Bucks the Trend for Recommendations

Research by Xero suggests 70% of clients would not recommend their current advisors.

We take customer service seriously and ensuring we deliver a quality experience to our clients, in a timely and competitively priced manner lies at the heart of what we do. In addition to using a third-party feedback tool (Working Feedback) to monitor client satisfaction, we also track several softer KPIs as general signals of client happiness. One of these performance indicators is the volume of recommendations we receive. This information is important to us as a recommendation is an extremely positive sign that we have met or exceeded the expectations of our client. Recommendations suggest more than simple contentment with the service as it requires our client to go out of their way to introduce a friend, family member, peer or colleague.

So, having received over 1,000 recommendations in the last 5 years, with little or no ability to benchmark that against our competitors, we were surprised to read recent research from the authors of online accounting software Xero that suggests 70% of clients would not recommend their current advisors. These findings clearly run contra to our own experiences.

Increasing rate of recommendations

In the last 5 years we have been recommended to prospective clients a total of 1145 times, an average of 229 times per annum. This figure not only seems to fly in the face of the Xero research but further investigation shows that as we grow and take on new clients, the number of referrals also continues to increase – suggesting that we are able to continue to deliver a quality service and meet the needs of a broader number of companies and individuals.

The Xero research, which also identifies the fact that four out of five small businesses are working with external accountants or bookkeepers, highlights the need for customer service to remain a priority for accounting firms that are keen to grow. Damon Anderson, Partner Director at Xero remarked: “It’s vital that accountants are helping their small business clients succeed – and it’s a concern that so many business owners wouldn’t recommend their advisor to someone else.”

Whilst we are of course pleased to read that Haggards Crowther appears to be bucking the trend in receiving such a high volume of recommendations, we know that the delivery of quality service to our clients is an ongoing activity and so we will continue to seek feedback, work hard and monitor customer satisfaction.