Data-driven dashboards that reveal real growth insights

Why ClearlyRated Partnered with Avionté and How the Collaboration Benefits Their Shared Clients

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For over 50 years, Sterling Engineering has built their success on a simple philosophy—genuine care for people. But how could they turn these valuable relationships into measurable growth? By leveraging ClearlyRated and its integration with AviontéBOLD, Sterling is unlocking new opportunities to engage passive talent, reconnect with former clients, and create fresh sales opportunities—positioning the company for even greater success! Discover how: Sterling Engineering Case Study

Overview

An award-winning CPA firm headquartered in Pennsylvania, Herbein’s leaders have long sought out client feedback in order to enhance their client experience (CX) and improve operations. The firm’s culture is centered around client service and a sense of ‘finding the next adventure’ when looking to the future. They use client surveys to support both.

Prior to working with ClearlyRated, Herbein attempted to run its own client surveys using only in-house resources. Now, though, they’ve worked with ClearlyRated for the past eight years to measure, track and leverage their Net Promoter® Score while capturing feedback to optimize their CX. Chief Growth Officer, