MyCustomerLens: From “I know my clients” to “We know our clients”
It’s time to re-imagine feedback
Saying “I know MY clients” is no longer enough to protect and grow revenues. Forward-looking firms are transitioning to a model where Partners, fee-earners and Marketing/BD teams can confidently say: “WE know OUR clients”
The last year has shown that client needs, expectations and priorities can change quickly. Not for all clients, and not all the time. But standing still isn’t a viable option. Forward-looking firms want to keep their finger on the pulse, and that starts with having everyone on the same page.
Future-proof your firm to compete on experience
There’s no doubt that professional and business services firms have been disrupted by the pandemic. 2020 accelerated digital transformation and remote working, making every firm part of the experience economy.
As Shep Hyken puts it: “Your customers no longer compare you to your competitor. They compare you to the best service they ever had… from anyone.”
Your client’s expectations are being driven by the experiences they get from other professional services firms and even from the experiences delivered by Amazon, Netflix and others. If they can track a package from China to their doorstep, why can’t they track the progress of a piece of work?
In the experience economy, being able to respond to change quickly is a competitive advantage. As change swept the sector, firms realised they needed a collective view of evolving client needs and expectations. They realised they need to shift their culture from “I know my clients” to “we know our clients”.
But traditional client feedback processes can deliver this collective view. Data sources are disconnected, analysis is manual and hence reporting can only look backwards. The average firm has 8 different sources of client-related feedback, with data stuck in silos and scattered across the business. Making sense of it all is a slow, manual process that undermines decision-making.
The only way to speed things up is to ignore some of the clients or only ask closed questions. As a result, firms are plagued by information blind spots, inefficiencies and lost growth opportunities.
Re-imagine feedback – everyone on the same page
Imagine if your Partners, fee-earners and Marketing/BD teams all had a shared view of current client experiences and their emerging priorities.
With everyone on the same page, your firm would be able to quickly discover new client needs and see how well the firm is meeting new expectations. Being able to understand and respond to change quickly give you a competitive advantage.
This agility comes from having a single source of truth – a collective view of the collective client base. It can’t come from client feedback that’s stuck in separate spreadsheets or only known by one client team.
This agility comes from having connected intelligence. Connected intelligence is the only way to succeed against the new wave of competitors.