duties, such as when a client has his or her attorney commence an action against a company in which the attorney is the majority stockholder. A member of a profession who has been involved in a conflict of interest might be subject to disciplinary proceedings before the body that granted permission to practice that profession.

Hill & Hill (2008) perception of conflict of interest is that of a situation in which a person has a duty to more than one person or organisation, but cannot do justice to the actual or potentially adverse interests of both parties. This includes when an individual’s personal interests or concerns are inconsistent with the best for a customer, or when a public official’s personal interests are contrary to his/her loyalty to public business. An attorney, an accountant, a business adviser or realtor cannot represent two parties in a dispute and must avoid even the appearance of conflict. He/she may not join with a client in business without making full disclosure of his/her potential conflicts; he/she must avoid commingling funds with the client, and never take a position adverse to the client (Hill & Hill, op cit).

As further buttressed in Wikipedia (2012), conflict of interest occurs when an individual or organisation is involved in multiple interests, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation for an act in the other. The presence of a conflict of interest is independent from the execution of impropriety. Therefore, a conflict of interest can be discovered and voluntarily defused before any corruption occurs. A widely used definition is: “A conflict of interest is a set of circumstances that creates a risk that professional judgment or actions regarding a primary interest will be unduly influenced by a secondary interest” (Law Society, 2011). The Society defines primary interest and secondary interest as follows:

• Primary interest refers to the principal goals of the profession or activity, such as the protection of clients, the health of patients, the integrity of research, and the duties of public
• Secondary interest includes not only financial gain but also such motives as the desire for professional advancement and the wish to do favours for family and friends, but conflict of interest rules usually focus on financial relationships because they are relatively more objective, fungible, and quantifiable.

The secondary interests are not treated as wrong in themselves, but become objectionable when they are believed to have greater weight than the primary interests. The conflict in a conflict of interest exists whether or not a particular individual is actually influenced by the secondary interest. It exists if the circumstances are reasonably believed (on the basis of past experience and objective evidence) to create a risk that decisions may be unduly influenced by secondary interests ((Law Society, op cit).

More generally, conflicts of interest can be defined as any situation in which an individual or corporation (either private or governmental) is in a position to exploit a professional or official capacity in some way for their personal or corporate benefit. Depending upon the law or rules related to a particular organisation, the existence of a conflict of interest may not, in and of itself, be evidence of wrongdoing. In fact, for many professionals, it is virtually impossible to avoid having conflicts of interest from time to time. A conflict of interest can, however, become a legal matter, for example, when an individual tries (and/or succeeds in) influencing the outcome of a decision, for personal benefit. A conflict of interest exists even if no unethical or improper act results. The implications of conflict of interest are that it can:

• create an appearance of impropriety that can undermine confidence in the professional; and
• impair a professional’s ability to perform his or her duties and responsibilities objectively.

Types of conflicts of interests

As outlined in Wikipedia (2012), the following are the most common forms of conflicts of interests:

• Self-dealing, in which an official who controls an organisation causes it to enter into a transaction with the official, or with another organisation that benefits that particular In this case, the ‘official’ being described here is on both sides of the ‘deal’.
• Outside employment, in which the interests of one’s job contradict another.
• Family interests, in which a spouse, child, or other close relative is employed (or applies for employment) or where goods or services are purchased from such a relative or a firm controlled by a relative. For this reason, many employment applications ask if one is related to a current employee. If this is the case, the relative could then recuse (i.e. disqualify oneself) from any hiring decisions. Abuse of this type of conflict of interest is called nepotism.
• Gifts from friends who also do business with the person receiving the gifts. Such gifts may include non-tangible things of value such as transportation and lodging.
• Pump and dump, in which a stock broker who owns a security artificially inflates the price by “upgrading” it or spreading rumours, sells the security and adds short position, then “downgrades” the security or spreads negative rumours to push the price down.

