Proactive diagnosis: how professional service firms sustain client dialogue

Abstract

Purpose -This paper seeks to contribute to the discussion of relationship marketing in professional services firms (PSF). The process of dialogical interaction with clients is central to relationship marketing. However, client dialogue may fall dormant if not properly cultivated by employees of the PSF, that is, by professionals. This inductive study aims to investigate how professionals sustain a fruitful client dialogue by proactively introducing additional client problems to the dialogue. Design/methodology/approach -Extensive field research with a "Big Four" accounting firm and 11 client companies inductively generates a framework to describe how professionals engage in proactive diagnosis of client problems to introduce these problems to the client dialogue. The framework is grounded in 49 focused interviews with professionals and client managers, as well as supplementary interviews, observations, and firm documents. Findings -The suggested framework consists of the components of proactive diagnosis (information-seeking and influence strategies), a trade-off that professionals must make among these components, several enablers of and constraints on proactive diagnosis, and key client concerns that professionals must address to introduce additional client problems. Originality/value -Despite the importance of client dialogue for relationship marketing, recommendations about how professionals can sustain client dialogue over time remain limited. This study describes proactive diagnosis as one potential approach. It contributes to literature on relationship marketing in PSFs by showing how proactive diagnosis helps professionals overcome the problem of dormancy in client dialogue, complements personal selling, and extends the role of diagnosis beyond paid client assignments into the pre-selling phase.

Relationship Marketing in Insurance Industry: A Systematic Analysis of Literatures

“…Relationship marketing A long-term relationship orientation means that new interactions are affected by the results of past interactions. In a recent article by Sieg, Fischer, Wallin, & Von Krogh (2013) stated that customer relationships are the ‚bread and butter‛ of any professional service firms. Madhavaram, Granot, & Badrinarayanan, (2004); Yu & Tung, (2014) verify that in the service industry the first to mention the relationship marketing was Berry (1983).Relationship marketing emphasizes the importance of establishing, maintaining and enhancing relationships between customers and buyers, in comparison to the transactional orientation of the classical marketing paradigm (Grönroos, 2004).In a book of relationship marketing, Palmatier (2008)proposes the following definition of relationship marketing: ‚relationship marketing is the process of identifying, developing, maintaining, and terminating relational exchanges with the purpose of enhancing performance‛.…”

Actual and perceived gaps in the supply and demand for marketing and communication services: an empirical analysis of the province of Bergamo

“…Some authors have investigated what consulting agencies could/should do in terms of strategies and communication activities in different countriese.g. Barr and McNeilly (2003) in the United Reid (2008) in Australia, Sieg et al (2012) in Europe and Pencarelli (2019, 2021) in Italy. Our study attempts to contribute to the academic discourse by assessing the extent to which consulting agencies are able to meet firms' demand by conceiving a service supply consisting of specialized marketing services.…”

“…Some authors have investigated what consulting agencies could/should do in terms of strategies and communication activities in different countries – e.g. Barr and McNeilly (2003) in the United Reid (2008) in Australia, Sieg et al. (2012) in Europe and Gabbianelli and Pencarelli (2019, 2021) in Italy.…”

Proof positive: Thought leadership in Canadian professional service firms

“…Professional service firms stated that the top issues they face in using thought leadership activities are being able to develop engaging content that attracts leads and clients, producing enough content and having the budget to create new content (Content Marketing Institute, 2010). With increased competition in the marketplace and more sophisticated clients who are looking beyond a firm's technical abilities, many professional services firms are moving from transaction-based to relationship-based communications and marketing -70-jpc.mcmaster.ca W.,Journal of Professional Communication 3(1):67-96, 2013 (Reid, 2008;Sieg, Fischer, Wallin & Krogh, 2012;McColl-Kennedy, Sweeney, Soutar & Amonini, 2008). Since it has been shown that successful communications leads to stronger relationships which leads to a good reputation and brand, which finally leads to a better opportunity to provide services to clients, it would be recommended that communications practitioners play an integral role in thought leadership and reputation management at professional service firms (Roberts, Simic Bronn, Breunig, 2003).…”

“…Having a good reputation at professional service firms is an important way to ensure continued relationships with clients since over 50 percent of business is either repeat through new services or referrals (Frederiksen, 2008a,b;Sieg et al, 2012). However, firms often underfund and disregard the importance of marketing to existing clients (Maister, 1993).…”