What Does Your Firm Actually Promise?

Your Client Experience Should Not Depend on Which Partner Answers the Phone

If I asked five of your clients to describe what it feels like to work with your firm, how similar would their answers be?

One might describe a partner who anticipates problems, returns calls promptly, and brings fresh ideas to every conversation. Another might describe missed follow-ups, last-minute requests, and uncertainty about who is responsible for what.

Both clients hired the same firm. But they are experiencing two different businesses.

As CEO or managing partner, that should get your attention.

Excellence Please: The Client Experience

I believe a great client experience should be something your clients can count on, regardless of which partner owns the relationship.

When excellence depends on a handful of individuals, you have an opportunity to strengthen how your entire firm operates.

Your Firm's Promise?

You probably describe your firm as responsive, proactive, and committed to exceptional service. Those are reasonable promises. But what do they mean in practice?

Does responsive mean acknowledging a client’s question that afternoon, even if the answer will take longer? Does proactive mean meeting before a major business decision, or simply sending a reminder before a filing deadline?

If your partners interpret those promises differently, your clients will experience them differently.

I encourage you to bring your leadership team together and ask a simple question: What should every client expect from us?

Get specific.

Talk about communication, preparation, follow-through, and how you handle problems. Define what clients should experience when someone is away, or an engagement changes hands.

Key Point: You cannot coach people toward a standard you have never clearly explained.

Consistency Requires Room for Judgment

I am not suggesting that every partner should sound alike or that every client should receive an identical service package.

Your clients have different needs, agreements, and expectations. A business owner preparing for an acquisition needs a different level of involvement than a client with a straightforward annual engagement.

But both deserve clarity. Both deserve respectful communication. Both deserve to know what you have agreed to deliver and when.

A Well-Coached Team

Your standard should establish a dependable foundation while allowing your people to exercise judgment.

Think about a well-coached team. Players bring different strengths, but everyone understands the expectations, their responsibilities, and how their performance affects the team.

Key Point: Your firm needs that same understanding.

Look at Where the Experience Breaks Down

I would start by examining the moments when responsibility moves from one person to another.

A partner makes a commitment, but the manager never hears about it. A client raises a concern with a staff member, but nobody follows up. An engagement is completed, but the client leaves without understanding what the results mean for the business.

These are leadership issues because you influence the conditions that enable them.

Ask your team where clients repeat information, chase answers, or receive conflicting messages. Ask who owns the next step.

You may discover that capable, committed people are working within unclear expectations.

TIP: Before you tell everyone to communicate better, make sure they know what needs to be communicated, to whom, and by when.

Make Advisory Part of the Experience

For me, excellent service goes beyond completing an accurate deliverable on time. That remains essential. But your clients also need help understanding what comes next.

What are you seeing that deserves their attention? What questions should they be asking? What decision might become more difficult if they wait?

Within the scope of your engagement and professional responsibilities, your team should be prepared to recognize those opportunities and bring them forward.

That does not mean every staff member must immediately become a seasoned advisor. It means you help your people develop curiosity, business understanding, and the confidence to ask thoughtful questions.

Invite a manager into a planning conversation. Ask a younger professional what they noticed in the client’s business. Help them connect their work to the decisions your client faces.

Key Point: That is how you build advisory capability throughout your firm.

Your Behavior Establishes the Real Standard

You can document expectations and discuss them at a retreat. Your people will still watch what you tolerate.

If a high-producing partner repeatedly ignores commitments without consequence, your team receives a message about what really matters.

If you celebrate someone who takes ownership of a difficult client issue, you send a different message.

I encourage you to include client experience in your coaching conversations. Ask about commitments kept, concerns resolved, and opportunities to improve the client’s business.

Give your team permission to raise problems early. Address missed expectations fairly, including your own.

TIP: Excellence becomes part of your culture when people see it consistently practiced by the firm's leaders.

Some Final Thoughts: Start With One Commitment

You do not need to redesign your entire service model this month.

Choose one expectation that every partner and team member can understand and apply. Perhaps every client question receives an acknowledgment and a clear next step within an agreed timeframe.

Practice it. Discuss what gets in the way. Ask clients whether they notice a difference.

Then build from there.

Your name is on the firm’s promise, even when you are not in the room.

What are you doing to make sure your clients can count on it?  

Until Next Time!