Client behaviour

By Alison Huntington

It’s always slightly creepy when you meet someone new and they say, “I’ve heard a lot about you.” Oh god, you think as a cold sweat forms on your brow, what on earth have you heard about me? Not the tale of that office Christmas party? Or could they have heard good things that you now need to live up to? The impression people form before meeting or working with you can help or hinder your relationship, and can take a fair amount of effort to change it.

By Fiona Czerniawska

Last year, when we asked clients about the most important factors which influence their opinion about a given consulting firm, they told us it was the quality of people they encountered (no surprise there: consulting, as we keep saying, is the quintessential people business) and the results delivered (this was more of a surprise to some firms, though it really shouldn’t have been).

The same two factors top the list when we look at this year’s data. But then we realised we’d been missing something obvious.

By Fiona Czerniawska