Distinction between ‘own interest conflict’, ‘client conflict’ and ‘substantially common interest’

Conflicts of interests can arise between the professional and current clients (“own interest conflict“); and two or more current clients (“client conflict“). Conflict of interest means any situation where (Law Society, 2011; Davis & Stark, 2001):

• someone owe separate duties to act in the best interests of two or more clients in relation to the same or related matters, and those duties conflict, or there is a significant risk that those duties may conflict (a ‘client conflict’); or
• your duty to act in the best interests of any client in relation to a matter conflicts, or there is a significant risk that it may conflict, with your own interests in relation to that or a related matter (an ‘own interest conflict’).
• Own interest conflict means any situation where your duty to act in the best interest of any client in relation to a matter conflicts, or there is a significant risk that it may conflict, with your own interests in relation to that or a related matter.’
• Client conflict means any situation where you owe separate duties to act in the best interests of two or more clients in relation to the same or related matters, and those duties conflict, or there is significant risk that those duties may conflict.
• Substantially common interest means a situation where there is a clear common purpose in relation to any matter or a particular aspect of it between the clients and a strong consensus on how it is to be achieved and the client conflict is peripheral to this common purpose (Law Society, 2011). While this definition envisages situations of clear common purpose, this is not the same as situations where there is a common In situations when there is a client conflict and clients have a substantially common interest and you can act for both clients. It is highly essential to always keep a situation where you are acting for two or more clients under review. This includes deciding whether, at any time, a point has been reached where it would be untenable to continue to represent both clients without either of them being prejudiced. For example, if one of the conditions set out below is no longer being fulfilled or you cannot act in a fair manner, at that point, you must cease to act for one or both clients. The conditions are (Law Society, 2011):
  • the professional in this circumstance reasonably belief that both clients understand the relevant issues and risks;
  • the clients have given informed consent in writing;
  • it is reasonable and expedient for you to act for both clients in their best interests;
  • the benefits to act for both clients outweigh the risks
  • both clients know and understand what you will be doing including any limitation to the brief being executed on their behalf.

No professional should act where there is a conflict, or a significant risk of conflict, between him and his clients. If there is a conflict, or a significant risk of a conflict, between two or more current clients, the professional must not act for all or both of them unless the matter falls within the scope described in the paragraph above. In deciding whether to act in these limited circumstances, the overriding consideration will be the best interests of each of the clients concerned.

Ways to mitigate conflicts of interests

The best way to handle conflicts of interests is to avoid them entirely. For example, someone elected to political office might sell all corporate stocks that they own before taking office, and resign from all corporate boards. Or that person could move their corporate stocks to a special trust, which would be authorized to buy and sell without disclosure to the political office holder; this is referred to as a “blind trust” (Law Society, 2011). With such a trust, since the politician does not know in which companies they have investments, there should be no temptation to act to their advantage. Other specific ways that professionals could mitigate conflict of interest are:

• Disclosure: Certain professionals are required either by rules related to their professional organisation, or by statute, to disclose any actual or potential conflicts of interest. In some instances, the failure to provide full disclosure is a crime, for example, EFCC requirement with regard to real estate financial dealings.
• Recusal: Those with a conflict of interest are expected to recuse themselves (i.e. abstain) from decisions where such a conflict exists. The imperative for recusal varies depending upon the circumstance and profession, either as common sense ethics, codified ethics, or by statute.
• Third-party evaluations: Third-party evaluations may also be used as proof that transactions were, in fact, fair (“arm’s-length”). For example, a company or firm that leases an office building owned by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) might get an independent evaluation showing what the market rate is for such leases in the locality. This will effectively address any perceived conflict of interest that exists between the fiduciary duty of the CEO to the other stakeholders in the company by getting the lowest rent possible and the personal interest of that CEO (to maximize the rental income that the CEO might get from owning that office building.

e)     Respecting confidentiality

As indicated by the Law Society (2011), protection of confidential information is a fundamental feature of the professionals’ relationship with clients. It exists as a concept both as a matter of law and as a matter of conduct. This duty continues despite the end of the retainer and even after the death of the client. It is important to distinguish the conduct duties from the concept of law known as legal professional privilege. Estate Surveyors and Valuers should always bear in mind that all members of the firm or in-house practice, including support staff, consultants and locums, owe a duty of confidentiality to every client of the firm.

