Perhaps you, like many corporate leaders, are interested in professional service firms that put your best interests first.  Here is a recent PRC client-centric success.  It probably is not what you expect to read.

 

Ten years ago we signed a company with sales in the multi-billion dollar range as an assessment client.  The SVP of HR made the choice to bring us in.  Unlike many of our new engagements which begin with effort to get to know the company and their needs resulting in the development of a tailored assessment and reporting process, this client asked us to duplicate what they were currently buying from another psychology consulting firm, a venerable competitor.  We agreed to that arrangement and we were happy with the work.

Over time, their appreciation and comfort level with our work grew.  They expressed to us how very pleased they were with the work we did, with its accuracy and insightfulness, and with our very customer-service minded approach to what we did and how we did it.  We liked the compliments, and we especially liked that the volume of our work with them grew.  We were pleased to know that the leaders at the highest levels in the company took our work very seriously and personally reviewed every report we wrote on the most senior level candidates.

All was good.  Except, over time as assessment technology and research brought new, proven methods to our work, we came to see real inadequacies in the assessment process that we were providing for them.  Our client liked our work, but we recognized they were not getting enough really good information relative to what could be produced for them not only at no additional cost, but at a savings.  We were concerned for them and for the value of our work; we recognized that while there was an enormous amount of assessment data currently being produced on each individual, it was not the right data, and it did not allow for sufficient descriptions and predictions in areas of interest and need about business leaders.

So, we set about to show them what we could do differently and how it could benefit them.  Our first attempt to bring a change to the process was a few years ago. To our surprise, our recommendations hit a brick wall.  We under-estimated how committed our client was to business as usual when it came to our work.

Our last attempt was last week and we succeeded.  What worked?  We asked them several months ago, on the strength of our relationship, to do us a favor – specifically, to provide some leaders to participate in a leadership assessment research project we were conducting.  They agreed.  We provided some individual feedback to the participants, at our expense, as a way to say thank you to this client for participating in our research efforts.

Then, when it was all said and done, we showed the client the research, and we demonstrated to them, with their own people, how we could produce even better assessment reports for them with less time and energy on the part of their candidates.  They were thrilled.  They agreed on the spot to the changes that we were advocating.  The newly installed assessment process costs our client no more than the old process, takes their candidates much less time to complete, and of greatest value: provides significantly better and more useful information for the client.

This win-win success did not come about by accident.  It is directly tied to the values of our firm and to our practice standards.  We are committed to consistently operating with the highest practice standards of which we are capable, and to delivering the best levels of customer service that we can. 

We pushed for change with a client that is more change averse than most.  We knew that we might aggravate this client who does a lot of work with us, and we did not want to irritate.  But we knew it was in our mutual best interest to maintain the effort to persuade them to change in a direction that was in their self-interest. 

As a business, PRC is a learning organization.  We are consumers and producers of knowledge and information.  We make this information available to our clients in the form of state-of-the-art assessment work and related services.  We give the baker’s dozen because, frankly, we ourselves like to be treated in that manner and we do not know any one who does not.

Here at PRC, we value:

1. doing top quality work using the very best tools and processes available;

2. delivering superior customer service by maintaining strong relationships with our clients and by being highly responsive to their needs, and;

3. providing clients rich and powerful information about people that they can use as a part of decision making and for enhancing the development of their people.

Will working with a state-of-the-art and client-centric psychology consulting firm improve your results?  If you use assessments, do you ever wonder what better services might be out there?  If “yes” to either question, contact me directly with the email address below.

Are you intrigued by Peter Rock Consulting, Inc.?  Would you like to learn more about the work that we are doing?  Please sign up for our upcoming webinar scheduled for July 29th entitled: What is new in corporate assessment?   Email us at webinquiry@peter-rock.com, and we will sign you up and look forward to a lively presentation and discussion.  Or, if you would like to learn more faster, call me directly or email me directly and we will arrange an individual webinar or phone conference at the earliest possible date and time.

E. Larry Newton, Ph. D.

larryn@peter-rock.com