Many small accountancy firms rely on client referrals as their primary means of acquiring new clients. One of the ways to maximise your client referrals is to deliver extraordinary client service. Extraordinary client service isn’t just good service, it’s the type of service which will get your clients talking about how good you are. In this blog post, I explore what drives extraordinary client service.
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How NOT to deliver extraordinary client service
I’m a coeliac, which means that I am highly intolerant to gluten, which is a protein found in Wheat, Barley and Rye. It also means that I tend to test out the service available at restaurants, cafes and hotels – a lot!
A few years ago, I was a speaker at the MSI Global conference in Lisbon and had the privilege of staying in a top-quality hotel.
Lisbon has a local speciality of custard tarts, and everywhere I went at this conference, whether I liked it or not, I was offered these custard tarts and rather tasty-looking pastries. It doesn’t matter how good these custard tarts looked or tasted; these were off-limits for me.
Like any good business, this hotel prides itself on providing little extra value for all of its clients. Why? Because, like a good business owner, they realise it’s a great way to get referrals and repeat business. However, that was not the service I received.
The hotel knew that I needed a gluten-free diet and was quite good generally, although there were a few things that irked me. For example:
- I was very surprised to see in my room on arrival, wait for it, some custard tarts.
- When I carefully ordered my breakfast via room service, I was also very surprised to be given an extra basket of, wait for it, custard tarts and breakfast pastries.
- Then, at the formal dinners, the waiters hadn’t been told I needed a special meal, so I had to wait for an alternative.Â
It doesn’t sound like much, but it really does make a big impact. After all, would you rather feel special and cared for or like a burden? I know which I prefer.Â
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Improve your client service (without annoying clients)
Like my hotel, we often sheep-dip our clients in ways that we think we can deliver them extra service. It’s quick, easy, “efficient” and we think it’s right. Like the hotel, we have the data at our disposal that tells us exactly what would be welcomed and what wouldn’t. However, we don’t do what we should with it.
- How often do we read this data? – probably not as often and as consistently as we should.
- How often do we record it and share it across the whole team? – not enough or ever for some.
Delivering extraordinary client service needs the whole team involved. It’s rarely one person who delivers this level of service – that’s why we call it a “team effort”. Plus, the great thing about delivering extraordinary client service is it is rarely expensive! It just takes thought and personalisation.
The moral of the story is: It is this personalised service, not sheep dip service that will take your firm into the realm of delivering extraordinary client service. It’s extraordinary client service, rather than great client service, that gets your clients talking about how great you are. And the results? More client referrals.
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