The age of opinion is upon us
For many years the business community has placed the value of professional services (e.g. accounting, taxation, legal) on the cost of delivering those services - for example $X per tax return, $X for obtaining a visa or work permit, etc. In this information-driven transactional service environment, the overwhelming risk of poor service was borne by the business, as opposed to the service provider.
In the post-COVID world, I predict that business will increasingly shift their value proposition from the value of information, to placing greatest value on opinion and insights. This shift in thinking from the business community will transform how a range of professional services are delivered.
No matter which way you look at it, and irrespective of which professional you seek advice from (doctor, lawyer, accountant, etc), as a client what you want from them is their opinion.
As a professional services consultant with over 20 years’ experience at senior executive level working with global professional services firms, I have observed the irreversible decline in the value of information for a number of years. This decline has its roots in the wide accessibility of information, but transformative workplace and workforce change driven by COVID-19 has served to drive the decline in value faster.
To counter this decline in the value of information, professional services firms have attempted to pivot their business model away from an over-reliance on transactional services to higher value consulting services. This pivot to consulting has worked better in some emerging areas such as cyber risk, technology transformation, workforce strategy and economic modelling, as well as some emerging industry sectors.
However, the shift to higher value advisory insights has proved to be more challenging in the traditional areas of taxation, audit and legal (including immigration) services. Part of the reason for this is that businesses have been long conditioned to place a value around how these services have been delivered for many years.
A good example of this is immigration services. The delivery of immigration services has remained largely unchanged for over 20 years. Business leaders have become accustomed to placing their value for immigration services around four pillars – pricing, technology, vendor team capabilities and governance. These four pillars are clearly important to business leaders when considering their immigration vendor relationships, and the importance of these areas will not diminish in the post-COVID workforce.
Where these criteria fail the business is that they have traditionally allowed the vendor to shape the selection narrative around the vendors business systems rather than around the client's business. The scale of disruption to the workplace and to the workforce requires service delivery systems to be built around the unique needs of each business.
The pivotal role which immigration played for businesses was long overdue for disruption. COVID-19 has delivered the expected disruption to the immigration advisory industry. It remains to be seen whether immigration service providers are equipped to pivot their support to the business community to help them navigate the changing global landscape.
Whilst there have been some developments in immigration technology and service delivery models, the way clients have been serviced for immigration assistance has remained largely unchanged. However, if business leaders shifted their value proposition from transactional support to insight driven advisory services, what would that look like?
A shift by business leaders to the following three pillars of vendor assessment would likely initiate a significant shift in the thinking of immigration vendor relationships:
Client experience - build quality controls to assess how vendors deliver a measurable improvement in the service experience of the business and its workforce.
Return on investment - shifting the measurement of success from transactional support to one which is built around insight-driven opinions and advice linked to business performance.
Strategic relationship - build service relationships which encourages the vendor and the business to co-design the future global workforce of the business, including helping the business to influence beneficial change in government policy.
You can learn more about these revised pillars of change here.
Who would have thought that clients pay advisors for their opinion? As earth shattering as that sounds, the basis of a professional relationship has not changed too much over the years. While new service delivery technologies and products have come and gone, it is a professional advisor’s opinion that sets them apart from the next advisor.
The value of an advisor’s opinion can only be determined by one person – the client. When a client sits in front of an advisor for the first time or contacts them as an existing client, they are seeking their opinion. It could be an answer to a specific question, the confidence to make a decision, the support to change a behaviour, a solution to resolve some complexity or simply some ‘tough love’ to put some perspective in their life. In every situation when a client comes to a professional services advisor, they are seeking an opinion and they trust that the advisor’s opinion is better than some other advisor.
When advisors charge for their opinion, again it is the client who will determine whether what is proposed is valuable. If the client doesn’t value the advisor’s opinion, they will not pay for it. If clients perceive value in the opinion and insights of the advisor, they will pay for it.
Increasingly clients are less inclined to pay a premium fee for services built primarily around transactions – such as preparing a tax return or preparing a visa and work permit application. COVID-19 and the disruption it has created to the workforce and the workplace has meant that ship has sailed.
A final word of advice for the aspiring professional service advisors out there. Next time you are sitting in front of a client and seeking their ongoing engagement, remember the true basis for a valuable client relationship. Make sure you express your opinion and always share it with your clients. Don’t just save it for leaving a comment at the end of a performance review meeting or a discussion about fees.