Some professionals still make the mistake of assuming that high-quality technical work means high-quality service. Of course the quality of work is critically important but the provider of professional services is probably judged more often on manner and style. Buyers of professional services usually ask themselves ‘Do I like and do I trust this provider?’ Positive answers to these questions usually result if the professional is a good listener, keeps to promises about deadlines, keeps the client informed about progress and is easily accessible when needed. It is important therefore for the team members to check out their competence through such mechanisms as assignment debriefings, informal discussions with clients, the use of feedback questionnaires and postings on electronic Web-based noticeboards. It is helpful for teams to store this information and then decide what needs to be done. For instance, what action is necessary immediately to respond to, and deal with, a client’s concern? What changes need to be made to bring about improvements in service for the longer run?
Here are some examples of the issues that need to be considered to get good feedback on service quality:
- Was the assignment tackled thoroughly?
- Were problems diagnosed well?
- Were the solutions creative?
- Were promises on deadlines kept?
- Did we listen carefully to what the client had to say?
- Were our communications free of jargon?
- Did we let the client know in advance what we intended?
- Was the client kept informed about progress?
- Were we available when needed?
- Did we give comprehensive explanations for what we had done?
- Did we take the initiative in communicating with the client?
- Were we thoroughly informed about the client’s business?
- Did we make the client feel important?
This is not an exhaustive list of service quality questions. You will think of others that are particularly relevant to the nature of your work and clients.
The business advisory services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers invites clients to complete feedback forms at the end of each engagement. The essence of the document is shown in the box ‘PricewaterhouseCoopers:
Your response helps our response’, and John Martin, Director – Clients and Markets, has this to say about the benefits:
Quality of service is a key driver in our business and dialogue with our clients is a critical element in ensuring that we understand their needs and the expectations we aim to meet or surpass. Feedback indicates that we achieve this objective in over 95% of client engagements. We are proud of this success, but not complacent. We need to ensure that the trend continues to be upward and that we keep a sharp focus on the quality of our planning with key individuals at our clients to set the right objectives for each specific engagement.
One of the pleasant surprises as we developed our feedback mechanism was the openness, which we found in client feedback. We set up the survey process to be independent and gave clients the option not to share feedback with the engagement team. We thought that this might be a common request but in practice found that confidentiality has rarely been used to give anonymous criticism. In fact, a recent review of feedback seems to indicate that ‘sparing the blushes’ is a more common motivation for not sharing feedback with the team.
Pricewaterhousecoopers: Your Response Helps Our Response
We would like your feedback on how PwC performed on our recent engagement. Please indicate:
‘Importance to you’ and ‘Your satisfaction with’ from 10 (=high) to 1 (=low)
Meeting your needs and expectations – how satisfied are you that the PwC team:
- agreed detailed requirements with you?
- performed in line with the agreed requirements?
How satisfied are you that:
- we had sufficient understanding of your business needs?
- we had sufficient understanding of your business sector?
- we provided high-quality service?
- we managed our international service to you? (where applicable)
- Are there any areas where you would like the team to be more proactive in future?
Working with you – how satisfied are you that:
- we used clear and effective oral and written communication?
- we kept you sufficiently informed of progress?
- we were easy to contact?
- we were responsive and attentive to your requests?
- Please make any comments/suggestions.
Overall, did our people relate well with your people?
How did individuals on the PwC team perform? We welcome specific comments:
To what extent did we deliver value to your organization?
Please rate your level of overall satisfaction with PwC, on this assignment.
Please add any additional comments you believe would be helpful to us:
Completed by:
Position:
Date:
The PwC team would value your feedback: however, in exceptional circumstances, if you would rather it is not distributed to the team please tick:
Thank you for your feedback.
Please return in the envelope provided to: