Most accounting firms today want to improve the employee experience to better attract and retain talent. They also want to deliver an exceptional client experience to meet their growth goals. At first glance, these goals might seem at odds with each other, but employee and client experiences aren’t just interconnected—they are mutually reinforcing.
Enhancing the employee experience directly benefits the client experience, creating a cycle that drives growth and loyalty. Understanding and leveraging this connection can help your firm thrive.
Understanding employee experience
Employee experience (EX) refers to an employee's overall journey with the firm. It encompasses every interaction, process, and practice from recruitment to exit. A positive EX helps drive engagement, productivity, and retention, creating a more cohesive and motivated workforce.
Signs your firm needs an EX strategy
Several red flags indicate the need for a formal EX strategy in your firm:
Inconsistent onboarding. New hires receiving varied onboarding experiences leads to confusion and slower integration into the firm’s culture and processes.
Differing expectations. Employees have different expectations based on which manager or partner they’re working with. This signals a lack of unified leadership and creates friction and misunderstandings.
Lack of clear career paths. Without well-defined career trajectories, employees feel directionless, leading to disengagement and increased turnover.
Minimal focus on core success skills. A lack of training in essential skills like communication, leadership, and client management hinders employee growth and, by extension, the firm’s success.
Retaining poor performers due to talent shortages. Keeping underperforming employees out of fear of losing talent drives away star performers.
One way to improve EX is by creating employee personas for each role within the firm. These personas help firm leaders understand different employee groups' unique needs, motivations and challenges, allowing for more targeted and effective engagement strategies.
Identify goals and motivation. What do employees in each role want to accomplish?
What drives them—career progression, learning opportunities, work-life balance, recognition?
Understand frustrations. What obstacles do employees face in their roles? What are the primary problems they are trying to solve? Are there systemic issues within the firm that hinder performance?
Optimize performance. How do employees in different roles perform at their best and highest level? What tools, resources, or support systems do they need to find success?
Define success at the firm. How do employees measure success within the firm? What milestones, feedback, or outcomes reinforce their sense of achievement?
By aligning the firm’s technology, processes and culture with these personas, firms can create an environment where employees are empowered to perform at their best, directly benefiting the client experience.
Understanding client experience
Client experience (CX) encompasses every client interaction with your firm, from initial contact to ongoing service and beyond. Unlike client service, which focuses on specific transactions or touchpoints, CX is the cumulative impact of all interactions and the overall relationship between the client and the firm. A well-crafted CX strategy enhances satisfaction, loyalty and long-term value.
While client service is a critical component of CX, it’s only a part of the broader experience. Client service focuses on addressing immediate needs and resolving issues, while CX is about creating a consistent, positive and seamless journey across all interactions. A firm that excels in client service but neglects the overall CX may struggle with client retention and growth because the broader experience lacks cohesion.
Signs your firm needs a CX strategy
The following signs indicate your firm could benefit from a more comprehensive CX strategy:
Technology decisions made in silos. Individual departments choose technologies without considering how clients interact with multiple services, leading to a fragmented and frustrating experience.
Redundant information requests. Clients are repeatedly asked for the same information by different departments, reflecting a lack of coordination. This damages the client’s perception of your firm’s professionalism.
Limited cross-departmental communication. Poor communication between service lines leads to inconsistent messaging, missed opportunities and a disjointed client journey.
Lack of service integration. Compliance and advisory services aren’t packaged together, and clients perceive the firm as offering limited value, reducing the likelihood of cross-selling and client retention.
Firms that fail to implement a holistic CX strategy restrict growth as clients increasingly seek professionals who offer seamless, integrated experiences.
Improving the CX journey
To enhance the client experience, firms should map out the entire client journey, identifying key touchpoints and opportunities for improvement. For each step in the journey, consider the following:
Who is involved? Identify the team members or departments responsible for each stage of the client journey. This ensures accountability and helps understand the client’s perspective.
What technology is being used? Assess the technology tools and platforms used at each step. Are they client-friendly? Do they integrate well across departments? Technology should enable, not hinder, the client experience.
Client pain points. Identify the common frustrations clients experience at each stage, whether it’s the onboarding process, communication delays or billing issues.
Value being provided. Clearly define the value your firm offers at each step. Whether expert advice, timely service or personalized attention, ensure the client perceives this value.
Triggers to move to the next phase. Establish clear triggers that signal when a client moves to the next phase of the journey, whether transitioning from onboarding to regular service or from compliance to advisory services. These triggers help maintain momentum and ensure a smooth progression through the client lifecycle.
Connecting employee and client experience
A connection between employee and client experience drives sustainable growth and long-term success in any firm. The following four Cs are foundational to connecting these two experiences and ensuring that employees and clients benefit from a cohesive strategy.
Clarity. Clarity ensures that employees and clients understand their roles, responsibilities, processes and expectations. Create transparent communication about goals, deliverables, timelines and standards.
Consistency. Consistency is about maintaining uniform standards and processes in interactions, deliverables, service delivery and quality. Apply the same level of excellence and attention to detail in every engagement.
Communication. Communication is effectively exchanging information within the organization and between the firm and its clients. Provide regular updates, feedback loops and open lines of communication across all levels.
Collaboration. Collaboration is about cooperative efforts between employees and clients to achieve shared goals. Implement joint planning, problem-solving and decision-making processes that incorporate input from both sides.
Connecting employee and client experience requires a strategic approach that aligns leadership vision with actionable steps. The first step is confirming leadership alignment and vision. When firm leaders recognize that connecting employee and client experience isn’t just beneficial but essential to the firm’s future, the organization can unlock benefits for employees and clients.
Could you benefit from structure and accountability as you strive to push your firm forward?
The Boomer Process Circle is a peer group of top Process and Lean Six Sigma leaders in the accounting profession who share tools and resources for pushing change within their firms. Apply now to tap into the experience and expertise you need to lead the charge for continuous improvement.
As Shareholder and Chief Operating Officer for Boomer Consulting, Inc., Arianna Campbell helps accounting firms focus on the people part of change by leading process improvement initiatives that increase capacity to create more value internally and externally. Arianna is adept at blending concepts from process improvement and change leadership to drive innovation and continuous improvement.
Arianna facilitates the development and cultivation of Process Managers, Project Managers and Change Leaders in the Boomer Process Circle.
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