Previously published in Forbes, Introhive’s CEO, Lee Blakemore explores how firms can boost collaboration, revenue, and growth with a client-centric approach.
Across industries, and particularly in professional services, it’s becoming increasingly important to shift toward a client-centric approach. In fact, I believe relationships should be central to your operations.
Operating in silos, where client information is fragmented and relationships are obscure, poses significant risks such as missed opportunities and revenue loss. Recent research shows that higher collaboration leads to increased billable hours, more work billed, and higher originations. By embracing a model where relationships are institutionally owned rather than individually possessed, professional services firms can foster collaboration, innovation and sustainable growth.
As a part of this new chapter in client relationship management, I believe that AI-powered client intelligence platforms can help enhance and centralize CRM data.
With the power of this type of new technology in mind, I believe that it’s time for firms to embrace a client-centric journey—one that transcends individual relationships and fosters a unified approach.
Switching to a client-centric approach
While client relationships are vital to a firm’s continued success, managing clients and client relationships across different service lines, practice areas and geographies generates challenges that can significantly impact a firm’s operation. In short, the sheer volume of complex data that firms must handle often makes it challenging to leverage this information to enhance client relationships and achieve better business results.
The biggest challenges I see facing professional services firms include siloed data and a lack of comprehensive data integration. These hurdles are compounded by the growing complexity of client relationships and evolving client needs, exacerbating the difficulty firms face in managing their client data.
The result is that firms spend a lot of time and money addressing these challenges individually without tackling the root cause: the lack of a holistic view of client relationships across the firm. Of course, CRM systems are nothing new, but client intelligence is.
Therefore, I recommend prioritizing relationship intelligence systems that can help you link everything your firm knows about a client, utilizing AI, data science and enterprise analytics. This can enable your firm to answer complex questions and better understand what your clients and prospects need.
Guiding your firm to a client-centric future
To foster a culture of collaboration and open communication supportive of a client-centric model, start by encouraging ad hoc conversations across the organization. This sort of thing can be achieved by creating informal spaces and opportunities for employees to interact and discuss their work, regardless of their service lines or practice areas. When a market change or a client announcement signals potential new needs, you can then facilitate discussions between relevant teams to explore how they can support the client in these new areas.
It is equally important to create an environment where connectivity and engagement are prioritized. You should practice taking a holistic view of client relationships in order to bring together individuals who already have established relationships with the client rather than defaulting to seniority. This approach ensures that the people with the most relevant and direct client experience are involved in key account expansion opportunities and bid management, fostering a more integrated and responsive client strategy.
Next, I believe that investing in technologies that enhance the value of existing CRMs and can provide a unified view of client data is equally important; this supports a cultural transition to a “one firm” mentality. Additionally, leaders can prioritize data governance and quality, ensuring that client data is accurate, up to date and accessible. This helps pave the way to becoming a firm that places the customer as central to your operations and increases the value and adoption of your existing technology.
Overcoming barriers to transformation
Of course, the resistance to change and hesitancy to adopt new technologies and processes is a common challenge across professional service firms. Addressing these challenges, as well as the “black book” mentality, requires a shift in how client interactions are valued and managed. In addition to leadership advocacy, collaboration incentives like the year-end appraisal model used by international law firm Baker McKenzie, which evaluates internal collaboration as part of performance, can help encourage firm-wide shifts in mentality.
Another common pitfall is the underestimation of the complexity involved in breaking down data silos. Integrating disparate data sources requires time and investment in technology and change management. Firms can avoid these pitfalls by conducting a thorough needs assessment and developing a clear, phased implementation plan that includes stakeholder buy-in at all levels.
In my experience, evaluating the effectiveness of your client relationship management strategy involves setting clear, measurable goals and regularly tracking performance against these metrics. KPIs might include client satisfaction scores, client retention rates, cross-selling rates and revenue growth. Regularly reviewing these metrics and adjusting strategies as needed can help ensure continuous improvement.
Putting a stop to missed opportunities
For C-suite executives apprehensive about embarking on a new approach to managing client relationships, consider this how you could be missing out on as yet unseen ways to generate revenue. Ask yourself: What new approaches can improve your ability to anticipate and meet client needs more effectively?
With access to a firm-wide view of “who knows who and how well,” teams can leverage a company’s strongest relationships to facilitate quicker and easier closures and drive internal referrals. Additionally, you can look to create visibility into scheduled meetings across your firm and historical interactions, which allows for the development of joint pitches, enhancing collaboration and increasing the likelihood of successful outcomes.
Overall, once you have made the proper cultural shifts within your organization that include data governance, upcoming platforms can help provide actionable client intelligence, enabling you to make informed decisions, enhance collaboration and deliver exceptional service.
Contact Introhive to explore how AI-powered client intelligence can elevate your firm’s approach to client relationship management.