We all know that change is a constant, both in the grand scheme of things and in the work that professional service providers do. But, the constant of change isn’t so constant anymore; it’s accelerating, and that leaves many firms wondering how to keep up with it all. Changing workplace conventions, the continuing digitization of engagements, and clients’ changing paradigm of what a professional interaction is all constitute a change challenge not just of pace, but of scale.
However, though a rapidly changing world presents many challenges for professional services to contend with, there are a few principles that hold just as true now as they did when the scale and rapidity of change weren’t quite as intense. Here are three examples of what we mean:
1) See What Leaders are Doing
This tip may seem as obvious as tips come, but you might also be surprised at how many firms and practitioners stubbornly stick to what they know, not what successful peers are executing on. No matter which boat you think your firm belongs in, though, it never hurts to tune into the information and conference spaces most trusted by peers to see what is not just being discussed, but implemented.
It can be surprisingly difficult, even in this digital day and age, for such ideas to be shared widely. Thus, it’s always beneficial to take the time to delve deeper and to see what the talk of the proverbial town is. Which methods are winning clients over with their audits, internal or external? What about in tax, consulting, or security spaces? Keeping up with the curve will ultimately empower you to stay ahead of the curve, and your clients will be grateful for it.
2) Evaluate Changing Workplace Expectations
Another vital key to keeping pace with workspace and industry changes is being able to read the room when it comes to employees. Workplace culture has changed rapidly in recent years, with many professionals opting to work in hybrid or remote conditions. Knowing which setup best suits your professionals’ needs translates into a better work experience, which thus translates into a better client experience.
This is an area in which no best practice exists. Every space and every firm has its own approach when it comes to tackling the employee experience. But paying attention to how those factors come together in the context of both a grander employee and client experience will make all the difference for both parties.
3) Choose Technology That’s Ahead of The Curve
Listening to what industry leaders are doing and what your employees need to best execute your strategy are both vital to ensuring client satisfaction. The third and final piece to consider here, though, is investing in the technology that allows you to continuously keep pace with that aforementioned factor of scale.
What form might that technology take? Even with all this change in technology and scale happening around all of us, it’s not uncommon for professional services firms across a wide variety of sectors to rely on a surprisingly outdated engagement paradigm: lots of different portals and even more spreadsheets. Such a setup leaves both professionals and their clients open to the mistakes that come with disparate email threads, manual document uploads, and the second job that is keeping track of where everything is in the process.
Suralink, the world leader in engagement and PBC list management software, stands ready to help professionals and their clients not only avoid such mistakes, but also to provide a holistically improved interaction with a streamlined, all-in-one platform. Our technology empowers all engagement stakeholders to store, validate, and comment on any size or type of file in real time. This synchronization is key to matching not ‘just’ the pace of change occurring in today’s professional service landscape, but the scale at which that change is happening.
Get in touch with one of Suralink’s experts to learn more about how our platform meaningfully improves experiences for your professionals and your clients no matter the pace of change your firm is facing!