Satisfaction guaranteed

Back in February, Accountancy Age’s survey of client satisfaction levels of audit firms made interesting reading. It revealed mid-tier practices stealing a march on larger rivals by delivering better client service.

The challenge with measuring client satisfaction is that great service delivery to one client can be viewed as ordinary by another. And what is ordinary to one decision-maker will be failure to another.

This perception is determined by the client’s past experience, along with their experience of individual advisers, and the business drivers they are working with. A colleague of mine, Adrian Priddle, who helps evaluate the satisfaction levels of accountancy firms’ clients suggests: “To know whether a client is satisfied, you must first understand what shapes the benchmark they are measuring you against. You then need to really listen when they give their feedback.”

Adrian’s client satisfaction discussions reveal four key themes that firms need to note. They are:

* What value do I get from this fee? Clients are using a variety of approaches to reduce fees where they feel they represent little value. To avoid this, firms need to discuss with each client what service elements are most important to them.

* Consistency is key. This isn’t about the continuity of the client team – although that’s important. Rather, it’s about being interested and involves relevant (proactive) contact off deal, off audit and off assignment.

* Managing the balance between proactive and reactive. Are you waiting for calls from clients so that you can concentrate on the problems they have? Or are you developing ideas and taking these to them? It is possible to do both; but if you’re only adopting the ‘reactive first’ approach then you can be sure a competitor is opting for the proactive one.

* Give us innovation, but not in a ‘whacky’ way. Clients don’t want blue sky thinking and revolutionary ideas from their advisers – they want practical ways and proven approaches to reducing cost, minimising unnecessary outgoings (eg. tax) and ideas on ways to protect or build their business without significant risk or expense.

John Timperley is managing director of The Results Consultancy