When looking to initiate or scale up a client feedback programme, building the business case and gaining support for the programme by getting key stakeholders within your firm involved in the feedback planning process; whether through collaborating on the initial business objectives, involvement during the client interviews, at the reporting stages, or facilitating actions arising from the feedback is crucial. In taking the time to do this, you are improving the chances for firm-wide adoption by fostering a culture of acknowledging the need to receive and action client feedback.
This article aims to illustrate how and why you should build a business case for carrying out a client feedback programme.
Justifying the need for client feedback
The first thing to consider, which most people reading this article will already know, is the positive impact client feedback can have on your firm. You may believe in listening to the feedback of your client's so strongly that you are known across the firm for it, but how do you turn your enthusiasm into firm-wide support?
After working with many firms across the professional services industry and around the world, our advice is to find ways to justify how client feedback can provide insights for particular areas of the firm that allow you to celebrate the success and build your firm’s reputation and business. In presenting the impact the feedback will have, which is relevant to the work of the individuals you are trying to persuade, you will be able to provide justifications for the programme.
Once you have identified the rationale for carrying out the programme and have spent time convincing the relevant people or practice groups, it is then time to look at how you will work with stakeholders in client-facing roles. For many of these teams, you will likely need to quantify the return on investment (ROI) benefits the programme will bring. We, therefore, recommend focusing on the following core areas when creating your business case:
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Understanding the motivations and business plan of your firm
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The role of the client relationship partners and client-facing teams
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Quantifying the return on investment (ROI) for important groups of stakeholders
Understanding the motivations and business plan of your firm
New initiatives or the re-investment and scale up of programmes aren't adopted by chance in firms; instead, they take carefully calculated moves by the project leader to build momentum and facilitate successful change. This is often the case when gathering support for a client feedback programme.
We begin with one of the most challenging areas to gain support from - your firm's leadership teams. These are the various gatekeepers and key influencers at the top of your firm that can make or break the internal adoption of your client feedback programme, so getting them onside is crucial.
In a previous article, we discuss how to get leadership buy-in for a programme, and to link it to your business plan, and whilst many of the key messages are the same in this article, there are some minor differences to consider. The first is to identify the knowledge gap the leadership team has around client feedback - are you already preaching to the converted or have they always supported ad-hoc feedback as a means to an end? Understanding where your leadership team stands on client feedback will help you find the right justifications to shape their thinking, gain their support and turn them into advocates for the programme.
The second is to understand the areas of strategic growth your firm is looking to expand into (i.e. your firm’s business plan) - can your client feedback programme draw insights that will advance the firm's progress in this area? You can gather client insight on a range of topics and for a range of purposes. And whilst we wouldn't recommend mixing the messaging or the purpose of your questions within the feedback programme; drawing connections between the programme and your firm's business plan or growth strategies can be an effective way of aligning your firm's motivations with the outputs of the programme.
The role of the client relationship partners and client-facing teams
For most firms, your clients will sit under relationship partners. Whilst this is an ideal way to keep track of client work, it can be a hindrance when you attempt to collect feedback from clients. The most effective way of carrying out feedback is with neutrality so that the questions asked are not skewed or have inbuilt bias or assumptions.
Somebody will likely raise the question of whose responsibility the client falls under to carry out the feedback. At this point, you will need to work with both the executive and client relationship partners to agree on who will undertake the interviews – for many firms interviews will be undertaken by an independent person outside of the client relationship, possibly an independent partner, a trusted member of staff, or someone externally. Increasingly a successful programme will involve using the interviewing skills of all three types of interviewing resource.
The balancing act of gathering neutral feedback whilst demonstrating it provides additional knowledge of the client to the relationship partner and does not duplicate their existing activities is a fine line to tread. Still, it is one that is worth navigating so that the feedback, is as comprehensive and impartial as possible. We recommend highlighting how you plan to work to support the client relationship partners so that the relationship holders understand how the programme will align with their work and their corporate goals.
Quantifying the benefits
To justify the need for a client feedback programme or to scale up an existing project, you will need to articulate where the firm currently stands on its client feedback journey and how the new programme will achieve or exceed the current ROI gained.
One practical way of doing this is to look at your firms business objectives and align your programme to these so that that the feedback provided will showcase particular areas of growth or improvement. For example, a firm is looking to expand into a new practice area; they already have a few clients that want this work doing, but the firm is not sure whether to allocate more budget to growing this area further. In phrasing this exact scenario as a question in an in-depth client interview, you are not only gathering your client's thoughts on the matter, but you are also giving your firm clear and evidenced direction on the topic. The firm can then use this information as part of their business planning and for future growth strategies.
You may also be able to connect your client retention strategy with your client feedback programme. It is well known that satisfied clients are more likely to pay for the services provided quicker than those dissatisfied with fewer write-offs and discounting. By understanding any sticking points in your client's journey before, during or upon completion of the work will help your firm improve service delivery in the future.
In summary
A client feedback programme can provide your firm with countless and valuable insights, but if you are working under a hesitant leadership team, and have difficulty engaging with client relationship partners, or feel that now is the time for your client feedback programme to be enhanced or scaled up, now is the time to make your case.
To help gather momentum for your programme and increase the chances for firm-wide adoption, we recommend creating a business case that will illustrate how the programme will work from the ground up. This process will not only help you link the core objectives of your programme to your firm’s business plan, keeping it on track, but it also gives you and your team the confidence to scale up the programme when internal demand increases.
In our next article, we will explain in more detail the different types of ROI to expect from your client feedback (we call them hard and soft ROI) and how to celebrate them.
How we can help
Here at Acuigen, we can help your programme develop the momentum it needs both in its initiation and in the actionable insights it delivers. Our team of experts will help you unleash the power of your client insights - get in touch to find out more.