This post shares some insights from our Beaton Compass CX in Professional Services reports. These are now available for Accounting, Built Environment and Consulting Engineering and Legal services.
The greatest area for improvement for consulting engineering and built environment firms is the ‘Ongoing relationship’ phase of the client journey. In my career as a CMO, I cannot count the number of times I heard savvy client-focused principals coaching younger engineers about the need to stay in contact with their clients. Firms I was with even developed client engagement skills training to provide support.
How Do You Manage Ongoing Client Relationships?
Our Beaton data provides further support for the need (the clients are saying this!) and the opportunity for firms. In the current environment where some clients will be feeling tremendous pressure, such as the cutting of capex budgets and facing project delays, this phase is incredibly important.
- Are you in frequent and regular contact with key clients so they feel important and supported in dealing with their issues, challenges and opportunities?
- Look to help in any way possible so they feel you are invested in them – but without being pushy.
- Or are you a ‘fair-weather friend’ who will be ready to meet once the client is ready to spend money again?
Falling Away in 'Ongoing Relationship' Phase
Our research breaks down ‘the client journey’ into five phases, in each of which clients were asked about their CX. The 5 Os of the CX Cycle are: opportunity and prospecting, onboarding and scoping, operational and main work, outcome / deliverable and ongoing relationship. The area for greatest improvement is the ‘Ongoing relationship’ phase of the client journey
It is perhaps unsurprising to learn that the highest-rated part of the journey for clients is during the Outcome / deliverable phase.
This chart shows that all three professions fall away in ‘Ongoing relationship’. This is particularly true for built environment & consulting engineering with 6.3 (out of 10). And it’s from a considerably lower starting point, namely 7.2 in the first three phases, compared to 8.2 to 8.6 in the other two professions.
As a consulting engineering firm are you:
- Clear and transparent about who is accountable for ongoing management of your key client relationships?
- Supporting those individuals with the time, leadership, mindset and skills to manage those relationships, so that the equivalent red line for your firm is not dipping south like the one in the chart?
- Mapping out client personas and journey maps?
If ever there was a time for consultants, it’s Now.
The ongoing relationship phase between projects is an area of weakness for many professional services firms and is particularly an issue for built and natural environment consulting firms.