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Client Speak: Quality Work v. Quality Service

By Donald E. Aronson
August 27, 2009

In the April 1984 issue of The American Lawyer, an Incisive Media sister publication of this newsletter, David Maister authored a groundbreaking article entitled “Quality Work Doesn't Mean Quality Service.” Stressing the professional services provider's need to be “client centered,” Maister contended, “Whether logical or illogical, sensible or not, even the most sophisticated client will ' come to focus more heavily on the quality of service than on the quality of the work.”

Sometime thereafter, in my role as CMO of one of the then-Big 8 accounting firms ' and working with a marketing communications firm ' I commissioned an extensive internal survey as well as a survey of the marketplace to determine, among other things, what it would take to differentiate my firm from the competition. Sure enough, we concluded that technical capability, competency and qualified professional personnel, i.e., the basic ingredients of quality work, were “not leverageable” characteristics. Rather, if we truly wished to appear distinctive, our emphasis in communicating about the firm, and establishing our identity, should focus on the personal elements of the business relationship. In effect, the survey results agreed with Maister.

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