Improving client experience is a strategic priority for Harrison Grierson. While the firm had been regularly seeking client feedback to understand ways it could improve, it lacked a systematic way of collating, organising and responding to that feedback. This made it harder for them to focus on improving client experience.
In 2019, Harrison Grierson implemented Debrief as the core component of its client feedback programme. Because it became much easier to collect feedback from their clients, more teams across Harrison Grierson were able to consistently participate in the programme, improving the quality and actionability of the feedback data.
The granularity of the results allowed the firm to identify the specific pain points for each service line that could be focused on and addressed for targeted improvements. Harrison Grierson were able to track client satisfaction and see the impact of these targeted improvements in real-time and ensure they were having the desired effect. As a result, client experience markers went up across the organisation.
Harrison Grierson is an engineering and design consultancy throughout New Zealand with its head office based in Auckland. It has operated for more than 130 years and prides itself on engineering excellence.
Website
Profession
Built and natural environment consulting
Organisation size
201-500 employees
First started using Beaton Debrief
2019
Key outcomes:
- Net Promoter Score (NPS) improved by 15 points
- Firm is now able to identify and act on pain points where previously guesswork was involved, improving client satisfaction scores by 18 per cent
- Greater accountability for individuals to respond to clients about feedback concerns, improving responsiveness scores from clients by 24 per cent
- Full participation in the client feedback programme across the organisation
- Teams are meeting or exceeding client satisfaction benchmarks
- Enhanced culture of client-centricity in the company
Harrison Grierson’s experience with Beaton Debrief
Challenge:
Over time a haphazard system had developed for the firm to gather client feedback. It was hard to use and involved manual processing. Different teams and individuals used multiple tools which made it difficult to coordinate feedback collection. As a result, feedback often became “lost” in the system and changes were rarely implemented.
Client listening became sporadic and response rates to surveys were low. When the business became busy, it was often the first thing to be left off to-do lists.
Previously, gathering and responding to feedback was a very manual process and relied on multiple people collating the correct information, this being actioned and then responses being coordinated. Our previous process was also very dependent on the person taking the time and was one of those things that would quickly slip to the bottom of the pile of things to do.
Solution:
Debrief was set up as an easy way to organise and manage the firm’s client listening programme across all disciplines and projects. Surveys are now being sent on a consistent basis to clients across Harrison Grierson’s digital, infrastructure, land development, planning and environment, structures and survey disciplines. The projects surveyed range from as little as $5k to over $1M.
Key features utilised
1. Client satisfaction tracking
The firm implemented NPS tracking to monitor client loyalty and satisfaction. This feature gauged client satisfaction at various intervals throughout projects, enabling the firm to constantly monitor how clients felt at different milestones and after any changes were implemented.
2. Automatic email reminders
Rather than manually chasing clients to complete the survey, Harrison Grierson used Debrief’s automatic reminder system. Once the system sends out the initial survey invitation, it will keep track of who has completed and who hasn’t and will follow-up with the incompletes.
3. Data segmentation
Using the Debrief online dashboard, the firm was able to look at their satisfaction results by different service lines and locations. This granularity allowed them to identify pain points that are specific to certain client segments, allowing targeted intervention. Results are shared with the teams so there is “buy-in” over the data.
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Outcome:
Debrief has been used on a project-by-project basis since 2019 and is the primary tool used to direct client experience improvements. Over this time Harrison Grierson have collected several hundreds of pieces of client feedback.
Consultants in the firm are more accountable and willing to respond to individual client feedback, both good and bad. There is increased understanding across the firm that this kind of communication and action on a regular basis about the client experience can improve relationships. More project managers and stakeholders are willing to identify and act on pain points quickly. And this has not gone unnoticed – clients say that Harrison Grierson’s responsiveness has improved by 24 per cent.
From the Debrief results we now have a greater comprehension of how important good communication is to our clients. It’s our most common theme in our client comments and is commented on in all performance levels.
More generally across the firm, the culture has shifted to one of increased mindfulness that Harrison Grierson is a client-centric company. There is also increasing reliance on data to drive strategic initiatives or change – the feedback data through Debrief identified specific areas for focus and targeted improvement. This has resulted in client satisfaction growth of 18 per cent.
Debrief allows us to gather, analyse and act on feedback. It gives us insights into our client needs, identifies our strengths and weaknesses, shows our clients we value their opinions, provides risk mitigation and measures performance over time where we can set benchmarks and track progress.
Debrief has allowed us to listen to our clients and improve the quality of our services so when we work with them again, we have a better understanding of their needs and preferences and can provide the best possible outcome for their project.
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