Processes, Systems, Behaviours: The Building Blocks of Exceptional Client Service

When I’m conducting client listening interviews, the insight I gather (whether positive or constructive) tends to fall into one of three categories – behaviours, systems and processes. 

Segmenting insights into categories makes the issues that come up, however much they may vary in terms of the challenges they present, easier to understand and address.

Using insight to refine these three elements of your business (behaviours, systems and processes) can, in turn, improve your clients’ experience and so close the loop on their feedback, demonstrating your commitment to hearing what they’re saying and yielding positive impacts for both your clients and the overall health of your business.

Starting with processes, let’s dig into each of these three areas: 

Processes

Processes are, more often than not, insight-wise, the easiest category to get to grips with. 

A process is defined by a series of actions or steps taken to achieve a particular outcome. When I speak to clients, it’s often internal processes rather than the resulting outcomes that cause niggles which, if left unchecked, can lead to bigger issues. Take billing for example, all clients expect to receive an invoice for your services, that’s a given. The issue is rarely the bill itself, or even the price (although sometimes it is), it’s often how the invoice is raised that causes friction. For example, clients, who are buying multiple services and ask at the start of the engagement for itemised bills, will rightly be annoyed when they receive a single, unitemised invoice for the overall amount. It might take a little effort from your finance function to fix this to reflect a client request, but is something that will make an immediate and significant difference to a client.

Systems

Systems-based issues can be a little more challenging to resolve. Nowadays, ‘systems’ often refer to technology-based platforms with a price attached to them, so if you’ve invested heavily in a system your client hates interacting with, that can take a little unpicking. With professional services firms it’s often the systems used for onboarding new clients that come in for criticism – even if clients understand the need for such rigour.

However, systems themselves aren’t always difficult to implement or use, nor do they have to be heavily reliant on expensive technology. One of my clients who delivers audit and assurance services to pension schemes, is often highly praised by their clients for their systematic approach. They’ve developed a methodology which reduces the number of times queries are raised, resulting in a more timely completion of the audit and happier clients all round.

Behaviours

This is the area in which it is most difficult to bring about change. We humans are complicated beings, and with our behaviours linked to so many internal and external factors, it can be difficult to get everyone pulling in the same direction. 

Client listening may reveal inconsistent service: For example, a client engaging a single business for multiple projects may have different experiences of that business depending on the department they come into contact with. This is less than ideal. You don’t want the goodwill you build up to be eroded by variable and inconsistent service from your colleagues. That’s why it’s important to manage client expectations as well as ensuring colleagues across all departments understand what’s expected of them.

Having said that, we’re all human, we all have our off days and we all make mistakes. The key lies in promoting a culture where people aren’t afraid to speak up if something isn’t going to plan or if they need support for a work or personal matter. And, just as importantly, you need to keep the client in the loop. Clients, pretty much invariably, prefer having an open conversation and, if need be, an alternative solution presented to them, rather than having their account serviced by someone who’s burnt out and struggling to hold things together.

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I hope that by highlighting these three areas you’ll be inspired to view feedback through this lens in your own business and identify where your clients may be experiencing points of friction.  If you’re not sure where the frustrations lie – how about asking them? Please do reach out if you need any help with that.