Ryan Suydam

Ryan Suydam co-founded Client Savvy in 2004 to help professional firms create fierce client loyalty. He has coached over 300 organizations and over 10,000 professionals on the skills required to be client savvy. His clients are twice as likely to be recommended by their clients, three times as likely to realize above-average financial returns, and consistently attract and retain better employees.

Ryan’s early career was in an architectural firm. He quickly began leveraging technology and process to solve new problems in creative ways, leading to the foundation of Client Savvy. In this fascinating interview, you’ll get the following nuggets and takeaways:

• Why there is no ONE definition of ‘client experience’ but it’s really the sum total of touchpoints to your accounting firm
• How CUSTOMER experience differs from CLIENT experience, particularly in professional services
• The starting place for accounting firms to become client-centric is with the leaders – what they talk about matters
• Great offer – a client experience card deck – 52 brilliant exercises and conversation prompters
• Why client experience is important – your accounting clients compare you to the last great buying experience they had
• Second great offer – a specially written guide for empathy mapping to examine your client experience
• What do clients of accountants need, feel and think – you can’t know unless you ask them the right questions
• Why accounting firms struggle to prove value because the outcomes are unseen and intangible
• A great experience gives clients the confidence that they made the right decision hiring your accounting firm
• A great example of what accountants can learn from car mechanics
• Are great, empathetic, client-centric, relationship-oriented accounting professionals born or made?
• If you take care of your accounting clients, you don’t have to work hard to win work – marketing takes care of itself
• The power of ‘gamifying’ will help accountants network more productively AND do CX better
• Client experience touches every part of your accounting business. AND it’s a billable activity!
• CX is the link between your accounting firm’s corporate strategy and your tactical execution
• The danger of over-servicing and over-delivering to accounting clients – try meeting expectations plus 1%
• Net Promoter Score has flaws but is highly impacted by your accounting firm’s client experience.

In 2015, Ryan also founded the Client Experience in Professional Services (CXps) group, hosting an annual conference bringing together professionals to share ideas and strategies that advance their firms’ ability to deliver differentiated client experiences, every time. Ryan speaks at events across the world, including national conferences such as the Lean Construction Congress, American Council of Engineering Companies Annual Convention, American Society of Quality, and the Society for Marketers of Professional Services. To contact with Ryan in the US, go to www.clientsavvy.com or connect here…

919 882 3843 or LinkedIn or Twitter: @rmsyudam or Liked your PFA Podcast Interview with Rob Brown" target="_blank">email him directly here>>