When assumptions meet reality: What clients really notice

Welcome to The Happy Client!

Written by our Director, Anna Lake, this monthly newsletter shares insights, ideas and inspiration to help you build stronger client relationships and create move value for your business. If you're not already subscribed, click here to never miss an issue! In most professional services firms, there is a quiet confidence about what clients’ value.

It tends to be a strong belief in the quality of technical expertise and a sense that relationships are well embedded and trusted. These beliefs are not unfounded, and in many cases, they are built on years of experience, successful outcomes and long-standing client relationships.

But they are also, more often than we realise, assumptions. And assumptions, unless tested, have a habit of evolving into accepted truth.

If we speak to a partner ahead of a client interview, we’re often met with comments such as “I know they’re happy,” or “I don’t think you’ll discover anything I don’t already know.” So, then our job becomes really interesting when those assumptions are tested, and we uncover contradictory and/or additional insight directly from clients.

Often, the first surprise is not negative at all. Clients frequently place significant value on things that firms themselves consider secondary. Qualities such as consistency, responsiveness, and ease of working together are mentioned repeatedly. These are rarely the headline messages in pitches or marketing materials, yet they are central to why clients stay loyal.

Take the recent example of the bank Revolut announcing it will review its panel law firms on a three-monthly basis according to KPIs linked to the above areas. The news led to many comments on LinkedIn (mainly from lawyers) deriding this approach, but in our hundreds of interviews over the years, these points come up time and again so why shouldn’t firms be judged on them in this way?

The second, and sometimes more uncomfortable, discovery is where perceived strengths do not fully land in the way teams expect. Areas that are internally seen as strong can, through a client lens, feel inconsistent or incomplete. A firm may pride itself on being responsive, yet clients describe experiences that feel reactive rather than proactive. A team may view its communication as thorough, while clients experience it as uncommercial or lacking forward visibility.

Then there are the quieter insights which are rarely surfaced unless explicitly asked. These often relate to friction points that clients have simply learned to work around. Reporting that is difficult to interpret, uncertainty about next steps or processes that rely too heavily on individual relationships rather than consistent team delivery.

None of these issues tend to trigger complaints because clients adapt to them and find ways to make things work. But why should the effort fall to the client? Over time, that effort becomes part of the overall experience.

Perhaps most valuable of all are the opportunities that sit unsurfaced. Clients will often describe needs that have not been actively explored, such as a desire for more strategic input, horizon scanning, broader conversations, or a deeper understanding of their longer-term priorities. In some cases, they are simply unaware of the full extent of services available to them.

This is not dissatisfaction - it is untapped potential revenue left ‘on the table’ because you haven’t asked.

Why do these blind spots persist, even in high-performing firms?

Part of the answer lies in proximity - when teams are close to the work, and relationships feel strong, it becomes harder to see the experience objectively. Feedback tends to come from a small number of voices, while others remain unheard. Without deliberate, structured listening, firms hear what clients choose to say in the moment and not necessarily what they think over time.

The real value of client insight is not in validation. It is in challenging what feels certain, showing gaps brought about by misplaced confidence and between how a service is delivered by the firm and experienced by clients. Once those blind spots are visible, they are actionable.

A useful starting point is a simple question:

What do we believe our clients value most, and when did we last test that belief?

The firms that gain the most from client listening are not those seeking reassurance that they are getting things right. They are the ones prepared to discover where they are not, and to use that insight to strengthen relationships, refine their approach, and uncover opportunities that might otherwise have remained hidden.

In a market where capability is often assumed, the real differentiator increasingly lies in attention – not just to detail, but to experience, and above all, to the client perspective.