HOW TO MAKE CLIENTS FEEL LIKE PARTNERS

BLOG By Rhys Madoc, CEO, UHY International July 2024

Everyone in business knows that the relationships we develop with clients and customers are crucial. The closer those relationships are, the more successful both parties tend to be.

But in a world that is both digitally focused and increasingly competitive, providing good products or services is not, on its own, enough. There may be five other businesses in the same city or region with similar technical skills or an identical product range. There may be 100. The difference between you then comes down to the concept of client advocacy.

To my mind, client advocacy is simply the notion that customer needs come first. When you nurture a client-first mindset, your customers naturally come to think of you as a business partner rather than simply a provider of services or products. In a B2B environment their trust in your judgement will grow and they will seek your advice in relevant areas. You become an integral part of their success.

Another positive aspect of client advocacy is that it produces mutually rewarding relationships. Your client uses your services and you help to solve their business challenges. You refer customers to each other. You become ambassadors for each other’s businesses.

All in all, client advocacy is the way modern businesses thrive, especially in the B2B space.

BECOME MORE THAN A SERVICE PROVIDER

So how do you become more client-centric, and tap into the benefits of these mutually supportive relationships? There are a number of ways.

• Get to know your client – inside out. Provide the services asked of you and then go further. Get to know your client’s business and the industry it operates within. Ask questions and talk to people in different parts of the organisation. In that way, you’ll be able to tailor your service much more precisely to your client’s needs, and suggest better ways of doing things. At UHY our ethos is to be seen as advisors as much as service providers.
  
  
• Understand client motives. Different clients have different requirements. Some may want nothing more than a basic technical service, in which case deliver it supremely well. Others will be price-focused. And then there are those with more complex needs, who may appreciate your advice or an introduction to a valuable contact. Going the extra mile in these circumstances builds trust and confidence - the first steps on the path to long-term partnerships.
  
  
• Encourage referrals. You may have many clients in many different sectors – might any of them benefit from the services of another? Start connecting businesses in your network and you become the hub of a mutually supportive business ecosystem. At UHY, our global network is a good example of this, with member firms referring business to each other to better serve international clients.
  
  
• Handle challenges professionally. Every relationship can occasionally be challenging. If you make an error or your service falls shot in some way, act quickly and decisively. Listen to the client’s concerns, investigate relevant systems and processes to find the source of dissatisfaction, and put measures in place to correct the issue. Long-term clients will rarely jump ship after an isolated problem, but they will want to see that you are efficient and proactive in solving problems.

CREATING A CLIENT-CENTRIC MINDSET

Those are the kind of steps that build client advocacy with a customer. But how do you entrench the idea of client advocacy in your firm’s DNA?

It begins with internal communication. For example, the account manager or client lead should have an in-depth understanding of your client and their challenges and ambitions, and that information should also be available to everyone in the service delivery team. Anyone who attends meetings with clients at any level should have something useful to contribute, based on specific knowledge. Based on the UHY way of working together, a couple of my blogs from last year talk more about sharing knowledge within organisations and offer some tips for better internal communications.

After that, client advocacy is a case of tracking the success of your engagement, and looking for ways to improve those statistics. If it’s not the sort of service that automatically produces statistical data, ask for client feedback. Or ask for it anyway! What does your client think you are doing well? What might you do better? Even the process of asking will be seen as a client-centric activity, but you should also act on the results.

In the end, it is all about customer satisfaction. That needs to be a priority for your firm, ahead of almost everything else. In a world where client advocacy is the key to long-term success, continually improving customer satisfaction scores are the most valuable indicators of success. It is a mindset that’s deeply embedded in UHY’s culture – get in touch if you’d like to know more about how we deliver it for our own clients.

Image credits:

Photo 1 and 3 © UHY

Photo 2 by cottonbro studio at Pexels