AECOM is a global infrastructure consulting firm with offices in Australia and New Zealand. The firm’s strategic goal is to deliver unrivalled infrastructure solutions while building a reputation for equity, diversity and inclusion and remaining committed to environmental, social and governance priorities. These dual goals require a sophisticated and informed approach to the client experience.
AECOM previously utilised a number of tools to collect client feedback but wanted to better understand how clients felt about its services compared to similar firms. Beaton helped AECOM supplement its internal feedback mechanism with a broader and more objective market perspective via Beaton Benchmarks.
AECOM is a global infrastructure consulting firm that partners with clients to solve the world’s most complex challenges and build legacies for generations to come. It provides engineering, planning, and consulting services with 20 office locations across Australia and New Zealand.
Website
Industry
Engineering consulting services
Organisation size
1000+ employees
Key outcomes:
- Percentage of clients who would consider using AECOM for their next project (termed consideration) has risen to 68 per cent, compared to 48 per cent for competitor firms
- Client experience ratings have improved 4 per cent year-on-year
- Overall performance ratings from clients have increased 3.7 per cent year-on-year
- The firm has a “road map” to direct strategy and prioritise areas for improvement
- The firm has set and improved on new KPIs regarding client experience across the business
AECOM’s experience with Beaton Benchmarks
Challenge:
AECOM has utilised a number of tools to collect client feedback for many years. Before working with Beaton Benchmarks, the firm had begun to recognise some limitations of those existing internal systems. The limitations included:
- A lack of comparison data or benchmarks to compare how clients viewed their service with other firms in the market
- The potential for clients to filter responses when responding directly to the firm’s request for feedback
Having enough to data to accurately understand themes and trends. The firm wanted to ensure it was “seeing the full picture” by understanding its position in the market. Specifically, had no way to compare its own client feedback with feedback on other, similar, professional services firms in the Australian and New Zealand region. Leaders were lacking the detailed market research that would enable them to understand the firm’s unique brand positioning, and how clients objectively rated their services compared to competitor firms.
AECOM sought to enhance its feedback data pool while ensuring the added data was accurate and objective. The firm approached Beaton to help supplement its existing feedback programs.
“We started using Beaton to supplement our feedback programs, as it was a valuable opportunity to get independent market research on our brand and the Australian and NZ markets.”
Solution:
AECOM participates in the Client Choice Awards; an annual professional services awards program Beaton has managed for two decades. The Awards are free to enter and enable participant firms’ fast-tracked access to the most extensive client feedback data available on the market – Beaton Benchmarks.
The awards process collects client feedback through a survey that Beaton sends out to thousands of clients annually. The third-party administration limits the potential for bias while maximising objectivity as clients do not provide their responses to the firm and cannot be identified.
After the awards closed and feedback was collected, Beaton worked with AECOM to distil its unique insights from the broad pool of benchmarking data. Our research team identified and compared client ratings AECOM received with those of firms undertaking similar work and of similar size in the built and natural environment sector. We also provided insights on how that sector compared to other professional services, like legal and accounting. Those comparisons were enhanced by verbatim responses from clients offering additional comments on the survey.
A Beaton partner regularly contacted AECOM throughout the research and reporting process. The Beaton research team was also on call and worked rigorously to ensure we provided the most valuable information and data points.
After distilling the information required, we provided a Beaton Benchmarks report detailing client feedback on AECOM’s key aspects of service. A Beaton partner presented the report to the firm’s senior leaders, diving into details via charts and comparison data on:
- Brand positioning
- Service quality
- Price
- Value delivered
- Client loyalty
“Research specific to our market, such as special reports like CX in the Built Environment or The State of CX in Professional Services, has been a great source of intel for us. We use all of this to inform our CX strategy, support our client-centric culture and bolster our presentations and training.”
Outcome:
Since working with Beaton Benchmarks, AECOM’s leadership has set new key performance indicators (KPIs) to improve client experience. These KPIs are continually being met and exceeded.
Beaton Benchmarks has become a regular supplement to AECOM’s feedback program. By comparing changes in its results over the years, the firm has uncovered trends and observed progress in different areas. Firm leaders tell us the broader pool of client feedback data, collected via a third party, is invaluable for ” sense-checking our own feedback.” They agree the feedback has more weight when they hear the same responses from multiple sources.
“Regarding results and brands, it’s been helpful to see the evolution over the years and consider what’s been going on in our business and the broader market.”
AECOM utilises insights within built and natural environment consulting and has learned from the experiences of different industries, including legal and accounting. It leverages Beaton’s access to all sectors of professional services by requesting comparisons with the other markets as well as its own. These insights inform the firm’s leadership and development programs to guide the entire firm and its staff on where to focus.
Client experience is a vital part of the firm’s strategy, and Beaton Benchmarks is AECOM’s roadmap to the most significant opportunities for improvement.
“We find it all valuable – providing a holistic view of our brand, performance and market. The personalised debriefs assist in elevating the information to our senior leaders and help dissect the data and identify meaningful actions.”
