CSI

It suprising to me that many firms dont measure or embrace Customer Service. If a firm really makes an effort to gather the data and reward high performing individuals customer service becomes part of the culture of the firm. The survey is the traditional measurment tool, but the process to gather the survey results is even more important. Here is the process that I ahve developed over the last few years.

Process

1. The marketing assistant will send a report denoting all qualifying projects to all Portfolio Managers and Sales People the first Wednesday of each month.
2. The Sales Person will call the client to make them aware that the survey will be coming and the purpose of the survey.
3. The survey will be sent by the Marketing Assistant using the COOs email address and Name on the third Wednesday of each month to the qualifying clients.
4. The Marketing assistant will compile the results the following week and send to all Portfolio Managers and Sales People
5. The Sales Person will follow up on any survey not returned the week following the status report.
6. The Marketing assistant will send a weekly update to all named client contacts on all additional surveys completed.
7. Executive management (CEO, COO, CTO, and CFO) will call any client providing a score of 2 or below. The caller will gather feedback, disseminate to affected department heads, and deliver in the bi-weekly management meeting.
8. If we did not receive a returned survey the Portfolio Manager will work with the Sales Person to accomplish the goal.

Marketing Budget

An age old question for managers of a service firm is how much to spend on marketing. We all want great glossy brochures, but do they really drive the business. The suggested marketing budget is 1.75% of gross revenue. A marketing plan should be created at the beginning of the year to account for approximatly 75% of the budget. The otehr 25% of the allocated budget should be held in reserve for unknow items that always come up. Please note that this is just marketing budget and does not account for total cost of sale (i.e. sales people or business development time)

Team Based Delivery

As a company grows so does its structure. As a small company with under 30 employees it was very easy to segment staff into functional units or practice groups. The company was small enough that everyone worked together to accomplish the end goal. Around 40 employees communication starts to suffer and the "team" starts to experiance bad exchanges. I have found that orginizing your staff into delivery teams (with representation from each practice group) provides a greate foundation for client delivery. Not only is communication better, but end goals are aligned. This can extend to include team based incentive and bonus programs.

Search Engine Advertising

One of the most cost effective forms of advertising for the professional firm is using Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. In short a firm can bid on an individual key word or phrase. When a user enters the word or phrase to a search engine the firms site is returned within the sponsored link area. The firm only pays if someone clicks on the link and visits their site. Google and MSN both have great programs and can be geographically targeted. We spend less the $1000 per month and get over 100 leads monthly from our web site.

Salary Increases

Compensation is one of the primary drivers for all employees. As you manage the firm it is important to have a detailed process on how you address salary adjustments. This goes beyond annual reviews and compensation committee, but explores what expectations staff and management should have on an ongoing basis. It is important to standardize positions, titles, and salary ranges for each position within the firm. This process provides individuals with general guidelines, but also allows one to eliminate the difference between a salary adjustment and a promotion.
A salary adjustment is the process of giving someone a raise for meeting or exceeding expectations at their review. A great benchmark for meeting expectations is 2.5% with increasing percentages based on merit preformance - maxing out around 7%. Comp adjustmenrs of over 7% are normally associated with someone who was underpaid in comparison to the salary ranes for that position or associted with a promotion. A promotion occurs when someone is displaing the traits of the position next in line with the employees career path.
In professional service firms managers are very dedicated to their employees and it makes it easy to provide cases for raises that would exceed the benchmarks. Although understood, one must consider the longivity of the firm and of the employees career path.

The Start of it All

Hello world! Over the last few years I have really wanted to write a book and inspire individuals to be innovative and creative. I have considered many topics, but keep coming back to something as boring as managing a professional services firm. I currently manage one of the fastest growing interactive agencies in the United States and figured my experiance might lend to assisting someone in building their own services firm - be it law, accounting, advertising, or any other billable hour profession. I look forward to sharing my insights and challenges.