Professional service organizations, such as accounting, law, architectural and consulting firms, continue to face increasingly competi- tive markets that are, ...
Professional service organizations, such as accounting, law, architectural and consulting firms, continue to face increasingly competitive markets that are, in many cases, growing more slowly than before (and than other sectors) and becoming significantly more price-sensitive. Many services that were once considered to be highly specialized are being treated today more and more likely commodities. In this type of market-driven environment, the key to profitability growth is client loyalty, and that ultimately depends on client satisfaction. Thus, maintaining strong and close relationships with clients in a way that adds value beyond the basic services provided is critical to achieving long-term client satisfaction, loyalty and ultimately profitability. Yet how do people know what their clients actually think of their efforts? Asking them face-to-face does not always produce the most honest response, nor is it convenient during extended high pressure engagements (see cartoon). For that matter, how do professionals go about finding out what their internal co-workers and/or supervisors think of their performance? While supervisors will probably be candid in their comments, responses from direct reports and colleagues are likely to be more political in nature. This presents something of a dilemma for enhancing one’s effectiveness, particularly in service-oriented organizations – where the directive is to develop and maintain strong working relationships, but honest feedback is hard to come by. In professional service firms, the question then becomes: “How do we provide engagement partners with honest, specific feedback from their clients on their performance of practices or behaviours which are critical to achieving client satisfaction and loyalty?” One method of measuring the quality of both service relationships and performance in these types of situations is through individualized feedback methods (e.g. commonly referred to as self-other and/or 360° rating systems). Although popular as standard leadership training, management development and organization change tools, these methods have yet to be applied systematically to the professional services industry. Moreover, while client satisfaction surveys are often used in service organizations – regarding satisfaction with the services, fees, engagement team performance and other “results” provided – these types of data, though impor-
Elaborate Enhancing professional service quality: feedback is the way to go Allan H. Church, Miriam Javitch and W. Warner Burke
The authors Allan H. Church is a Principal of W. Warner Burke Associates, Inc., Pelham, New York, USA, providing consultation to businesses in the areas of managerial and leadership feedback, culture assessment, and organization development. Miriam Javitch has been an organizational and management consultant to a variety of organizations in both the private and public sectors. She is also a member of the Organization Development Network and the American Psychological Association and is based in the Department of Social, Organizational and Counselling Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA. W. Warner Burke is President of W. Warner Burke Associates, Inc., and Professor of Psychology and Education and Co-ordinator for the Graduate Program in Social-Organizational Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA. Abstract Professional service organizations continue to face increasingly competitive markets. In this situation the key to profitability growth is client loyalty which depends on client satisfaction. Demonstrates how to go about assessing client satisfaction – short of face-to-face confrontation. To this end recommends a policy of individualized feedback and illustrates this with an example from a professional service firm. Described as the 450° feedback process, it provides partners with internal (in-house) and external (clients) perceptions of service relationships, leading to improvement in client satisfaction and loyalty.
Managing Service Quality Volume 5 · Number 3 · 1995 · pp. 29–33 © MCB University Press · ISSN 0960-4529
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Enhancing professional service quality: feedback is the way to go
Managing Service Quality
Allan H. Church, Miriam Javitch and W. Warner Burke
Volume 5 · Number 3 · 1995 · 29–33
tant, are very different from concrete ratings by specific clients and co-workers regarding an individual service provider’s specific behaviours and performance in their work relationships. In order to know how and where to add value and to improve their effectiveness in their relationships with clients and staff members, these types of individuals need specific, individualized feedback on other people’s satisfaction with their performance. This article describes a specific example of how this type of individualized feedback system was implemented in a professional service firm as part of a larger organizational change initiative. More specifically, a state-ofthe-art feedback process using personalized behaviourally-based assessments from four different constituencies (direct reports, peers, supervisors and clients) on service providers’ performance of certain practices critical to client satisfaction will be described. An overview of the project will be presented including a discussion of the development, administration and programmatic implementation of the feedback delivery process.
