When clients are prepared to pay more shares one of the many important findings in the beatonbenchmarks20 reports. These reports cover the larger firms in the accounting, built environment and consulting engineering and law professions in Australia and New Zealand. From time to time beaton examines the relationship between how clients view the nature of the work done for them on a spectrum from complex to routine and their willingness to pay more than their current level of fees for the same work. The beatonbenchmarks20 survey ran from October 2019 to January 2020. It replicated questions from earlier years on the circumstances in which clients indicate they are willing / unwilling to pay mo

Better complaint handling is a big opportunity for every professional services firm. So beaton is very pleased to refresh A client complaint handling lesson for every professional services firm. With his permission, the contents is based on Loyalty moments and online dispute resolution – a lesson about complaints? by Professor Richard Moorhead (bio below). It is a privilege to have this direct access to Richard’s insights into many facets of the legal and other professions contributed in his incisive and inimitable style. Please welcome Richard and join this important conversation on complaints and complaint handling in professional services. Loyalty moments and online dispute resolution – a

Grow your firm by helping clients to switch to you may sound like a simple statement of obvious advice. It’s not because, as the research amongst clients of professional services firms summarised in this post shows, you need to know how to do this to maximise the probability of being successful. First let’s get something straight. Our most recent, 2020, research shows price is a rare reason for clients switching between firms. Price is a rare reason for switching Clients seldom switch to or from a firm for reasons of price. The facts on the role played by price have been demonstrated enough times by beaton’s work for them to be true, i.e. the test re-test reliability of the research is very

We are excited about beaton’s new CX report for two reasons. First, the report provides unequivocally clear evidence that increasing Excellent CX and avoiding Poor CX supports profitable growth. Second, the findings are full of major and unexpected insights for the way professional services firms manage the way they relate to and serve their clients. The chart summarises one of the most important findings, namely the likelihood of buying additional services more than triples when CX is rated Excellent compared with when it’s rated Poor. Drawing on our early 2020 survey of a representative sample of corporate and commercial clients of professional services firms in Australia and New Zealand,

beaton regrets to announce that we have cancelled the gala dinner for the Client Choice Awards on 19th March and postponed the Clients and Firms conference on 20th March 2020. This decision was made at 5pm on Wednesday 26th February in light of developments in the spread of Coronavirus and continuing uncertainty about if or when it will be declared a pandemic. We believe it is not responsible to move forward with these events. All firms and individuals involved in these events have already been advised by email and/or telephone. We regret the disappointment and any inconvenience caused. Those who have already booked tickets will be refunded in full in coming days. At the time of writing this

This post reflects on how changes in the missions and names The Association of Consulting Engineers Australia and the Association of Consulting Engineers of New Zealand and the implications for professional services consultants. The Association of Consulting Engineers Australia (ACEA) was founded in 1952. Reflecting the changing nature and makeup of its member firms, ACEA changed its name and logo to Consult Australia in 2010. At the same time membership was widened to include architects, project managers, planners, environmental scientists and quantity surveyors, among others. The Association of Consulting Engineers of New Zealand (ACENZ) was founded in 1959 as the consulting division of In