The duty of confidentiality to all clients must be reconciled with the duty of disclosure to clients. This duty of disclosure is limited to information of which the Estate Surveyor/Valuer concerned is aware of, and such information is material to his/her client’s brief. But where the Estate Surveyor/Valuer cannot reconcile these two duties, then the protection of confidential information is paramount. Estate Surveyors and Valuers should not continue to act for clients for whom they cannot disclose material information; except in very limited circumstances, where safeguards are in place. Such situations often give rise to conflict of interests which is discussed in 2(d) above. The following principles apply in the context of confidentiality and disclosure (Law Society, 2011):

• keep the affairs of clients confidential unless disclosure is required or permitted by law or the client consents;
• any professional who is advising a client should ensure the client is aware of all information material to which the professional has personal knowledge, except when:
  • the client gives specific informed consent to non-disclosure or a different standard of disclosure arises;
  • there is evidence that serious physical or mental injury will be caused to a person(s) if the information is disclosed to the client;
  • legal restrictions effectively prohibit you from passing the information to the client, such as the provisions in the money-laundering and anti-terrorism legislation;
  • it is obvious that privileged documents have been mistakenly disclosed to you; or
  • come into possession of information relating to state security or intelligence matters to which the Official Secrets Act applies;
• ensure that where professional duty of confidentiality to one client comes into conflict with the duty of disclosure to another client, the professional’s duty of confidentiality takes precedence;
• the professional must ensure that his systems and controls for identifying risks to clients’ confidentiality are appropriate to the size and complexity of the firm or in-house practice and the nature of the brief being This practice will enable such professional to properly assess all the relevant circumstances;
• comply with the law in respect of the professional’s fiduciary duties in relation to confidentiality and disclosure;
• only outsource services when the professional concerned is fully satisfied that the service provider has taken all appropriate steps to ensure that clients’ confidential information will be adequately protected;
• not acting for A where B is a client for whom the professional hold confidential information which is material to A unless the confidential information can be protected.

Confidentiality requires that Estate Surveyors and Valuers should not disclose any information relating to their clients’ transaction to anyone else without the clients’ consent. This means that Estate Surveyors and Valuers cannot disclose to a third party, their clients’ financial situation, or any other detail about the client without that particular client’s consent or approval. This duty however, does not apply to any generally known and/or observable material facts with respect to a client’s property, such as defects which Estate Surveyors and Valuers are obligated to disclose under the general honesty obligations owed to the public.

Closely related to duty of confidentiality is loyalty and obedience. Loyalty means that Estate Surveyors and Valuers should place the interest of their respective clients above theirs, except the law. Hence, Estate Surveyors and Valuers must show, in all their dealings that they are acting in the best interest of their respective clients. Obedience means that Estate Surveyors and Valuers must follow their clients’ lawful instructions as may have been jointly agreed upon.

f)     Safeguarding clients’ assets

Estate Surveyors and Valuers and their firms owe the duty to act in the best interests of their respective clients. They should play their part in, for example, protecting money, documents or other property belonging to their clients which has been entrusted to them and their estate firms. Entrusting properties, usually worth millions of naira, to Estate Surveyors and Valuers in a country where trust is sometimes difficult to cultivate, behoves on them to be diligent in safeguarding the assets of their clients. Thus, it would be morally wrong and criminal for any Estate Surveyor/Valuer to dispose or transfer interest in a particular client’s property to a third party without the consent of the property owner. Sadly, many Estate Surveyors and Valuers have become victims of their own greed and have sold clients’ properties without the consent of the concerned property owners with severe legal consequences. These acts of misconduct and negligence have in most cases portrayed the profession in bad light.

