Out of 200 clients who responded to a survey by the network's UK firm, 131 agreed to provide testimonials.
This was just one of the positive results from a client satisfaction survey across all of the UHY Hacker Young Group offices in England and Wales, conducted late last year.
The survey was sent to 600 clients and exactly 200 clients (34%) responded; typical response rates for this type of survey in the UK range from 15-30%.
"Overall, the feedback from our clients is extremely positive," says UHY Hacker Young group marketing director Zoë Paradine (pictured below), "however, there are individual issues which are being addressed locally, and other areas that we are looking to develop or improve nationally, as a result of the collated responses."
Who responded?
Respondees covered clients in numerous sectors. Each office was asked to select clients according to the following criteria:
- Clients who are important to the firm
- Any clients where there is concern about the value they put on what the firm does for them
- A balance of those known to think the firm does an excellent job and those who complain/ may have issues about what the firm does
- A mix of clients from different disciplines.
The firm asked these clients why they choose to work with the firm. "We received some strong messages", says Zoë, "largely due to the strong relationships clients have developed with our teams. They often named specific team members. Many clients had been recommended to us and stayed with us because of our professional approach and quality of service."
The results
A core part of the survey asked clients how pleased they are with various areas of service they receive from the UHY Hacker Young Group. On a scale from 1-5, with 5 being 'very pleased', the group's ranking across all areas is 4.27 – "an impressive result", says Zoë.
The firm's best ranking service areas (compared with a previous survey in 2003) are:
"The year 2010 saw a marked improvement across the board in terms of our service area rankings," says Zoë.
"Some of the lower ranked areas (which still score over 3.5/5) include: value for money, suggesting creative solutions, use of technology and the quality of our client newsletters and updates.
"When we specifically asked which areas of our service require improvement/development, the overwhelming majority response was 'I can't think of any' or 'None – very happy'.
"Other suggestions were made, however, including improving our creativity and proactivity and improving our tax advice – helping clients to reduce their tax. Interestingly, only 22% of clients feel that we should deliver our services in more innovative ways, compared to 59% in 2003.
"We are looking to address these weaker areas, including a review of our client communications, and improving our electronic communication with clients. Last year saw the introduction of a range of electronic updates, which we are looking to distribute to a wider audience this year. We will also be launching a secure client portal, accessible via the group's website, which will allow clients to view and share their accounts and files electronically. 49% of clients who responded said they would be interested in using such a facility."
Our culture
The firm also asked clients which brand values they feel are most closely representative of UHY. The highest-ranked areas include several of the firm's core brand values, including 'reliable and responsive'; 'people focused' and 'interested', 'flexible and focused on you'; and 'combining traditional values and forward-thinking'.
Each of these values scored more than 4/5 with our clients," says Zoë. "We will continue to promote each of these values across our materials, in our pitches and presentations, and will refer to the survey results in support of all the above.In addition, the UHY Hacker Young Group asked clients if they would be happy to provide the firm with a testimonial based on the service they receive. "We were pleased to see that 131 of the 200 clients agreed to provide one," says Zoë. "Our marketing team are now liaising directly with clients to obtain them and have gathered 50 testimonials to date. The testimonials will be used to support our pitches and presentations to clients and across our marketing materials, including the website."