(2) The client’s perception of the engagement partner and the engagement team. Is the partner honest, committed, creative and capable of managing a team that will provide consistently excellent services in a timely fashion? (3) The price charged. Is this reasonable for the quality of services provided? Although each of these factors has a role to play in enhancing client relationships, the one that is most amenable to positive change through a personalized feedback process is clients’ perceptions. The quality of the service provided, for example, while interrelated with client perceptions, can be affected in large part through very specific and targeted content-based training efforts (e.g. new tax laws, accounting methods, updates on technology, etc.). The remaining aspects of providing excellence in service quality relate directly to perceptions of one’s behaviour and performance by critical constituencies, such as clients. Similarly, while price is something which the service firm tries to dictate itself, the relative assessment of value for service provided is particularly susceptible to client perceptions of the service provided. Thus clients’ perceptions of the engagement partner (and the engagement team), and his or her ability to provide value-added services, are critical to their ultimate satisfaction with the quality of the service provided, as well as with the price charged for those services. Clearly, managing client perceptions and developing and maintaining strong worker relationships is
Overview of the project Several major factors drive client satisfaction in professional service firms. There are three that are particularly important across all service firms: (1) The quality of the service provided. Does it solve the problem at hand and/or does it enhance clients’ ability to pursue their own goals? 30
Enhancing professional service quality: feedback is the way to go
Managing Service Quality
Allan H. Church, Miriam Javitch and W. Warner Burke
Volume 5 · Number 3 · 1995 · 29–33
integral to effective performance and client satisfaction. Given the importance of these issues, we were commissioned to create and implement a process for providing engagement partners in a professional services firm with specific feedback, from clients and members of their work team, on their individual performance of practices critical to enhancing client satisfaction and loyalty. We termed the resulting system a 450° feedback process, because, in addition to the typical 360° feedback – which incorporates input from internal sources (i.e. direct reports, peers and supervisor) external ratings from several different clients who have worked intimately with that individual add another “90°” to the feedback provided for the service providers’ development. This allows for the service provider to receive feedback not only on internal processes but also on his or her overall level of client effectiveness. The long-term benefit of implementing this type of individualized feedback process in a professional service firm is twofold. First, it shows clients that the firm is concerned about their satisfaction, not only with the services provided but also with the engagement partner who ultimately represents the firm to the client (impacting on their perceptions). Second, in the spirit of continuously seeking to improve service quality and thus enhance client satisfaction, the specific feedback which each service provider receives – particularly from their clients – serves as the basis for improving their relationship skills, changing key behaviours and reducing or eliminating others. In short, this type of feedback system can contribute significantly to building a more effective individual and a more satisfied customer.
that the problems facing each client organization and the environments in which they are situated are often unique in certain aspects, we proposed an initial diagnosis of the organization. To this end we conducted a series of 30 interviews with engagement partners, representing practices in different speciality areas and a variety of different countries. Based on a detailed content analysis of the interview results the following key issues emerged: • Partners perceived that, while they were competent in their technical areas of expertise, their general business problem-solving skills and ability to advise clients in solving broader business issues were deficient. • There was a unanimous belief that, in order to justify charging premium prices (set by the larger organization), partners needed to provide more value-added services to their clients. These services included helping clients solve business problems beyond the scope of the technical audit, accounting and tax services currently provided. • The need for change was urgent. Clients were already beginning to perceive the firm’s current services as more of a commodity than a speciality which could be bought at a cheaper price from competitors. Clearly, most partners interviewed felt that there was a need for engagement partners to go beyond the traditional modes of operating, and find new ways to provide their clients with more enhanced and innovative services. The firm needed to differentiate itself quickly from the standard deliverables offered by numerous competitors. In effect, partners needed to become better overall business advisers, in order to merit the premium prices currently charged by the firm, and to ensure the continuing satisfaction and loyalty of their clients.
Identifying our clients’ service quality issues We designed this 450° feedback process for a professional services firm based in the USA. This firm provides its clients with audit, tax, and a variety of other speciality consulting services. Our initial contact came from the Partner in charge or Partner Development. His primary interest – and expressed need – for the consulting engagement was to have us help identify what the firm needed to do in order to enhance client relationships. Given
Developing a service quality improvement process Based primarily on the results of the diagnosis described above, the firm set out to design an entirely new partner development training curriculum to enhance engagement partners’ capabilities in two specific areas. The first of these concerned building additional skills in specific areas of business knowledge such as 31
Enhancing professional service quality: feedback is the way to go
Managing Service Quality
Allan H. Church, Miriam Javitch and W. Warner Burke
Volume 5 · Number 3 · 1995 · 29–33
business strategy. Participation in these types of programmes would give partners a broader knowledge of the business environment, and allow them to become greater assets (as advisers) to their clients in a whole host of content areas. The second area focused on some of the “softer” skills critical to building stronger interpersonal and working relationships with their clients and their internal engagement teams. In order to achieve this objective, a four-day residential course was developed, the keystone of which was individualized feedback from five different ratings sources (i.e. from 450°) on very specific behaviourallybased practices and outcomes. The data were delivered to participants during the programme in the form of individualized feedback reports. Thus partners were provided with aggregate ratings from their clients, supervisors, direct reports, and colleagues (their own a priori ratings were also included in the report) on 23 behaviours and nine performance outcome items derived from three different sources: (1) the content of the interviews and discussions with the client; (2) research and theory on important practices for service providers; and (3) a database of items available from past consulting work and experience on effective team management, influence behaviour, leadership styles and consulting skills.
