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Clients Include

BT Radianz

Cedar Publishing

Dow Jones

Insight Investment Management

Intralinks

Liontrust PLC

Morgan Stanley Investment Management

Northern Trust Global Investors

SAS Software

Standard and Poor’s

Threadneedle Asset Management

Thomson Financia l

Sectors Covered

Financial services; News & Information vendors; Investment management; Telecoms & Trading technologies; Software services; Professional services; Publishing; High value business-to-business services; FTSE 350 companies; Insurance, Loss adjusting; Restaurant chains; Defence.

Clientmind Case Studies

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1: We've got the best products but the clients still leave

Problem
In spite of having the best product in the world, this firm was losing an astonishing 35% of tier 2 clients every year. It was costing them roughly £7m p.a. worldwide. What’s wrong with these clients?

Approach
Interviewed and tested 50 current and lost clients over telephone globally to find out about product, relationship, processes and switching reasons.

Delivered
Recommendations about frequency and expertise of contact according to customer segment, job title, individual mindset, geography and product usage profiles

Value to client 12 months on
Improved client retention from 65% to 93% representing a £6.2m increase in revenue

2:Why don't they like our Company?

Problem
Marketing materials were being binned without even being read by clients. A brand makeover was being tested on clients but it seemed to make no difference – what was going wrong?

Approach
Interviewed and tested 30 customers face-to-face in UK to test the impact of the brochures. The client conversations soon turned round to the fact that they didn’t understand what the firm was really all about – and in fact they didn’t care either! “Nobody comes to see us and when they do they try to sell us something.”

Delivered
We recommended a ‘relationship ladder of acceptance’: First make sure clients really get your brand proposition, and then visit them to understand their needs and how you can help. Once you have shown your commitment to them, they just might look at your brochures.

Value to client 12 months on
The marketing focus shifted from crafting beautiful brochures to crafting solid relationships based on understanding, trust and providing value. The firm has signed up 8 new customers in the past year, yielding revenues worth around £600k

3:The Competition has overtaken us and the clients are switching

Problem
The technology around the service was outdated, and clients were switching to rival firms – especially in Europe – but would the planned software upgrade be enough to stop the rot?

Approach
We visited 30 banking clients in Europe face-to-face – a mixture of current clients and firms that had switched to using a rival service over the past 6 months. How happy were they with the service they were using? Why did they switch to a rival? What would it take to bring them back? Remember: 90% of everything you need to know to grow your business is locked up in the minds of departed customers.

Delivered
Many individuals we interviewed were angry with my client. Angry, because a great system they had previously found to be very valuable had been neglected, and had forced them to go elsewhere. Relationships had suffered too, because the outdated software had forced sales and service contacts into ‘fire-fighter mode’.

Value to client 12 months on
Fortunately, we got to many of these clients before it was too late. £80k per month cancellations were saved by fast remedial action on both the software upgrade and relationship aspects.

4:Our service is selling too well - are they buying it for the right reasons?

Problem
A fund was launched with a special feature: it would outperform in a bear market (when other funds were doing poorly) and would underperform in bull markets. 6 months after the launch this fund was performing strongly in a bull market and pension funds all over the world were snapping it up! Would they dump the fund when it reverted to type?

Approach
We interviewed 65 managers of pension funds, consultants, IFA’s and private bankers (all of whom held or recommended the fund) from Amsterdam to Tokyo. Why had they bought the fund? What was the investment philosophy that sold it to them? Were they surprised at the performance? What did they plan to do with it?

Delivered
The results were interesting, because they varied so much geographically – some countries understood the product features better than others – and we identified reasons for this. But the really significant finding was around the management of the fund. Clients said they would stick with it should the performance drop, but they were very concerned with a perceived lack of succession planning. If the star fund manager left they would dump the fund in a heartbeat!

Value to client 12 months on
The investment firm put in place a robust plan for succession planning, together with a PR campaign to reassure customers. Extra product training was delivered to contacts in regions where understanding was too low. The client is convinced that the project has saved them at least £500k in future potential lost business.

5:We’ve got the technology, now where’s the home?

Problem
Already strong in many sectors - providing enterprise software to public and government organisations - this firm wanted to enter the financial trading technology arena. But where should they start, and where were the greatest opportunities for profit?

Approach
Clientmind interviewed and tested 35 chief operations officers in London, within investment management, investment banking, insurance and private banking.

Delivered
We delivered 5 propositions based on market needs, new regulations, and best expertise fit for the client

Value to client 12 months on
Client immediately embarked on a campaign to address one of the recommended sectors with a bespoke offering. There are 5 pilot projects across Europe and each one is worth around £750k when adopted.

6:If our clients tell us they are satisfied, why are they not loyal?

Problem
Client satisfaction studies had indicated a satisfaction level of 80%, but clients were still switching to the competition. Lost revenue was reaching £90k per month, putting unrealistic demands on new business sales to plug the gap. What was going on in the client’s mind?

Approach
We spoke to 160 financial markets participants who took the service in Europe. We asked them how they worked, and how the service helped them achieve their objectives. Then we asked them why they switched to a rival service, if they were no longer a client.

Delivered
Clients reported thinking the service was of excellent quality, but they did not understand how the service helped them achieve their goals. At review time, these clients were unable to defend their need for the service when quizzed by in-house procurement experts. The problem lay in how it was being sold.

Value to client 12 months on
Client carried out a sales and product training programme across Europe, to help front line employees click with the different job profiles and needs across the financial markets. Customer retention improved by 6% in year 1, representing £270k in saved revenue.

The actual fieldwork was carried out with no interruption to us and the feedback we got from our customers interviewed by Clientmind showed us that their work was being conducted in a thoroughly professional manner. All in all, a very professional and well conducted job. I would recommend Clientmind to anybody looking to undertake a similar exercise.

Jonathan Harbottle
Marketing Services Director
Liontrust PLC
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