By Victoria Kaulins
What better place to spend a ninety degree day in Boston than in the Seaport? On May 18th, LMA Northeast and co-hosts APMP and SMPS gathered at Nutter, McClennen & Fish for our 3rd annual evening program, “Executive Insights: Know Your Clients, Show Your Strength.”
Panelists included Andrea Burke, Director of Client Development, WilmerHale, Shaun Real, EY FSO New England Wealth & Asset Management Leader (Boston), Jason Heroux, P.E., Vice President of Business Development, Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, and moderator Maggie Watkins, Chief Marketing Officer, Sedgwick.
The program kicked off with a discussion of the customer experience and journey. Panelists provided insights on customer feedback programs and stressed the importance of having client feedback mechanisms in place to better understand your individual client’s experience. Client interviews, client site visits and other data collection methods can all provide useful insights. Whether it is sending two managing partners to meet with clients like Andrea’s firm, to each partner being required to conduct a certain number of client visits per year like Jason’s organization, a client feedback program is extremely beneficial. Shaun stressed the importance of having multiple people meet with clients regularly and debriefing on feedback to gain differing perspectives.
A firm’s culture plays a key role in developing and executing superior client experience programs. Firms need to foster good internal leadership to create an environment where people are comfortable speaking up and contributing to strategies to better the client relationship. Marketers can also contribute to these discussions by ensuring they understand the clients and the opportunity. Don’t just check the box on getting the proposal out, think about the opportunity and how you can improve!
Through case studies and relaxed conversation, panelists were able to advise attendees on how to stay competitive in today’s market by capitalizing on client relationships.