Innovation and client relationships

Today I'm part of the Client Panel at the PM Forum Conference discussing Innovation, the changing face of professional services relationships and how AI and automation is impacting on that.

Much as we marketers like to think clients want the cool value prop we use to showcase our brands, more often than not something more mundane is top of their mind.

What creates strong client relationships?

In preparing for the conversation with Claire Rason and Joanna Hunter , I went back to some research we ran 3 years ago where we compared what clients want with what firms think they provide.

The first piece of research asked clients what experiences were most important to them and how well their law firms delivered on their expectations. Around the same time we asked managing partners and marketing directors which aspects of client experience they were focused on delivering to an above average level.

To align the two pieces of research we used our value drivers model, as this was developed as a common frame of reference for making sense of how clients and firms talk about value propositions and experiences.

Three themes emerged.

Basics, table stakes and hidden gems

Firstly, being approachable is important, but it has become table stakes. It's important to clients and firms, and clients seem to experience it regularly. So, firms need to keep delivering on this, but achieving differentiation will be very hard.

Secondly, providing peace of mind is just expected by firms and clients. Neither highlighted it as important to their brand/decision, but it comes through strongly in the actual experiences. Again, firms must deliver on this, but achieving differentiation will be very hard.

Finally, communication is where your firm can create a competitive advantage. Feeling informed is important to clients, but few firms seem be proactive in this area. As a result, clients aren't getting a standout experience - sometimes it's great, sometimes it isn't. That's usually because firms see communication as a 1-way process, they contact the client when they have something to tell them. But their clients see communication as emotional, it's about the extent to which they feel informed.

Communication - the fastest route to brand differentiation

My conclusion at the time, which I still stand by today, is that improved communication is the fastest route to a standout legal brand. Ask your clients how and when they want to be communicated with. Then consistently deliver on those expectations.

It sounds too simple, doesn't it? But simple isn't always easy. Standing out requires going the extra mile, asking about client expectations and then tailoring your delivery based on what you hear. Consistency separates good from great experiences, just as it separates sport's good from great performers.

'Improve your communications to increase differentiation' is not what Marketing Directors want to hear. Firstly because the answer is not within their direct control, they're relying on colleagues to deliver the promises they're communicating. Secondly, it's considered the delivery basics, and therefore often overlooked when internal training is being planned. Telling senior people who have been communicating with clients for 30 years that they're doing it wrong (from a client and brand perspective) is not an easy message to deliver!

And yet, how firms communicate remains at the heart of relationship strength - and by extension, revenue growth. Those who do it well - that make their clients feel fully informed - have strong relationships, reputations and revenue growth.

An example of how AI and innovation will impact client relationships

So to pick up the theme of the broader conference, how will AI and automation help close this gap?

On the one hand, it could make CX better.

AI-powered feedback analysis can help firms pin-point where it communicates well, where it doesn't and how training and support can be evolved to improve client experiences. This analysis will reveal internal best practice, the practical actions and processes that are working for the firm - this is much more effective than external benchmarking against a mythical group of similar firms.

At a day to day level, GPTs like Claude/Copilot/ChatGPT can help people go from "I need to tell the client X' to a well-written email. As firm's experiment with their own custom GPT's, delivery teams could get help from a LLM trained on their brand's own style. Similarly CRM systems could be set-up to prompt delivery teams to send clients an update, based on the expectations of similar clients.

On the other hand, AI and innovation could make CX worse.

AI is great for speeding up the content creation process. It gets you from blank sheet to first draft faster than a Ferrari. But 1st draft isn't final copy - or at least it shouldn't be. Humans still need to refine and polish the message, to ensure it reflect the brand's positioning and the experts point of view rather than the statistical average calculated from its training data.

Making a process faster for the sender doesn't necessarily make it better for the recipient. The surge of blatantly AI-generated InMails here on LinkedIn proves why humans need to remain in the loop.

So how do you see the rise of AI and automation? Can it help you're firm to drive brand differentiation, relationship strength and revenue growth?

#PMForum #ProfessionalServices #ClientRelationship #Innovation