PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
To be successful in today’s market conditions, where primary sources of revenue are in decline and customer requirements are becoming more focused and specialised, there is no doubt that professional service providers need to be super-competitive.
The reality is that it has become more crucial – albeit almost impossible – to be seen as providing something different from competitors. Service innovations are often copied by competitors almost as soon as they become marketable. And the key differentiator then inevitably becomes price. The traditional way professional service companies differentiated themselves was with their outstanding expertise. But it is very likely that clients now believe there are many professionals with equivalent expertise. And to make things even more difficult, the internet has made competition global.
The industry requires new strategies that improve cash flows by streamlining internal processes, ensure higher profit margins, even with the ever-increasing pressure their clients face to reduce costs, and create unbreakable customer bonds. The professional services industry needs to respond to the changes in ways that will build massive value for their clients and prevent anything that will detract from the relationship.
Today, by far the majority of client communication happens by email. This new form of interaction has changed the entire client-professional relationship. Clients expect a response to an email within 24 hours – if not even sooner. And clients also expect a certain level of professionalism when they communicate with their consultants, lawyers, investment bankers, accountants, advertising agents and engineers.
Sloppy, unclear and long-winded writing can erode trust, ruin even the best relationship and create a negative impression – one that is often impossible to overcome. Professional services clients are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and in line with this, they expect every aspect of communication they have with their professional service providers to be at the highest of standards.
Missed opportunities caused by an inability to clearly articulate ideas in writing, misunderstandings caused by unclear messages, the need to clarify error-ridden and unprofessional emails, and incorrectly performed tasks caused by confusing and incomplete instructions – could see clients move to another provider in an environment where loyalty is increasingly overridden by pragmatism.
CASE STUDY
Accounting firm
Provider of expert audit, accounting, tax and advisory services
THE COMPANY
- Well educated administrative and professional staff who work long hours on performance-based incentives
- Offices in most of the major metropolitan areas world-wide
- Up to date with technology, although currently has no Learning Management System (LMS)
- Offer a range of outsourced learning solutions to fit in with learner preferences
- Budgetary constraints ensure razor-thin margins are not eroded
- Employees are time-poor and irritated by anything that wastes their time
- Savvy staff with good computer skills and very high expectations
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TIME-SAVING AMONG LAWYERS
The Law Reform Commission of Victoria redrafted Australia’s complex Takeovers Code. They checked the high impact, new version for accuracy with substantive experts. And when the commission tested the two versions on law students, those readers comprehended the high impact version in half to a third of the average time needed to comprehend the original, traditional version.
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