Estate Surveyors and Valuers should be accountable in all their business activities with their respective clients. This means that Estate Surveyors and Valuers must keep accurate records of all funds they receive and that all transactions must comply with professional regulations/guidelines. Such account should be disclosed to their owners at agreed periods to forestall any misappropriation of funds or mishandling of assets entrusted to them (Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria, no date).

g)     Value added services (VAS)

The concept of ‘value’ is similar to that of service quality, which is determined by differential, often experience-linked, consumer perceptions. Evans (2002) defines value as the ratio of perceived benefit to perceived cost. On the other hand, Vandermere and Rada (1988); Dennett, Meson, Stone and Colgate (2000) defined VAS as the extended service in a product portfolio adds ‘value’ from the customer’s perspective. By this definition, it means that VAS are the extra services provided by firms in addition to their basic professional service and offered at no extra charge to the client. Thus, VAS is unsolicited additional services rendered by a professional in the course of discharging his professional duties.

VAS are offered free because every company wants to survive the keen competition prevailing in the service industry and also, to differentiate itself from its competitors. In other words, VAS is another way in which companies can gain competitive advantages in the market place. As indicated by (Escover, 1994), value-added functions contribute directly to client/customer satisfaction of the product or professional service. Even though the types of VAS provided in different firms are not identical, but the intent and purpose are the same, which is to gain client/customer satisfaction so as to survive and to achieve long term success (Gray & Maunders, 1980).

Estate Surveyors and Valuers, amidst their professional expertise should:

• follow up on business instructions or briefs.
• not to unduly delegate authorities especially those that require personal
• have undivided loyalty to their clients
• not divulge confidential information
• keep proper account of business

Undoubtedly, client’s satisfaction is very paramount in business relationship but this can only accomplished through the rendition of quality professional services by the thereby satisfying their clients expectations. In addition, the offer of quality service is the hallmark of forging ahead in a service competitive oriented world.

Aluko (2004) counselled that professionals should look for ways of improving professional services rather than spending their energies attempting to justify their respective positions. For Valuers, there is a well laid foundation which imposes a high standard of conduct and thus requires professionals to be frank and honest in all their dealings with their respective clients. As indicated by Tucker (2004), winning value-conscious customers requires professionals to lead the value-added services race in the industry. To this end, Tucker (op cit) outlined the following guidelines which a well-planned company could consider adopting in planning and implementing value added services:

• Do not confuse your definition of value with that of your customers.
• Figure out what business you’re really in
• Rethink your customer’s “highest need.
• Develop new ways to listen to your customers.
• Brainstorm unusual ways to add value.
• Figure out the lifespan of your proposed value-added service.

Below are some of the ways in which Estate Surveyors and Valuers can render ‘value added services’ to their respective clients:

• No undue delegation of duties in order to ensure promptness in service delivery
• Undivided loyalty to clients
• Always keeping clients adequately informed
• Keeping an appropriate and up-to-date account of clients
• With regard to offering value added services, networking follows 3-step/ process. These are (Easto, n.d.):
  • Step1: Identify whatever services and markets that fall outside your niche market
  • Step 2: Identify professionals who deliver the same standard of quality service that you provide to clients.
  • Step 3: Enter into referral partner, type agreements with these professionals

• Helping clients to establish fair market values of their properties without charge
• Listings entered in Multiple Listing Service (MLS) could be made free of charge
• Free property bulletin advertisements free of charge
• Clients property listed on the company websites free of charge
• Sending occasional “Thank you for your patronage” note to clients
• Sending “Thank you” note to referrals of clients to the firm
• Buyers are entered into an auto-prospecting system that automatically sends them new listings as the desired properties come into the market
• Potential buyers pre-qualified
• All offers received are presented and discussed with clients
• Transaction negotiated with the other agents on clients behalf
• Yearly client appreciation party
• Free fax or courier service for clients
• Free notary service for clients
• Free ‘office conference room’ occasionally made available to clients to hold meetings (if such facility is available in the firm)
• Etcetera

Importance of value added service (VAS)

The importance of value added services cannot be over-emphasized, for instance In the case of Sinnock v Bangs (1952) reported in Richard (1964), a Surveyor was engaged to give a general opinion on a farm mansion, but was specifically told not to carry out a detailed survey. Based on the Surveyor’s favourable report, his client purchased the farm mansion and subsequently found a dry rot woodworm and settlement. The court held that a competent Surveyor should have been expected to discover the dry rot woodworm as he was asked to give a general opinion. It was noted that had it been that the Surveyor exercised a value added services by taking an extra care to alert his client when he discovered the dry rot woodworm, a value would have been attached to his professional exercise. Thus, VAS:

• tends to upgrade the standards of professionalism;
• boost the ego of the client;
• place the professionals in the position of high integrity; and
• gives the professionals edge against competition.

