Tuesday 25 April 2017, London

Lee Grunnell, founder of Thirteen, and Paul English, a member of the Global Leadership team at Grant Thornton, shared the five components that are needed to get client experience right.

Strategy & brand

Lee explained that brand personality and culture should be part of your client’s experience with your firm, making reference to Simon Sinek’s ‘Golden circle’ in advising how to establish this, and considering the following: 

• Who? – Who do you help? What type of business and what type of buyer?
• What? – What products and services do you provide?
• How? – How will you deliver your brand proposition, mission and vision?
• Why? – What are your brand proposition, mission and vision? How does this translate into values and behaviours? 

Paul pointed out how often professional services stop at the ‘what’, and how important it is to be able to transition from the ‘what’ to the ‘how’. 

Journey mapping

So what does a client journey map look like and how do we put one together?

Lee talked us through a four stage model of ‘choosing’ – ‘using’ – ‘paying’ – ‘staying’, and explained how we can think about these as headline stages before deciding which steps come under each one. 

Paul explained how Grant Thornton thought about the ‘brilliant basics’ – those things that they had to get right that would be expected of their firm. Then they thought about what they could do at each stage to go above and beyond and to make the client recommend them – the so-called ‘signature opportunities’.

The three parts of experience: 

• The functional – can the client do what they need to do?
• The accessible – is it easy for the client?
• The emotional – how does it make them feel? 

Since 70% of the client decision is based on the emotional, you need to work out what it feels like to work with your firm - and make that distinctive.   

People 

The people experience must be right to get the client experience right. Motivated employees provide a great client experience, which leads to more loyal clients, which results in improved financials. 

In order to do that, you need to have defined how you want to make the client feel – because this allows you to make the team feel that way.

Measurement

Net Promoter Score (NPS) may not be the be all and end all, but it’s a useful measure and a good base starting point. It allows us to see as time goes on whether it’s going in the right direction.

The most accurate and valuable feedback is the feedback you’re getting at the right time. Make sure you’re measuring the NPS (or equivalent) at each stage in the client journey. 

Governance

The firm’s Leadership team must be behind your efforts – or it simply won’t work. 

There are three types of experience you’ll be giving: 

• Inconsistent – wasted and unintended effort. This type is costly.
• Intentional – empathetic experience which increases loyalty. This type is profitable.
• Branded – consistent and distinctive experiences, with the brand promise delivered every time, and passion and communication at all levels. This type is sustainable.

Jennifer Hansen, Moore Stephens