Improvement can take longer and be more challenging than you first imagined. Ensuring that you stay on course and deliver the hoped-for improvements and client benefits requires that you measure and monitor your progress.
Before undertaking any changes, remember to record your current state. This enables you to benchmark the improvements to your process. You can use specific measures to monitor progress, such as quality, quantity, cost or time. Alternatively, your improvements may have to come through in more generic results – for example, overall revenue growth or client satisfaction feedback.
Research your clients throughout the implementation phase to assess their loyalty and satisfaction: these are the ultimate measures of your success. Do this regularly to see if the process improvements you have made are having the desired impact. Due to the law of unintended consequences, a change in one area may produce an unintended consequence in another, so be aware of the possibility of surprising results.
Throughout the process, remember to keep a focus on the end objective, your “beacon”. It is tempting, when managing process improvement, to dive into the detail and lose track of what you were trying to achieve in the first place. Ensure you have a clear vision and description of what “great” looks like when it comes to your client experience and how you manage risk and profitability for the business. Where possible, set clear goals and targets so that you can quantify what success looks like. A valuable business comes from providing excellent service to your clients and developing loyal and long-term clients as a result. Clients will stay with you for the long term because they see the value in the advice you have given, trust you, and receive high-quality service.
Following the implementation of your change programme, you will need to monitor the changes you’ve made to see if they produce the desired outcome.
You may have a very specific outcome in mind, perhaps improving a specific part of your client programme, in which case it may be easy to notice the impact the changes are making. If the changes are wider, you may need to put several monitors in place to check progress. You could also include a random sampling of clients to help provide some interim feedback.
As you improve your business, be aware that your competitors will respond by improving theirs. As a result, client expectations will continue to rise. To remain successful, you will need to improve your client experience by constantly monitoring delivery.
While feedback can be used ad hoc, using it continually will ensure that you can measure and implement improvements over time. Clients like to see a firm that is striving to improve.
Be aware that you may not see the impact in the short term – it could take a significant number of your clients to complete a whole business cycle for you to see statistically significant results.
The importance of building and retaining loyal clients cannot be overstated. In a world where “fee for service” is normal, both clients and firms need to understand the exchange of value that takes place.
Where there are many equally qualified, professional, experienced advisers and it will be your ability to meet your client’s expectations to service “as promised” and articulate your value that will determine their loyalty to you.
Given that loyalty is fundamental to the longevity of the client relationship – and the ultimate value of your business – it is worth concentrating on making a promise you can keep and ensuring your client knows you are keeping it.
It is good practice to measure and monitor progress during the change process to ensure you stay on course.
Record your current state before you start the process, so you have a benchmark.
When the changes have been implemented, continue to measure and monitor them – it is the only way you will be able to know if they are making a difference.
Inform clients of the changes you are making and obtain their feedback during and after the process, but be aware that change may not be visible in the short term.
Read our report, Building Trust, for more ways to develop a strong relationship with your clients.
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