Client and market feedback

A client feedback or Customer Experience (CX) exercise is a structured approach to collecting insights post-project, mid-engagement, or periodically throughout a relationship, usually every 12-18 months or more frequently if your business changes significantly.

Strategic, meaningful conversations with clients provide context around your performance as a company – why you were successful, what makes you stand out, where you could improve, why you lost out to your competition, how else you could be helping clients meet challenges, how you could better position or market your business.

Your current clients are of course a critical audience but don’t forget about former clients, prospects, influencers within the client organisation, project partners or other important stakeholders. Expanding feedback exercises to the wider market adds greater depth and understanding. These audiences often provide more detailed and actionable feedback, and can become powerful advocates.

The insights gathered – which crucially are based on fact and not assumption – will inform and drive the right business decisions as well as honing PR and marketing strategies. And you clients will thank you for asking – you will be amazed how many clients we speak to say how rare it is that people ask for their opinion – it is a competitive advantage in itself!

Optimising the process

Here’s our quick guide to extracting maximum value from a feedback exercise:

• Consider how to engage with your clients – we advocate one-on-one interviews by phone, online video platforms or in person – you can’t beat the value of conversation, enabling you to explore answers and delve deeper. Focus groups, feedback workshops or roundtables can also work well to test new solutions or gather in-depth understanding of client experiences. You might also want to engage your team and create a 360-degree view
• Use a third party to conduct interviews for more candid, unbiased responses. We are experts in the built environment so we know how it work and speak the language
• Have a structured question set: we recommend a mix of qualitative and quantitative questions so you can gather metrics while allowing for greater insight through open responses
• Use ratings and scores to establish a benchmark against which you can test performance every time: Net Promoter Scores (read our blog about this here), Customer Satisfaction Scores (CSAT), service performance scores
• Make it a regular habit, not a one-time event
• Act on the feedback – clients have invested their time and hate it when you don’t respond to their issues or indeed opportunities offered

Challenges to the CX process – here are the two questions we get asked most, answered:

• Won’t our clients say no? (They won’t want to engage, they don’t have time, it might annoy them). Simply not true – the offer is welcomed, we rarely get a no and when they are busy, they often offer to speak at a later date
• Won’t clients find it strange that we don’t ask them ourselves? No client we have ever spoken to has said that – they mostly value the opportunity to talk openly to a third party, especially if they have a strong personal relationship within the business. They’ll tell us things they won’t tell you

Benefits

What can you expect to gain as a result of client and market feedback exercise?

• Insight about your business and overall performance
• Client satisfaction level
• Strengthened relationships
• Improved retention and new business opportunities
• Silent dissatisfaction or frustrations
• Feedback that helps develop and improve your offer or service
• Input that fuels innovation and enhanced services
• How to differentiate your brand
• How and what communication clients want from you, informing your marketing
• Client advocacy: clients who feel heard are more likely to participate in testimonials, case studies, and referrals
• Performance benchmarking: trends, team performance, gaps in expectation vs. delivery, sentiment linked to business outcomes

Remember too that asking for feedback isn’t just about learning – it’s about listening. It shows clients you care about their input and are committed to continuous improvement. This deepens trust and creates space for honest conversations that may not otherwise happen.

We are experts in engaging the audiences that matter most to your business. Our team is here to listen to your needs, help you hone your current approach or create a new one, so you too can benefit from the insights that fuel your success. Get in touch!