Without doubt, rendering a value added service is very important as many firms have made tremendous improvements in those areas by way of high clients’ patronage, clients’ retention, high profit, and high return on business investment. Thus, any professional estate firm that can demonstrate to potential clients that what the company provided is better, faster, more reliable, higher quality, more convenient and offers clients more value for their money wins (Maio, 2003). To this end, successful VAS that exceed clients’ expectations and increases their satisfaction would help generate those clients’ loyalty by way of repeated patronage and ensure that such firms have competitive advantages and thereby reinforce their capacity to survive financially and equally achieve long term business success.

3.0 THE REQUIRED QUALITIES OF ESTATE SURVEYORS AND VALUERS

An organisation or firm is known by the strength and quality of its employees and the work it does in the particular industry. In order to be successful in any profession, one should not only have ‘subject matter expertise’ but also personality, behaviour, decorum, mannerism, attitude, professional approach, and work efficiency. Failing which, irrespective of the self- professed knowledge, education and background, such professional will never be able to grow in that profession (University of Toronto, 2009; Theimer, 2008; Citehr.com, no date). This is also true for estate surveying and valuation profession. There are some minimum expectations from Estate Surveyors and Valuers in the way they carry themselves, behave, self-image and presentation that can either hamper or lift personality and professional graph.

Professional Estate Surveyors and Valuers are the most important treasure in the real estate sector of the economy and their roles is a blend of all the responsibilities related to project planning, execution, monitoring, and the ultimate effective management of the built environment. To be successful in meeting up with the demand which clients placed on them, they are required to possess the following qualities:

