Rowlinsons Solicitors Limited have share what they believe are the benefits of being part of the Conveyancing Quality Scheme.
The firm believes that “CQS accreditation has helped the firm secure business that we may have otherwise not secured.”
Background on Rowlinsons Solicitors Limited
Rowlinsons has 12 solicitors and approximately 25 additional fee earners and support staff. The firm operates from its offices in Cheshire and has departments that specialise in Property, Commercial, Private Client, Employment and Family Law.
Approximately 65% of their work is dealt with by their Residential Property Department who have built up a national reputation for quality service. This is demonstrated by the fact that their team recently received the Gold Award for Best Large Conveyancer of the Year followed by the overall award for Best UK Conveyancer at the recent Sunday Times Estate Agency of the Year Awards.
One of the areas in which the residential property team specialises is relocation conveyancing where they act for employees who are being relocated by blue chip companies throughout England and Wales. More recently, they acted for the majority of BBC employees moving from London to Salford Quays.
Tom Parkinson, Head of Residential Property at Rowlinsons Solicitors Limited gave his opinion on the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS):
Why CQS?:
“Our initial reason for applying for CQS accreditation is that we wanted to distinguish ourselves from other conveyancing firms who were not as focused on providing a similar quality of service. We were also mindful of the fact that lenders were starting to review their panels and we were firmly of the opinion that by obtaining this accreditation it would help to ensure that we would remain on their panels. Of course, as we have seen recently this has proved to be true.”
Putting clients’ needs first:
“We feel that clients are impressed by the accreditation.”
“We use the analogy of ‘would you employ a plumber who was not Gas Safe registered to fix your boiler?’. Clients then appreciate that conveyancing is a specialist area and thus specialists should be consulted, i.e. solicitors with the CQS accreditation. We are of the view that the updated protocol has helped streamline the conveyancing procedure which, when dealing with other CQS accredited solicitors. results in a speedier, more efficient service.”
Working for a CQS firm:
“I have always been an advocate of the scheme and have used the accreditation very much as a marketing tool to promote Rowlinsons when quoting and tendering for work.”
“CQS accreditation has helped the firm secure business that we may have otherwise not secured. From recent events it can also be seen that it is apparent now that the lenders are taking the accreditation very seriously. We explained to our staff right at the outset the reasons why we were applying for CQS accreditation. Once they understood why, the process became a lot easier to implement. All our staff have bought into the principles of the scheme which certainly helps. It does take quite a lot of time to apply for the accreditation which in turn involves staff giving up their time to undertake training and learn new procedures but this has only benefitted the firm.
Now that the procedures and training have been implemented and more and more firms are coming on board with the scheme, the staff realise that this is helpful to enhance the service which we give to clients.”
External stakeholders : What do they think?
“CQS accreditation was deemed to be a very important factor with our new insurer when we recently changed insurers.”
“We certainly believe it helped us secure a more favourable premium.
Conveyancing is regarded by insurers as high risk work so any awards or accreditations such as CQS can only be a positive in persuading them not only to insure you but to also offer a reduced premium.
It appears to me that without the CQS accreditation a conveyancing practice is unable to fully operate as the majority of lenders are now making it a condition of panel status. One of the best examples of this is Santander who as we know only have CQS accredited firms on their panel.”
Marketing the firm’s accolade:
“We have been quite proactive in promoting our CQS status on our stationery and marketing material as it clearly distinguishes ourselves from other firms who are in the conveyancing market and are not CQS accredited. We have certainly secured a lot of additional work as a result of being able to distinguish ourselves with this accreditation and explaining its value to our clients which we believe is of extreme importance.”
