A fascinating set of articles about knowledge workers and finding new value measurements at a law firm got me thinking about ROi. Allison says:
The firm can pontificate endlessly about client service, mentoring, or other activities that they’d like to encourage, but those statements fall on deaf ears. Why? Because the firm is measuring billable hours, not client service, mentoring, etc.
She is responding to David Rance’s views on the current state of dissonance between what we say we are trying to achieve for clients and the measures we usually put in place. We all say we want to deliver better customer service, but professionals never measure that in any meaningful way, tying it to the values and vision of the firm and the value offering we make to staff and partners. What do I mean by that?
As Allison points out in a different post, top talent rarely leaves for reasons directly connected to remuneration but because the job is not satisfying in some intellectual way or because there is no sense that their worth is valued. The same is true of the best clients. Talent attracts talent just as mediocrity begets mediocrity. When looking at the client portfolio, what would you conclude, given the pressures you know already exist?
Instead of talking about how we value clients, why not find out what clients think of us? Why not construct polls that seek out your clients real thoughts? How about adding some authenticity by having a poll conducted externally? It need not be extensive, or a detailed analysis – at least not on a first pass.
Would it be possible for instance for large practices to initially kick off with polling say audit clients to gauge effectiveness in the light of increased compliance? Smaller practices could be more general in their approach but still obtain value measures that allow partners to get a flavour of what clients really think?
Perhaps the bravest of moves would be a commitment to making the results of such a survey – or at least a selected version – freely available on your public website. While the full version would be made available to all relevant staff members. that could be the start of an exercise in constructing an entirely new set of measures – ones that reflect the social nature of providing services. That could work if used in parallel with more traditional measures so that people could agree as to which are substituted for which.
But before those who are concerned about portfolio quality weigh in with ‘the client only wants to know the fee’ argument, then I’d be inclined to think about the value you’re delivering and the manner in which it is done. If you’re delivering factory style services, you’ll already know you have issues.
This was inspired by an initial posting I read from Ron Baker over at the Verasage Institute and Allison’s subsequent comment.
Technorati Tags: practice management, ROI
