How well do you know your clients?

I’ve been doing some client research this week, which involves scheduling a call and then talking to Architects to ask them questions about their communications and marketing activities, needs, wants, pain points and wish lists.

It’s amazing how setting aside time for these conversations can yield nuggets of gold that will help me shape my future offerings, demonstrate how I can help clients right now with quick fixes, and build up our mutual understanding of each other’s business offerings.

Which leads me to think: How well do you know your clients; past, present and future?

Have you been pleasantly surprised to receive unprompted feedback from clients at the end of a project, like Philip Stejskal was, when his client Gillian handed over her list?

Or do you ask them for structured feedback once a project is complete? Or set aside time to ask prospective clients - your ideal client - about what it is they really need and want? And why is it even important to take the pulse of your clients and the market every now and then?

According to recent research by Hinge Marketing in the US, there is a correlation between client research and bottom-line results.

“Companies that conducted structured research, even occasionally, were more profitable and grew faster than those that did not,” according to the report. “Similarly, those firms that did frequent research were even more profitable and grew even faster. And remember that profitability had to, by definition, take into account the cost of the research. It simply doesn’t get much clearer or more compelling than that.”

So if you’ve never undertaken any formal or structured client research, how might you start? You could use my client questionnaire template, which you may have already downloaded (if not, you can purchase the CPD module that contains the template here).

It’s easy to implement: just remove my branding and add your own logo, along with any new questions you’d like responses on, and send it to recent clients for them to complete and return. Ideally, you could start with any clients of recent projects that you will enter into Awards in 2020.

I’ve recently become aware of another great way you can gather useful feedback – which is even easier and provides benchmarked data – and that’s by entering the Client Choice Awards, in the new Architecture category, offered in 2020 in partnership with the ACA.

Hannah Hamling, President Asia Pacific at Golder, which won the Best Engineering Firm over $30m at the 2019 Client Choice Awards.

This initiative represents a significant opportunity for Architecture firms. Entries cost just $150 and market research experts then conduct surveys of your nominated clients to obtain feedback about your practice, your service offering, and the value for money you provide. The program culminates in an awards ceremony in March 2020, and after that, all entrants receive a comprehensive report based on their client survey findings.

That's marketing gold, right there.

Practices can draw on those findings to create strong and compelling marketing messages, using the same language as past clients, to attract and convert new clients. The feedback in the report is also benchmarked against industry averages, giving your practice even more insight into your unique selling proposition, and your competitors and the state of the market. 

The way I see it, the $150 awards entry cost - and the few hours it will take you to complete the entry form - represents a significant return on investment for a nominal time and cost outlay. Thanks to the client feedback report, this program offers significant payback, even if you don't win any awards!

It's especially valuable for small and medium-sized firms, which might baulk at the time and cost involved with conducting their own client research.

Entries for the Client Choice Awards are due on 6 December 2019, and you can find out more about the program here and download a sample report here.

And if I’ve inspired you to take action to better understand your clients - past, present and future - please send me an email to let me know which path you chose, and when you plan to begin. There’s no time like the present, right?