The missing lens - how your people see the client experience

Staff suggestion boxes may date back to a time of milk floats and video recorders, but the jump to digital engagement surveys has left firms with an insight gap. Yes we’re going on a wee trip down memory lane today, and yes I am old enough to remember the dusty suggestion boxes!

Basically they were a letter box that was always available to anyone who had an idea about how to improve the business. Managers encouraged employees to drop in their improvement ideas and occasionally rewarded them for their troubles. It was like a letter box to Santa, but for grown-ups wishing for better business toys.

While the suggestion boxes served their purpose, they had their limitations. The feedback was unprompted, the process lacked a process to drive impactful changes, and someone kept taking the pencils. Employees were left wondering if their letters had been delivered, and whether anyone would bother reading them - there weren’t many true believers left by the end!

That's where digital engagement surveys entered the stage, promising more in terms of data and analysis. Surveys can be quick, simple and you don’t even need to leave your desk to share your ideas. 

But alas, they had their own drawbacks. In replacing the paper, firms lost sight of the purpose. Closed survey questions fed a measurement-focused approach that stifled the potential for valuable insights.

The focus has switched from collecting a broad spectrum of ideas to asking closed questions that can be reported quickly. The same problem exists with complaints processes, where empathy and learning have been lost in the rush to track and close cases. But that’s a topic for another day.

Are your employees still trying to tell you something?

To truly harness the power of feedback, we need to move beyond box ticking and focus on gathering valuable feedback. 

Now, here's an interesting thought. Your employees have a unique perspective on both the client experience and the internal processes/policies influencing it. They're the ones at the front lines, witnessing firsthand how your firm interacts with its clients, prospects and referrers.

The beauty of suggestion boxes was that anything could be suggested. An open question meant the scope was defined by the person giving the suggestion, not by the managers receiving it.

But the proliferation of DIY survey tools has given control back to the business. The person creating the survey decides which questions get asked, and crucially, which multiple-choice options are included. 

Most employee engagement surveys just ask about the areas that HR can influence; career, managers, training etc. All important topics, but they are inwards looking. They focus on the employee’s relationship with the firm. 

Meanwhile, over in the Marketing department, client surveys are looking the other way. They are only sent to clients and ask about their relationship with the firm. 

Both of these lenses are important, but something is missing.

The missing lens – employee feedback on the client experience

Who’s asking employees about how they would improve the client experience?

Your people see both the client experience and the internal methods that influence it. But many firms are missing the opportunity to see their client experiences through the eyes of their people.

Put another way, the client’s perspective shows you which aspects of your brand promise are being delivered consistently well, and which bits aren’t. Your teams see why those experiences are happening, and the internal impact it’s having.

When you put the two perspectives together you get a powerful and evidence-based business case for improvement. Keep them separate, and you're destined to have disgruntled clients and frustrated employees complaining they could solve the problem.

Unify all your client-related feedback

This isn’t a perspective I hear firms talking about yet. At best, internal feedback may trickle through from 1-2-1 conversations.

But a trickle of anecdotal comments has rarely supported a successful business case. The answer is to have a feedback platform that can unify comments from both clients and employees. 

When looked at in aggregate, the business case for change emerges faster. For example, client grumbles about the billing process can be matched to employee suggestions about how to reduce billing-related admin.

That’s why we built MyCustomerLens to focus on open questions and unify all that feedback in one central place - regardless of whether it comes from clients, colleagues, prospects or wider stakeholders. It’s only by combining all perspectives on the client experience, that firms can drive growth by discovering and responding to client needs faster.

5 tips for gathering internal views on the client experience

• Decide which role/department is responsible for gathering internal feedback on the client experience. HR, Marketing and BD will all have a view.

• Create both a short survey and a freely available feedback form. This way you can ask for feedback and make it easy for employees to share when ideas are top of mind.

• Don’t close down the ideas, ask open questions. Get out of people’s way and let them tell you what they are seeing (good advice for client surveys too).

• Look for the big picture themes, don’t just pass feedback to the obvious department. For example, issues with billing could be driven by how initial client expectations are being set.

• Close the loop by regularly telling employees what you’re hearing, how you’re taking action and how clients have benefited as a result. Celebrate the best suggestions and create a flywheel of engagement.

Does your firm need a modern day reboot of the staff suggestion box? If so, MyCustomerLens | always-on listening can help. It’s the always-on client listening platform for professional services firms seeking a competitive edge. Our easy to use platform automatically unifies and reports on all sources of client feedback in real-time.

#employeeengagement #clientexperience #listendifferently