• Professionalism: Clients expect Estate Surveyors and Valuers with whom they do business to act professionally at all times – this entails clear and regular communications. Ordinarily, clients would like to deal with professionals who are pleasant on the phone, and who exhume enough confidence to ease any worry which the clients may Thus, Estate Surveyors and Valuers should exercise care/precaution in his speech, dressing, personal hygiene and general wellbeing. Acting in a professional manner, however, requires that the Valuer should be balanced in other to forestall certain clients from overstepping their boundaries.
• Compassion and efficient service delivery: Estate Surveyors and Valuers should all serve their clients with the utmost care and courtesy; listen carefully to them, avoid interruption when clients are talking to them and avoid rudeness; exceed the clients service expectations (value added service); always remember to thank them for their patronage irrespective of whether it is solicited or unsolicited professional service; and routinely practice an attitude of gratitude to every client.
• Respectful treatment: Estate Surveyors and Valuers should always endeavour to treat clients with the utmost respect, dignity, courtesy and confidentiality; listen thoughtfully, respond appropriately; respect their values, viewpoints and safeguard their confidentiality.
• Efficiency in time management: Estate Surveyors and Valuers are expected to be efficient in time management. They are expected to set time-frame for job execution and meet those All goals, all dreams, all activities, all commitments are achievable if there is a time frame set for them. Uncertainty, ambiguity, open-ended commitment, confusion – these are things that are not expected from any Estate Surveyor and Valuer.
• Adequate knowledge about real estate business and the industry generally: Estate Surveyors and Valuers should be aware of their respective strengths and weaknesses. They should know the business model of their clients’ real estate portfolio; it is equally important to know and understand their clients’ business goals and objectives with regard to the briefs or instruction received from them
• Love for number, data, figures, calculations, analysis and projections: In all their business dealings, Estate Surveyors and Valuers need to be more analytical, data oriented and good in calculations. They should be able to support their business ideas, strategies and policies with data. They should not be subjective and theory oriented so as to be able to convince their respective clients. Therefore, they should have the capacity to demonstrate with statistics and income profile of the real estate business idea being sold to their clients (com, no date). This way; they will be taken seriously as professionals not about to fritter away the client’s hard earned money.
• Enthusiasm to share, develop, coach and mentor: There is a common saying – “Knowledge is a wealth; the more you distribute/share the more you gain” (com, no date). In the estate surveying and valuation profession, we are privileged and are in a very unique position where we can help develop the up-coming Estate Surveyors and Valuers. We can help develop their career. We can help them in changing their perception and behavioural attitude or disposition towards the profession. We can groom them, so that they can be successful in their chosen career. The number of qualified and professionally competent associates that highly knowledgeable and experienced Estate Surveyors and Valuers are able to groom in their respective active professional career could be used to gauge their level of successes. And the more dexterity they are in doing this, the more their fame and good reputation will spread, earn them more respect and even more business dealings.
• Self-discipline: This is a common quality which every Estate Surveyor and Valuer should have, irrespective of his/her professional status. Estate Surveyors and Valuers need to set standards for other professionals to follow; thus, they need to benchmark their own Discipline in life is a must in order to grow, prosper and be truly successful.
• Trust worthy: This is very important quality for all Estate Surveyors and Valuers. They need to win the trust of their respective clients and then maintain and keep that trust. Cordial relationship with clients and employees is based on trust and honesty. If that trust is broken, it may never be regained. Clients are more relaxed and confident working with professionals that know what they are doing and always do what they say they will do. Estate Surveyors and Valuers should always be seen to be in control of situations. This will impact positively on the professional-client relationship. To be able to display this attribute, Estate Surveyors and Valuers should always act promptly with due skill and care, and diligent. This would also mean that Estate Surveyors and Valuers keep their professional knowledge up-to-date.
• Flexibility: No business deal plan is perfect. Delays might occur because someone required is unreachable or the required finance is not secured at the right time. A certain phase of project development or other related brief might get pushed back, or the scope of a real estate transaction might change considerably after the commencement of such business dealings – these things happen. Thus, it becomes imperative that clients are adequately briefed about any contingency that may arise and how they would be handled. Estate Surveyors and Valuers’ ability to handle such contingencies would go a long way to further cement the confidence which the client concerned may have in them.
• Service recovery: There may be occasions when clients expectations are not met, Estate Surveyors and Valuers should allow such clients lodge their complaints without interruption; apologize for the shortcomings; ask for their input in the way they would like to see the issue resolved; sincerely work toward an acceptable resolution; and follow through as may be promised.

4.0 SUGGESTIONS

To further enhance excellent professional service delivery, Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria (ESVARBON) and the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) should appropriately sanction any Estate Surveyor and Valuer that contravenes any of their respectively established rules on professional practice. A scheme should be provided by the Institution whereby clients who have had their money mishandled by a Valuer could be reimbursed when all other avenues have been exhausted. Such a scheme is presently being run by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in Britain; the scheme is called ‘’RICS Clients’ Money Protection Scheme’’. This scheme is designed to give some protection to the public by making funds available for their reimbursement in cases where their money has been misappropriated by firms being regulated by RICS and the firms are unable to make full restitution.

Estate Surveyors and Valuers on their part should always endeavour to act promptly, diligently and with due care when executing their respective clients’ briefs. They should keep their professional and business knowledge up-to-date and act within the ambits of statutory provisions and clearly established professional guidelines. Furthermore, it is important for Estate Surveyors and Valuers to keep their respective clients informed in a comprehensive and timely manner about those clients’ interests.

5.0 CONCLUSION

Having clearly identified the expected professional duties of Estate Surveyors and Valuers such as being accountable, confidential, competent, loyal, diligent and reasonable, qualified Estate Surveyors and Valuers should endeavour to live up to their required professional expectations. Doing so will give Estate Surveyors and Valuers and their respective firms an edge over their competitors and also lead to their attracting quality clients which in turn would mean better and more lucrative briefs. Furthermore, Estate Surveyors and Valuers should live up to their professional callings; endeavour to always conform to the code of conduct of the estate surveying and valuation profession; and add value to their professional duties. These ways, they will be adequately positioned to elevate the standards of professional practice, clearly distinguish themselves from the charlatans and quacks that currently pervade the real estate agency market and earn the respect of the general public.

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