There’s a golden ticket to becoming a Firm of the Future!
You must define your firm’s client experience (CX) and actualize that experience consistently across the firm. A Firm of the Future doesn’t just survive ─ it thrives if it can capitalize on the fast-paced changes taking place in today’s accounting and consulting industry. Witness things like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and robotic process automation. In this blog, you’ll get a taste for exactly what is meant by a “client experience strategy” and how it applies to a professional services firm.
CX is the next most important competitive differentiator after industry knowledge and experience. Most of your best clients and prospects don’t just expect top-quality technical expertise and proficient deliverables, they require a consistently better experience from their trusted service providers. Professional services firms looking to grow more rapidly than their competition are developing “service experiences” that make them stand out from the pack.
Today, clients want and expect a deeper, richer relationship from their accounting professional – they want a business partner. They want an experience that feels customized to them.
It encompasses the interactions in the graphic below:
CX is the sum of the interactions or all the various touches a client has with your firm. Their perception of the value you bring develops from those interactions.
Every person or entity that engages with your firm for paid services, regardless of the cost or type of service, can report on the “client experience” they received. The CX journey begins the moment you start building a relationship and a client decides to select your firm for the engagement. It continues throughout the engagement process and service delivery, including any touchpoints after or outside the engagement period, and, ultimately, through their decision to either continue or renew the engagement, expand the relationship with additional services, or terminate the engagement relationship altogether. The client journey can and should be mapped out, dissected, and assessed to determine how the firm might improve any of the touchpoints along the way.
