Client dissatisfaction analysis

Dissatisfied Clients Diagnostic report

A powerful client loyalty analysis to guide strategic improvement

Identify and remove obstacles to client satisfaction

Our Dissatisfied Clients Diagnostic helps professional services firms improve client loyalty, boost referrals and strengthen their reputation.

This report leverages client feedback about your firm to identify the sources of dissatisfaction. It draws a road map to transforming unhappy clients into satisfied customers, reducing client churn while boosting NPS, client loyalty and building more valuable long-term working relationships.

Beaton’s client dissatisfaction analysis also benchmarks your firm’s performance against industry standards and key competitors. This puts your client satisfaction data into context and equips you with the evidence to make targeted improvements to enhance your market position.

What is a Dissatisfied Clients Diagnostic?

Beaton’s Dissatisfied Clients Diagnostic is designed for professional services firms who want to reduce client churn, improve their organisation’s reputation and build more valuable, long-term client relationships.

The diagnostic goes beyond surface-level metrics and offers a comprehensive dissatisfaction drivers report, segmented into client types. Leveraging detailed client feedback diagnostics, organisations gain the evidence they need to directly address issues, improve service delivery, and increase retention rates.

With a Dissatisfied Clients Diagnostic, you’ll receive:

  • Comprehensive client feedback diagnostics: Detailed insights into dissatisfaction drivers, helping leaders pinpoint specific areas or issues affecting client retention.
  • Actionable recommendations: Tailored strategies and solutions to address identified problems and enhance client satisfaction for the long-term.
  • Industry benchmark comparisons: Client satisfaction benchmarking and data showing how your firm’s performance compares to competitor firms.
  • Segmented client loyalty insights: An evaluation of the dissatisfaction by client type, industry, or service line to prioritise improvements where they will have greatest impact.

Why do firms need client dissatisfaction analysis?

Research has estimated it costs up to 25 times more to acquire a new client than to retain an existing one. Dissatisfied clients can lead to reduced firm revenue, higher acquisition costs of finding new clients, and potentially large reputation costs to the business caused by disgruntled former clients sharing their bad experiences with others. 

Identifying issues and responding to negative feedback to correct smaller problems – before they become large and damaging – can be a powerful way to earn client trust. It’s also a very effective way to build a reputation that clients will tell their peers about.

By staying across honest feedback, getting ahead of problems and understanding dissatisfaction drivers in a timely fashion, firms can not only fix problems before they grow – but can win more work into the future.

  • Uncover hidden risks
  • Build trust and strengthen client relationships
  • Turn at-risk clients into loyal advocates
  • Stay ahead of competitors
  • Drive targeted improvements

Beaton's client dissatisfaction analysis

Beaton offers Dissatisfied Clients Diagnostics as part of our Beaton Benchmarks suite. These are available to firms that have already participated in Beaton Benchmarks, our annual client satisfaction benchmarking survey. By building on the insights gathered through Beaton Benchmarks, a Dissatisfied Clients Diagnostic helps firms find out what’s frustrating their clients, how to correct issues, and why it matters.

Our client feedback diagnostics data is presented and tailored to the context of your Beaton Benchmarks results, providing seamless integration with the results you have already received.

For organistions that have not participated in Beaton Benchmarks, we can also conduct on demand client or customer feedback research that includes a dissatisfaction drivers report on request.

Turn at-risk clients into your biggest advocates

Identify and remove potential problems before they become damaging, turning client loyalty insights into your greatest competitive tool. Talk to a Beaton partner about a Dissatisfied Clients Diagnostic for your organisation.

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FAQs

The Dissatisfied Clients Diagnostic is a report that draws on client feedback research on professional services firms across Australia and New Zealand. It analyses feedback from your clients, identifies the key issues causing dissatisfaction, and compares your performance to industry standards. This helps businesses understand why their clients might be unhappy and what can be done to fix it, saving costs of lost clients while building trust and reputation.

Firms should care about unhappy clients because dissatisfaction doesn’t just mean a lost customer – it can lead to damaged reputations, fewer referrals, and lost revenue. Unhappy clients are more likely to share their negative experiences, which can harm a firm’s ability to attract new business.

On the flip side, addressing dissatisfaction shows clients you value their feedback, building trust and loyalty. Happy clients stay longer, spend more, and recommend your services, making them a key driver of long-term success.

Any organisation that has participated in Beaton Benchmarks research can purchase this report. The survey is run annually and professional services firms across Australia and New Zealand participate for free. 

Beaton can also conduct a client dissatisfaction report through bespoke research or tailored surveys that our expert research team designs and delivers for you. 

A Dissatisfied Clients Diagnostic includes:

  • Performance overview and benchmarking on your firm, including ratings from clients on overall client service and Net Promoter Score (NPS)
  • Analysis and segmentation of your dissatisfied clients – by core and non-core clients, sector, revenue, geography and organisation type
  • Analysis of dissatisfaction drivers and a deep dive on recurring themes
  • Recommendations and executive summary of next steps to correct dissatisfaction

The report is based on feedback collected by Beaton through Beaton Benchmarks. This third-party collection keeps your clients’ data safe and anonymised, while ensuring objective insights from clients about their experiences with your firm.

Unhappy clients will rarely tell your firm directly until it’s too late. This is why we find the Dissatisfaction Drivers Diagnostic can be eye-opening and valuable for firms that were otherwise unaware of issues.

Many firms use this report periodically – usually every two to three years – to track progress with NPS and client loyalty. This enables them to measure the impact of changes, stay on top of client concerns, monitor their competitors, and ensure continuous improvement.

Yes, our researchers always segment and deliver insights to focus on particular client groups, industries, or service lines for targeted improvements. We can tailor the report to your needs and work closely with your team to ensure those needs are met.

Still have questions? Please contact us and one of our team will be in touch to help.