What can consultancies learn from the service industry?

The customer is always right, right?

We’ve all said it. Some of us even meant it. But is it true? Hold that thought, we’ll come back to that later…

B2B does what it says on the tin. Businesses working with other companies, corporations, brands. But we sometimes forget these aren’t just faceless monoliths. They are made up of people. As people, we’re all customers. And customers like good service.

So, what can B2B businesses like agencies and consultancies learn from retail, hospitality and other consumer facing industries to keep the people within the companies we work with happy, engaged and keen to keep working with us?

Let’s take a look.

Communication

Good communication underpins all good business interactions and often, good communication is as much about the systems and processes that facilitate clear and effective information exchange than it is about what’s being said.

No one does this better than companies that operate contact centres (the ones that operate them well, at least). 

These companies live or die by their phone or online customer experience, so here’s a few bits of best practice that we can borrow and adapt for B2B comms:

Best practice 1 – First contact resolution

Most customers calling contact centres have queries that can be resolved on the spot (change of address, bill queries) and how frequently the business achieves that quick resolution is a key performance metric. 

In consultancy based businesses, longer engagements mean we can’t ‘solve’ everything first go. But we can make every phonecall, email or meeting count.

Consider what the objective of each touch point is (agreeing a decision, gathering information, communicating progress). If we can achieve those modest objectives on each interaction, that’s our ‘first contact resolution’ achieved and our projects will stay on course for successful and timely delivery.

Best practice 2 – Signposting self-service

To build efficiency, lower cost to serve, and ensure resource is available when a customer does need to speak to someone, companies that operate contact centres try to empower people to not have to pick up the phone. There are many ways they do this, but the most applicable in B2B is providing answers before the questions come up.

Is there information on your website (maybe not in the FAQs, but that’s a different conversation) that could save your client an email or phonecall?

Will your clients have questions throughout the project that you can answer proactively during your onboarding process?

Sometimes it’s as simple as anticipating a colleague’s thought during a conversation and speaking to it without being prompted. This is a powerful way of showing people we understand their challenges and demonstrating we know how to solve them.

Best practice 3 – Systems

Does your tech-stack stack up? 

The biggest contact centres spend millions on their systems to (or at least try to) ensure their customers can get the help they need quickly. In agencies and consultancies our system costs are hopefully lower, but the objective should be the same.  

Do your comms channels (email, phone system, website, instant messaging app) help people reach the right person in your business at the right time? If the answer is no, you might be adding unnecessary friction to your projects. 

To err is human, to admit is divine

Speaking of communication, one of the most important times to communicate well is when things go wrong.

And things will go wrong.

The key to good service in these situations is early, transparent and solutions focussed communication.

If you find a problem before your client, great. Fix it. And tell them.

If you can’t fix it first, tell them and tell them your plan to fix it.

If they notice something first and bring it to you. Be open about how it happened and communicate how you’ll fix it as soon as you can, or prevent it happening again.

Your stakeholders are invested in the work you’re doing together, so it’s in everyone’s interest to resolve problems together. Good comms just means you can still be friends after you get back on track.

People tend to recall when someone fixed a problem for them, more readily than when nothing went wrong.

Handled well, a swift acknowledgement of a problem can even result in improved relationships, as KFC demonstrated in 2018.

Good service starts from within

McDonald’s is renowned for quality control. With a few deliberate regional variations, the product and in-store experience is consistent at every outlet worldwide. If a customer chooses to eat at a McDonald’s they can be pretty sure they know what they’re getting.

Part of that is down to the training delivered and procedures taught at their legendary Hamburger University, and it’s the reason that a job at McDonald’s early in a career is often highly regarded by hiring managers. 

The consistency here is key and the lesson for agencies and consultancies is simple. If our training and processes are robust and consistent, we can deliver a better service for our clients. 

Happy team, happy customers

Most of the UK’s best places to work, especially among larger organisations are service businesses. That’s not a coincidence.

Brands who interact directly with their customers invest in their teams’ wellbeing and culture. D2C, B2C, B2B, B2B2C, 121. Whatever the model, things will go better if the people on both sides are content in their D2D (day to day).

Look after your team and they will look after your clients.

So, is the customer always right?

Yes. 

In matters of taste.

What’s that, now?

This often quoted ‘wisdom’ is rarely quoted correctly and usually misunderstood. 

The original (and unabbreviated) quote, from Harry Gordon Selfridge is “The customer is always right, in matters of taste.”

So, what does that mean for us? 

It means that the colleagues we work with in other businesses can in fact be mistaken, misinformed, or just plain wrong about a great many things. We can and should correct them, politely educate them and see projects through to a successful conclusion together.

What we and our colleagues will never be wrong about is how we feel about the people we work with and if we want to work with them again.

That’s a matter of taste. And everyone likes the taste of good service.