Question: Which of the following best predicts satisfaction among market research clients with their market research & insights partners? [1]
- Breadth of methodology options
- Depth of data analysis skill
- Excellence of deliverables
- Quality of client management
Okay, I cheated. I can’t prove that one of these is a better predictor of client satisfaction than the others. Clearly, all of these things are important. But one of these things is different than the others: market research professionals routinely receive training on items A-C, but not on D.
Why is that? Well, A-C are more “hard skills” related, and such items tend to get more training investment in any professional category (not just market research). Hard skills are easier to measure, so training ROI is more obvious. Soft skills are heard to measure; how do you quantify leadership, flexibility, creativity and communications? These things are more subjective, so training dollars tend to be scarce.
And yet, client management is often the hardest part of our work. Not sure if you agree? Well, have you (or someone on your team) ever experienced pain with any of the following:
- Getting agreement on sufficiently precise research objectives
- Setting and managing client expectations
- Anticipating client roadblocks
- Ensuring that client interests don’t conflict with objectivity
- Facilitating collaborative (and often iterative) processes
- Leading client meetings
- Obtaining thoughtful, timely client approvals at key junctures
- Helping clients to use the research results
How many of these have you experienced in your market research career? How many have you experienced in the last 30 days? Hmmm….And yet how many research & insights professionals get client management training? Not many.
The good news is that client management is a well-studied topic, and is absolutely a skill that can be developed.
Research on Satisfaction with Business Services
Various studies have found that client management skills do impact client satisfaction with professional services.
- Perceptions as trustworthy, knowledgeable and even “sympathetic” correlate to higher satisfaction levels. In studies of service quality perceptions, soft skills related to client management often emerge as being strongly correlated to customer satisfaction (and sometimes more so than perception of the service itself!). Several such studies used the well-established SERVQUAL scale which measures several attributes. For example, in a 2004 study published in the Journal of Business & Economics Research, “Reliability” and Assurance” measures were highly correlated with satisfaction.
- Reliability includes perceptions that the provider is dependable, keeps records accurately, and when problems occur is “sympathetic and reassuring”.
- Assurance includes items such as perceiving the firm’s employees as trustworthy and knowledgeable (“I can feel safe in my transactions” with the firm). While this study was based on satisfaction with accounting firms, similar studies exist on various business services categories.
- Excellence in communications can influence client perceptions of service ROI. In a 2017 paper published in the Journal of Services Marketing, researchers found that, “that interpersonal communication has a pivotal role to play in influencing client perceptions of both outcome (“what” was produced) and process quality (“how” it was produced), that is their total experience.” So even if there are some hiccups, a services firm whose employees have strong interpersonal communications skills have a better chance of coming out unscathed.
While the published studies on this topic are not precisely specific to “market research”, I posit that the results for other business services likely apply to us as well.
Applications to Advancing Market Research & Insights Effectiveness
We know that client management can be a hard part of our work. And we also know that client management skills are correlated to client satisfaction.
So how do we coach and train market research & insights professions in client management skills? I see 3 important activities:
- C-level acknowledgement. If the executive team advocates for the importance of these skills, that alone can help instigate improvements. Nothing like knowing the boss thinks it’s important to create some urgency. Of course, this executive attention bump gets squandered if it is seen as weak or inconsistent.
- Relevant job performance feedback. If your team buys into the importance of these skills, then they need to be reflected in job performance metrics. A market research professional who is largely given feedback only related to their “hard skills” may not realize they have some room for improvement on soft skills.
- Training. Whether on the job with an on-team mentor, or through formal training programs, new knowledge and opportunities to practice using it are important. Tip: whatever training format you use, do be sure that the training includes practical, specific, relevant examples—otherwise it is unlikely to stick.
Oh, The Irony!
We market research professionals are often engaged to help our clients be more customer-centric. And yet, the “soft skills” of client management get very little support in many market research & insights organizations (whether supplier-side or corporate-side). Let’s fix it.
_______________________________
[1] Where a partner could be an outside service provider, or an internal one.
About Research Rockstar’s Client Management Skills Training
In this class, market researchers learn fundamental client management steps necessary to establish and maintain an effective client relationship, even in difficult situations.
Upon completion of this course, students are able to:
- Identify client types such that tailored management techniques can be used
- Choose their own client management “persona”
- Use 6 specific tactics to implement a client management process that works
- Identify and manage common client-related “red flags”
This class also covers techniques for managing specific, common challenges such as:
- Unclear direction on research priorities
- Onerous instrument design processes
- Disruptive research skeptics
With a little training, research & insights pros can amp up their client management skills, and their confidence, in a way that will keep their clients coming back for more. Click here for details.
