November Edition 2020

29 Even before Covid-19, therewas a growing realisation amongst professional services firms that focus on the client experience was key in driving differentiation and loyalty. Tikit’s Simon Elven reviews the state of play. Simon Elven Commercial and marketing director, Tikit simon.elven@tikit.com Last year’s study published by Lexis-Nexis in conjunction with University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School identified the client experience as an emerging battleground for law firms. Those firms who had a strong posture towards the client experience were identified as being more likely to have long term, higher margin clients and less likely to be affected by client cost pressures. By contrast, those firms who had a weaker approach towards the client experience were more likely to have a greater number of transactional clients who are cost driven and hence less loyal. These firms have a long tail of clients with whom it is difficult to maintain and develop relationships. Our recent experience with COVID-19 has caused firms to re-evaluate their approach to doing business. There are clearly many tactical responses that have happened, indeed have had to have happened, as firms have dealt with the ‘survival’ phase of the crisis. Now, in addition to moving into the next phase of crisis response, consideration is being given to the longer-term strategic view of ‘what does a resilient firm look like’? The ‘resilient firm’ Organisations have always given consideration to disaster recovery and business continuity but these thoughts in the past have centred around destruction of, or denial of access to, single, centralised buildings. The Covid-19 experience has shown these strategies are not sufficient in themselves to guarantee survival in all circumstances and that certain underlying principles of the professional services firm will have to change. The following principles are emerging as central to the shape of the firm of the future: » » Reduction in ‘fixed assets’. These are things that have to be paid for regardless of how much business the firm is doing. The larger these are, the less likely the firm is to survive a time of crisis.