Back
PM Forum - London
CRM and client service
Reed Smith were kind enough to host the most recent PM Forum event, and the views of London on a sunny evening from the 32nd floor of their building in Bishopsgate were a spectacular setting for the presentation given by Robin Dicks (The Thriving Company) and Meirion Jones (Reed Smith), which was examining the findings of the recent benchmarking report ‘CRM – the truth in professional services.’
While the findings of the report are probably no great shock to mature professional services marketers, they are still staggering when you take a moment to think about it. For example:
62% of firms recruit predominantly on the basis of technical skill yet only 40% of firms train people on service delivery, meaning that for professionals hired without a second thought for how good they are in managing client relationships, in 60% of cases the firm is making no effort to assist them in bridging that skill deficit.
Or another: When asked “Can your professional staff consistently deliver what you are offering,” only 63% of respondents replied yes… meaning that in 1/3 of cases the opposite is true and professional staff are taking on work where they aren’t in a position to deliver to the competency standard required…
When you think about it, the findings are somewhat depressing, especially so if your initial reaction is anything other than disbelief…
Robin Dicks started the presentation by highlighting how few firms receive huge benefits from their CRM programs, and particularly interesting was the point that the benefit being derived was perceived to being diminishing. He then examined some of the causal issues which could indicate as to why this was the case and steps firms could take to get more value from their CRM.
Key issues Robin touched upon included a lack of understanding at board level, no clear strategic direction and no real input of client feedback. For example only 33% of participants identify what client expectations are through research processes, and when asked “Are measures in client service or satisfaction used to judge the performance” only 34% of respondents said yes…
Meirion then gave an excellent talk on the fundamental issue of tackling behavioural change, and ways in which the marketer can go about addressing that thorny issue. He highlighted the importance of top level management acting as agents for change, and identifying the early adopters amongst the high flyers and working with them to facilitate their success further.
After this the session became a Q&A session with helpful extra insight from Richard Shaffer from Lexis Nexus who highlighted some interesting benchmarking tools a firm could deploy to track how well they are managing their client relationships.
Overall the evening was a powerful reminder of the challenge that faces professional firms in seeking to be client centric, and illustrated both obstacles and solutions for achieving this goal.
James Chaplin
Lighthouse Global
Back
