Independent Client Feedback and ROI — Cementing and Growing Relationships

The business benefits of Independent Client Feedback are not only in the realms of “soft value”. It’s also important to consider it in terms of good old-fashioned return on investment.

One key area in which Independent Client Feedback benefits firms is that it strengthens the relationships with existing clients and can actively help move the client to consider expanded or future business. By commissioning Independent Client Feedback, a company is actively signalling that they value their clients’ opinions and feedback on their performance, delivery, and project management, among others. The power of a client feeling valued and “heard” should never be underestimated on a purely human level, something clients demonstrate time and time again in their feedback.

But it also has a strong business impact. Many clients talk about how they respect a company progressive enough to commission independent feedback, to give them the space to candidly express their point of view and opinions to an independent practitioner without having to “filter” their responses through the lens of existing person-to-person with the provider company. Some clients quite actively discuss how they feel more confident about future projects with a firm that has been self-reflective enough to gather their in-depth feedback on projects already delivered. Without even being in the room, the firm commissioning the independent feedback is building greater trust with their client.

Our experience shows that firms have very little to fear from commissioning Independent Client Feedback. Even in the handful of cases where projects have met setbacks or severe challenges, Independent Client Feedback is unanimously viewed as a positive thing. Even clients who are dissatisfied with projects or have some harsh criticisms cite that they see a firm being able to hear difficult feedback as a step towards revising their opinion of the company.

But, arguably one of the biggest business benefits of Independent Client Feedback is that it gives time and space to a client to reflect on a firm’s performance, most often sometime after a project has been completed. Given that Independent Client Feedback is usually undertaken with C-suite decision makers, this acts as a form of “brand visibility” at the highest levels of client companies. In being asked to consider a company’s performance in detail, often the highly expert interviewees will recognise future projects to which they could be suited or even new kinds of projects for which they would not previously have thought of the company. As part of the Independent Client Feedback process itself, a company can move from out-of-sight-out-of-mind once a project has been completed in the busy working life of the client company to being borne in mind for new projects.

In ROI terms, all of these benefits of Independent Client Feedback serve business prospects. Whether it’s a client reaffirming confidence in a company’s performance based on recognising the achievements on a project or recognising other strengths and expertise not previously obvious, there’s compelling evidence that commissioning Independent Client Feedback contributes to expanded or future business.

In very prosaic terms, the cost of commissioning Independent Client Feedback is minimal compared with the income from just one future project with the same client.