Why winners in the Client Choice Awards party hard and long

Based on studying previous winners of the annual?Client Choice Awards, a link between superior performance in satisfying their clients and the economic benefits derived by professional services firms has been proposed by Beaton.

The long-running Client Choice Awards recognise service excellence by firms as voted by their clients. According to?Beaton, the Voice of Your Clients research and evidence-based advice specialists, winning these particular awards is not only strongly positive?for a firm’s client service reputation. Statistical analysis and direct observations of how firms respond to winning an award suggest the economic benefits winners derive. Beaton believes these benefits probably include reduced cost of retaining and acquiring new?clients;?increased price-setting discretion and a resulting increase in margin; reduced cost of acquiring new?talent and increased retention of?talent; and increased discretionary effort and resultant increase in productivity of staff.

Client Choice Awards winners party hard and long

Partying is a natural –?and usually short-lived –?expression of the joy of winning. But the behaviours of winning firms and their people in the Client Choice Awards tell us more. Winners place much greater store on the accolade than a night on the town. LinkedIn and Twitter erupt as each winner is announced. Emails to clients and staff fly around after midnight immediately following the winners’ ceremony. The next morning Awards badges go into email signatures, banners appear and remain in reception areas and advertisements are placed in the business press. In ensuing months Winners’ certificates are included in tenders for work and advertisements to fill staff vacancies. Client Choice Awards winners party hard and long.

Based on the amount of creative energy winning firms invest in celebrating their wins, Beaton has long speculated about the economic and social benefits professional services firms derive from winning a Client Choice Award. Using nine consecutive years of high-quality data, Beaton decided to investigate.

Even after accounting for the general upward trend of client service levels over time, our analysis found the number of years a firm has won a Client Choice Award is a significant predictor of a firm’s delivery of superior client satisfaction.

The effect on client satisfaction?of?serial winning by a firm?is cumulative – a truly virtuous loop.?

The statistical method for Beaton's analysis involves measuring the Overall Client Service (OCS) score for each respondent and relating this to how many years the firm had previously won a Client Choice Award. Since 2005 more than 180,000 clients have responded to?our surveys, providing over 300,000 ratings of more than 500 professional services firms in Australia and New Zealand.

Nine firms who have won an award more than five times over the past 15 years: Gilbert + Tobin, Herbert Smith Freehills, King & Wood Mallesons, Douglas Partners, Golder, GTA Consultants, Greenwoods & Herbert Smith Freehills, KPMG and HLB Mann Judd.

Next steps

Having found convincing support for the idea that superior performance in satisfying their clients leads to economic benefits for professional services firms, Beaton plans further research. Metrics such as OCS discriminate very well between firms, practice groups and sector specialisations; Beaton intends to investigate the relationship between entering, reaching the finals, winning and how firms use the data to improve their clients’ CX.

For more information on our research and how to enter the Client Choice Awards, contact Dr George Beaton +61 418 325 351 | [email protected].