Are you client centered?

In short, you should be. I know, it sounds obvious but how many businesses are truly client centered, AND make sure their clients know it?

Learning how to cultivate marketing-led, organisation wide, client centricity will drive engagement and loyalty, increase your value to existing and future clients and, ultimately, increases your revenue. Markets are rapidly evolving, and client loyalty is no longer guaranteed, if it ever was.

How to improve client centricity:

Marketing needs to be the internal voice of your client – your marketing team should be living and breathing client and working with you to understand and driving market opinion.

A client lens on everything – From recruitment to IT, relationship managements teams to BD, constantly asking, what would our clients want/need? How can we be the best in the market at proving it (now and in the future)?

Making your clients your best advocates – engage with them beyond excellent delivery. They will sell for you.

Client culture – excite and link with others in your business around client centricity. Client delivery teams, BD, HR etc. – get them to enable the client voice through training, feedback from face-to-face client interaction, share market data and prospect information with BD etc.

Segment, segment and segment - Your clients have different needs. If you don't talk to those needs, people will stop listening.

Voice of the Client (VoC):

Our top four methods of bringing the VoC into your professional services organisation are; Account Based Marketing (ABM); buyer programmes and communities; advisory panels; and surveys and feedback.

Let's look at Advisory panels:

Bring together your clients with your business leaders and relevant third parties can be incredibly powerful. What would be in it for your clients and third parties?

• Linked with Account Based Marketing (ABM) your 'top' clients and intermediaries will feel valued

• Exclusive and feeling heard

• Networking and development of useful business relationships

• A new experience through a great unique venue

What’s in it for you?

• Deep understanding of client/target needs

• Product development

• Relationship development

• Showcase skills and connections

• Creating client advocates

What about surveys? If you are not surveying or getting feedback from your clients you will loose them. Even worse, we see so many companies who survey then put the results in a drawer until next year. No accountable actions or improvement plans (until we get hold of them!).

We have put using survey data into three categories to aid your thinking:

Bronze:

1. Organise and categorise Feedback

• Data cleaning: Ensure the data is clean, removing any irrelevant or incomplete responses.

  
  

• Categorisation: Group feedback into categories such as customer service, product features, pricing, etc.

  
  

• Prioritisation: Identify which areas are mentioned most frequently or have the most significant impact on client satisfaction.

  
  

2. Analyse the data thoroughly

• Quantitative analysis: Use statistical tools to analyse closed-ended questions for trends and patterns (e.g., average ratings, Net Promoter Score).

  
  

• Qualitative analysis: Perform thematic analysis on open-ended responses to identify common themes and sentiments.

  
  

• Segmentation: Examine how different segments (e.g., age, location, purchase history) responded to understand diverse client perspectives.

  
  

3. Identify key insights and trends

• Spot trends: Look for recurring issues or requests across multiple responses.

  
  

• Root cause analysis: Identify underlying causes of dissatisfaction or areas needing improvement.

  
  

• Positive feedback: Highlight what clients appreciate to reinforce successful strategies and practices, and celebrate success.

  
  

4. Develop action plans

• Set objectives: Define clear goals based on survey insights (e.g., improve response time, enhance product or service features, communicate more regularly).

  
  

• Create strategies: Develop specific strategies and initiatives to address the identified issues.

  
  

• Assign responsibilities: Allocate tasks to relevant teams or individuals to ensure accountability. Where possible these should be part of the individuals annual review.

  
  

Silver

5. Implement changes

• Pilot testing: Implement changes on a small scale first to test effectiveness.

  
  

• Full implementation: Roll out successful changes across the organisation.

  
  

• Communication: Inform clients about the changes made in response to their feedback, showing them their input is valued.

  
  

6. Monitor and measure impact

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Establish KPIs to measure the effectiveness of changes (e.g., customer satisfaction scores, repeat purchase rates).

  
  

• Continuous feedback loop: Use follow-up surveys to gauge client reactions to the changes.

  
  

• Adjust as necessary: Be prepared to tweak strategies based on ongoing feedback and results.

  
  

7. Leverage technology for insights

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Integrate survey data with CRM systems to get a holistic view of customer interactions and feedback.

  
  

• Data visualisation: Utilise visualisation tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI) to create easy-to-understand reports and dashboards.

  
  

Gold

8. Engage with clients beyond surveys

• Direct follow-up: Reach out to clients who provided detailed feedback for deeper conversations.

  
  

• Focus groups: Organize focus groups to delve deeper into specific issues or ideas.

  
  

• Advisory panels: Create client and third party advisory panels to get continuous input from your most engaged clients.

  
  

9. Promote a feedback culture

• Internal communication: Share survey results and insights with all employees to foster a customer-centric culture.

  
  

• Training and development: Use survey feedback to inform training programs and improve employee performance.

  
  

• Recognition: Acknowledge and reward employees or teams that contribute significantly to addressing client feedback and improving customer satisfaction.

  
  

By systematically analysing and acting on client survey results, organisations can make informed decisions that enhance client experience, drive improvements, and ultimately foster greater client attraction, retention, loyalty and satisfaction.

If you want to find out more, head to the 'Contact' section on our website.