In the 20-plus years we have been working closely with accounting firms, technology has changed the face of the profession beyond recognition. We all know about cloud accounting software and the many apps in use by accounting firms on a daily basis. But even important functions such as gathering (and acting upon) client feedback have changed radically.

Back in the ‘90s, we regularly facilitated Client Advisory Boards on behalf of accounting firms. At such a session, a dozen or so clients would give up an afternoon and spend two hours providing answers to questions to establish what they liked, loved, hated, were frustrated by or would do differently if they were running your firm. They would then stick around for drinks and nibbles, networking with each other and providing further informal feedback to the partners, who had by then returned from nervous exile to join the independent facilitator and their clients.

There’s no doubt that a Client Advisory Board was a very valuable session. But there’s also little doubt that time’s have changed since then. Everyone is time poor and the thought of giving up 2-3 hours is likely a non-starter for most clients. But they WILL give you 2-3 minutes, and that’s where ClientBuilder comes in.

CREATE REGULAR ONLINE CONVERSATIONS USING DONE-FOR-YOU TEMPLATES

Gathering input from clients should be viewed as a process, not a once-off event. Using ClientBuilder’s template library, you can create a campaign over the course of a year where you engage with your clients in online conversations, enabling them to provide you with valuable feedback in areas such as the way in which you communicate with them, their impression of how you deliver projects on their behalf, their views on the team working on their account and their plans for their own businesses over the next 12 months.

GRAB YOUR CLIENTS’ ATTENTION WITH PROFESSIONALLY CRAFTED QUESTIONS

Don’t leave the design of the questions to chance. Research suggests that poorly written questions is one of the key reasons why people start questionnaires or surveys but do not complete them. Given you only have 2-3 minutes to grab your clients’ attention, it is critically important that the small number of questions you ask hit the mark in terms of relevance, ease of completion and clarity of meaning. Panalitix’s content creation team has many years of experience in the market research industry and has brought that experience to bear in the questions within ClientBuilder.

VIEW A PRIORITIZED ACTION PLAN AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED AS A RESULT OF DATA ANALYSIS

Data analytics are becoming more and more important in helping business owners make better informed decisions. Once clients have completed a ClientBuilder questionnaire, the tool analyzes the data collected and creates a prioritized action plan. The key here is to take action – do something. Nothing will frustrate a client more than being asked to participate in a survey as a result of which nothing changes. ClientBuilder’s analysis informs you of the most important actions to take in response to the client feedback so that you can go back to them with confidence and let them know what changes you will be making as a result of their input. You don’t need to do a hundred things. It’s much more powerful to do one or two things…if they are the RIGHT things.

ACCESS CONTENT TO HELP YOU IMPLEMENT CHANGE

Knowing what to do is one thing, but knowing HOW to do it as another. You can access Panalitix’s comprehensive content library directly from ClientBuilder and deploy methodologies, checklists and templates that will help you to follow through with the proposed changes so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Talk to us today to help you lift client experience in your business.