Mike’s Minutes: 4 Master Class Tactics for Delivering a Superior Client Experience

Customizing a service delivery for clients that’s led by humans is no small task. There are different personality types to cater to (See article on DISC profiles: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/mikes-minutes-client-communication-tactics-why-you-should-smith/) and various situations to navigate based on individual needs at the client level.

Having the skillset to slow down and facilitate the appropriate dialog to unlock any/all tasks the client wants to accomplish is at the heart of it all. The second, and I would argue the most important, is getting everyone in agreement on the materiality of those items and the process in which you will tackle those items based on the agreed upon order.

Taking a step back from the comments above, the purpose of this article is to highlight very simple tactical things every person in the professional services business can do starting immediately to drive a better Client Experience:

1.    When sending a calendar invite, make the title descriptive and clear on the intent from the eyes of the client

The client is not in your business every day, they don’t know your jargon, and they don’t know your firm’s internal acronyms right off the top of their head. In the insurance business, we have what’s called a “Renewal Strategy Meeting” meeting for our clients. Some clients used to see this on the calendar invite title:

-      Renewal Strategy Meeting – Client XYZ

Issues with this approach (in most situations):

-      A new client may not understand the purpose, but, more importantly, if that calendar invite is forwarded to new participants, they don’t really understand what the purpose/goal is.

-      It doesn’t say who the participants are. You have click on it, look at the participants, and piece it all together.

Recommendation for a Superior Client Experience: “Corporate Insurance Renewal Strategy Meeting with Client XYZ and Lockton”

Biggest Pro:

-      We’ve made it easy. When an executive looks at their iPhone or outlook calendar in the morning to plot out their day/week, they know from just the title if that meeting is material to them or not. They can make decision in their head immediately about their day with no more clicks or thought. We’ve made it clear and concise of what the meeting is about and with who.

A few more examples using my industry:

-      Example: “Client XYZ and Lockton Kick-off Call”

Not terrible, but could use more detail. I also wouldn’t put the client’s name first…they know the company they work for!

-      Suggest: “Corporate Insurance Kick-Off Call – Client XYZ and Lockton”

You’re noting the participates in this example and putting the client name first.

-      Example: “Insurance Discussion”

Too generic. You should know the specific purpose of the call just by reading the title.

-      Suggest: “Insurance Discussion on Renewal Information Provided – Client XYZ and Lockton”

Provides more clarity and reiterates who is participating.

While the title of the calendar invite is written to cater to the client, as if they were viewing it on their calendar, notice that I’ve also put the client name on a few of these suggestions after the “-“. This allows for any Lockton team member to also know which client the meeting/call is with when viewing from their own calendar. Once again, it’s clarifying the intent of the call with all participates in order to display to the client that you’re organized and prepared for an efficient use of their time.

2.    Don’t be afraid to stop after each slide and ask “Are there any questions before we move on?”

There are no rules that say silence is not allowed. There are no rules that say you can’t ask the client 500 times during a call “Does anyone have any questions?”. Slow down the conversation and ensure they fully grasp the details.

I joke with my teams that it’s actually a good thing if a client gives you a hard time for asking too much…The biggest negative here is that it shows you’re putting their interest first and that you will take whatever time is necessary to fully educate them on something to where they feel comfortable. Sounds like a great worst-case scenario to me!

3.    Focus on the ‘Takeaway’ – Your dialogue should always tie back the one Takeaway for that slide or Theme of your meeting.

Simplify, simplify and simplify more. There are tons of details and numbers all professional services firm’s throw at their client. Ask them if it’s meaningful. Ask them if they want you to elaborate. They will tell you the truth and you will get a quick gauge on if they’ve received enough information to be comfortable for you to move on to the next topic.

In our business, an insurance claim loss history is one part of a story. We can show a company’s losses, but we have to tell them exactly what that means in the bigger picture. Taking one step further, if we’re talking about an insurance renewal, any loss history commentary on that particular slide should tie back to the ‘Takeaway’. How will these losses impact the insurance renewal? Why is that one large loss important? Try to predict these things and put the ‘takeaway’ on the slide and/or tell them straight up.

4.    Avoid acronyms and your industry jargon as best as possible. If you use the acronym, don’t hesitate to stop and ask the client “Do you know what I mean when I say “X.Y.Z.?”

We all move too fast at some point and use acronyms during our calls. Most importantly, even if you’ve said an acronym to a client 750 times, you should still say the full phrase occasionally. In this example I’ll use “S.O.V.”. It stands for Statement of Values in our world. When you’re on a call, how much more difficult is it to say “Statement of Values” versus S.O.V. By my count, that’s 3 syllables versus 5, and if I get out my stopwatch it equals about a ? a second more (if that)! The point is, it’s not difficult! It’s simply a matter of if you want to be 100% clear in your communication or not.

Another example: We have an internal team called L.F.S. which stands for Lockton Financial Services. Sticking to the approach above, how much more difficult is it to say “Lockton Financial Services than saying “LFS” and potentially leaving them lost and caught up on something that has absolutely nothing to do with what your real message is. (3 syllables to 8…any maybe 1 whole second more to say). It sounds simple, but psychology will tell you that when humans don’t know what something means their brain switches to a different gear, even for a moment, which means you’ve lost them and/or their focus is not on what you’re actually trying to say. Do everything you can to simplify and overly explain these acronyms. Worst case, you’ve spent an 7 seconds over the course of an entire meeting to ensure the client, and all participants, are following the discussion at the pace you imagined in your head.

By using acronyms you’re essentially telling your client: I’m going to make this easy for me. The problem with that is that we’re in the professional services business to service our clients. We need to always be thinking how to make it better for them.

To Recap:

1.    When sending a calendar invite, make the title descriptive and clear on intent from the eyes of the client

2.    Don’t be afraid to stop after each slide and ask “Are there any questions before we move on?”

3.    Focus on the ‘Takeaway’ – Your dialogue should always tie back the one Takeaway for that slide or Theme of your meeting.

4.    Avoid acronyms and your industry jargon as best as possible. If you use the acronym, don’t hesitate to stop and ask the client “Do you know what I mean when I say “X.Y.Z.?”

About Author

Mike Smith

Mike Smith is a Client Advisor at Lockton focusing on complex risk solutions. Management Liability, in the E&O, Cyber, Fidelity Bond, and D&O arena, is his focus for innovative risk-transfer alternatives.