What experience do you want your clients to have and what experiences do they actually get?
These are two questions that TC Group firmly knows the answer to and draws on to deliver exceptional client experience via its suite of specialist service lines and sectors, including to many engineering and manufacturing companies.
TC Group, which has its Milton Keynes offices in Knowlhill, provides both traditional accountancy and specialist business growth services, tailored to clients who can take advantage of any number of areas of expertise to meet the growing needs of their business.
Is your client experience 9.4 out of 10?
The team cultivates a mindset of continuous improvement at all levels and, being closely bound to its motto of ‘Being Better’, has an open approach to client feedback. Regularly inviting honest appraisals is how the business advisory and accountancy firm ensures it remains proactive and willing to learn.
“We encourage a ‘defect is a treasure’ mindset, a Japanese manufacturing concept, meaning we see errors and failures as opportunities for learning to trigger changes to enhance the overall client experience. As such we actively encourage feedback.”
Regular feedback
Monthly surveys are carried out to capture client experience and identify any areas where clients think their experience could have been different or improved. All comments are acted upon, feeding back through the relevant TC Group teams so that everyone involved can learn from them.
Stephen added:
“Client feedback isn’t a one-and-done exercise. By having a continuous loop of client feedback, we’re able to measure the experience we’re delivering and identify areas for improvement. We implemented a system in December last year and we’ve built up some great intel.
“Our Friends and Family score is 9.4, which is just stunning. This is the average score from asking our clients ‘On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely would you be to recommend TC Group to your friends or family?’.
“Obviously, we strive to do an excellent job right from the start, but we accept anyone can drop the ball from time to time and when we do, we want to know about it. We invite clients to tell us what they think and give them the confidence to be honest with us, because if something is wrong, however small, we want to put it right.
“Constructive criticism gives us the chance to see where we might do things better, it helps our teams improve the way they do things, and that benefits other clients.”
The surveys also give TC Group the chance to better understand the challenges clients face in running their businesses,
and to demonstrate the proactive and agile approach that not only heads off problems before they arise, but also means the team is ready to act quickly where clients have immediate and urgent needs.
Each client has a main point of contact, whether a Client Service Director (CSD) or Client Service Manager (CSM), who is responsible for forging and maintaining relationships with clients. The firm recognises that clients like one point of contact and the CSDs and CSMs provide this.
Stephen said:
“We know from our various surveys in the past that business owners value personal chemistry most in the relationship with their professional advisors, so having dedicated CSDs and CSMs in place helps foster this.
Client segmentation
In order to develop its client strategies, TC Group worked with Cranfield University to identify and gain an understanding of the client most suited to the services it offered and how it could tailor that strategy to fit the different needs of clients regardless of size or sector.
That formal strategy development, combined with an intrinsic understanding and appreciation for the vagaries of business, form the basis of the service offering and allows TC Group to identify the specific needs and wants of different client groups, which can help in tailoring service offerings to better suit clients’ needs. This, in turn, increases client loyalty and retention rates.
Ben Young, Partner, said:
“We’re with our clients throughout the lifecycle of their business and our services are tailored to each one and their individual needs. Yes, we provide the technical expertise but we’re also coming at the relationship from the point of view of being business owners ourselves, and understanding the challenges businesses face.
“Our experience isn’t just as accountants but as people who have gone through changes, mergers, growth and expansion, and the lessons we’ve learned from it, is invaluable.”
Training
TC Group knows by offering exceptional client experience, the chances are its clients will be loyal to the firm and its brand. But that doesn’t happen without real effort and requires a team effort, everyone needs to be ‘singing from the same hymn sheet’ to ensure consistency of both brand and client experience.
That’s why regular training is provided to client facing teams on the softer skills required from relationship management to effective communication.
Automation
Like in many sectors, technology can also play a role in the client experience. Automation has enabled TC Group to streamline its client journey across a number of its service lines. More recently the firm has invested in a new digital payroll platform which has enhanced the payroll process for clients as well as making the process more efficient.
Case Study
Driving clients in the right direction
Founded by Mark Goodman in 2009, Goodman Precision Engineering has built a reputation for the skills needed to develop and produce components for demanding customers – particularly in the F1 and high-performance automotive sector.
The Stacey Bushes firm was involved in work to develop the Kers system that recovers a moving vehicle’s kinetic energy under braking and stores it for later use for acceleration.
That work, which was transformational within F1, has translated into continued improvement in engines for other vehicles, from hyper and supercars through the growing electric vehicle market.
A budget cap in F1 drove Goodman Precision Engineering to diversify and the company now works in a number of other sectors as well as motor racing, including defence, rail, gas and oil.
But motor sport is still at the heart of the business and that will probably always remain the case. And business advice and guidance has never been more important.
“When you think of how the internal combustion engine has developed over many, many years, with different engineers coming along and making changes. As time has gone on it has become harder and harder to make those improvements, but some of the designs now are extremely challenging, always trying to make improvements of just two or three percent.
“TC Group were recommended to us after we had been with a traditional accountant for some time. They’d look after our books but didn’t offer a lot else. Someone suggested I spoke to TC Group and I didn’t believe they could make that much difference, but I went to have a meeting and just seemed to be able to connect with them.
Head of Service Charge and Partner, Paul Jepps, left, and Partner, Ben Young
“With them, it’s not just advice about accountancy, they genuinely seem to want to give us advice about the whole business, about growing the business. They just wanted to help us, full stop.
“They are extremely professional and I was very impressed by the ways in which they are more than just accountants. I work closely with Lloyd Horton and Nigel Syson and recently they’ve brought Steve Henson into the business. Steve introduced me to the Silverstone Technology Hub, and took me along to networking meetings where he introduced me to key people.
“TC Group have also worked on our EMI scheme, part of the process of guaranteeing the future of the business, and they have helped me by providing proactive tax planning, which I probably should have been encouraged to do years ago but wasn’t.
“As well as that, Steve advised on some funding ideas, identifying grants we could apply for, and that’s looking like we might be eligible for some financial input – something we wouldn’t have heard of without TC Group’s help.”
Chris Dell, TC Group’s Head of Brand, Creative and Culture, said:
“Last year we went through a merger process that was, at times, mentally and emotionally challenging. We have a strong board here, with a wide variety of approaches and opinions, but what that meant was we had one another to lean on and sound off to – and we got through it together.
“Some business owners feel very isolated – it’s difficult at the top of any organisation to find someone you can use as a sounding board and that’s often how our clients treat us. We’re not only knowledgeable, we’re experienced on what it takes to go through a difficult business journey, and if they just need us to sit and listen to them offload, then that’s fine.
“We’ve produced valuable leadership insight pieces over the years to try to help businesses recognise and deal with the challenges they face because that’s what sets us apart from a traditional accountancy practice.
“Throughout the teams we promote a can-do attitude, if a client needs us to respond quickly, then we’re all ready to act. Our approach is that if there is a way to do it, we’ll find it; if something can be done, we will get it done. We have a team that actively wants to support all our clients, and I think the clients appreciate that.”
