It’s not unusual for firms that haven’t previously established a client experience (CX) program to face problems. The challenges could include:
- Lack of a national, unified client experience. Often, a firm’s acquisition strategy will result in disparate cultures, histories and approaches in different geographic regions.
- Difficulty in articulating a unique value proposition, especially for regionally organized firms that focus on different industries and service specialties in each region.
- No history of natural, ongoing cross-selling. Due to the diversity, breadth and size of a firm, cross-selling can be challenging. An additional obstacle is that many firms’ compensation and rewards structures don’t encourage cross-selling as much as winning new clients.
- Client issues go unaddressed because firms frequently lack visibility into the problems and because they don’t have customer service standards or recovery practices in place.
- Firms lose clients with no real understanding of why because no one tracks client attrition. Naturally, firms can’t improve if they don’t understand what went wrong.
Create a strong foundation for your CX program
Your CX program should be an integral part of the firm’s overall growth strategy, with a clear mission and vision that’s consistent with your brand, including:
- The firm’s core values, like teamwork, passion and innovation.
- A clear firm mission, such as, “Understand our clients and provide services to help them achieve their business and financial goals.”
- Vision: Be the firm of choice for clients and the professionals who serve them.
- Strategy: A unified client experience delivered consistently.
- Brand examples:
- Deloitte – The firm where the best want to be
- RSM – The power of being understood
- Marcum – Ask Marcum – The people who have all the answers
get their answers from Marcum
Look for my next blog discussing the three building blocks of an effective CX strategy: the voice of the client; CX skills and resources; and industry-based client teams.