which they could improve their relationships with various constituencies. ‘…a number of serious issues had to be addressed at the outset of the feedback process…’ Given that this particular service organization (as well as these engagement partners themselves) had very little prior experience with a formal, institutionalized performanceappraisal system, a number of serious issues had to be addressed at the outset of the feedback process. In particular, all ratings forms were administered, collected, and processed via an external independent consulting firm. In order to protect the confidentiality of each individual rater, and to increase the meaningfulness and integrity of the total data collected for a given partner, feedback from the different rating sources or groups was provided during the programme only where two or more direct reports, colleagues or clients provided responses. Supervisor ratings, by the nature of their position, could not be protected in this regard, nor indeed was the concern regarding the data so prominent. Given the information needs of these particular individuals, a highly complex and complete (yet easy to understand) feedback report was developed. The report contained three different types of charts pertaining to the items in each of the major content categories: (1) An easy-to-read bar chart detailing the responses from each constituency including self, average client, average direct report, average colleague, and supervisory ratings – for people who prefer visual or graphic stimuli. (2) A table of ratings containing the same information in decimal precision along with associated norm responses for all others participating in the feedback process, designed for people who prefer looking at numbers. (3) A text-based page that identified and highlighted specific patterns of differences in perceptions among self and others’ ratings.
The behaviours themselves were broken down conceptually into five major categories: (1) relationship management; (2) influencing; (3) coaching; (4) facilitating; and (5) teamwork. The feedback regarding specific client outcomes covered aspects regarding both continuous service improvement (the essentials) and innovative ideas and solutions (the valueadded component). The coursework and modules included in the programme used these categories as a framework for exploring various content and process-related issues. Additionally, team meetings and individual 45-minute one-on-one counselling sessions with highly trained professional psychologists were used to help participants understand the relationships in their own data, and ways in
Special charts were also designed for the outcome ratings (which were delivered at the 32
Enhancing professional service quality: feedback is the way to go
Managing Service Quality
Allan H. Church, Miriam Javitch and W. Warner Burke
Volume 5 · Number 3 · 1995 · 29–33
outset of the programme and used to frame the rest of the feedback). Overall, the feedback process was found to be quite helpful and meaningful to participants, particularly once the initial resistance and reactivity were confronted. Although well received, why was this type of feedback system implemented initially? There are two primary reasons: the first concerns the importance of having “hard data” to motivate people to change their behaviours, while the second concerns the notion of selfawareness – i.e. knowing which behaviours need to change and how to change them. Practitioners in the field of organization change and development have been operating according to these two related principles for years. It is an important assumption of many leadership and management training and development programmes that, if a manager is to be maximally effective, he or she must be made aware of: his or her own actions; and the consequences of those actions on others through some form of individual feedback process. Moreover, recent research has shown that managers and executives who are more effective (as measured through a variety of means and across several different industries) are significantly more self-aware of their own action and their impact on others, compared with average performing individuals.
Given the power that individualized feedback can have on people, coupled with the implications of the findings from experience and research, the optimal intervention for enhancing client relationships in the present context was clear; feedback (from both internal and external sources) was needed. The 450° feedback process ultimately implemented was designed to provide partners with the tools to compare self-perceptions of their performance (and what they thought they were doing, and how they were acting) with averaged ratings provided by others representing a number of different working relationships. By receiving feedback, both from members of the “internal” engagement team (i.e. direct reports, peers, supervisor), as well as external clients, partners use these data to develop a composite picture of their service relationships. They are also better able to gauge where they need to focus on improving their skills and relations with others. If the partner follows through and changes his or her behaviours and practices over the course of six to 12 months, this development process will lead to improved working relationships with others, provide clients with more of the support they seek, and ultimately improve clients’ overall satisfaction with their engagement partner, and their loyalty to the professional services firm.
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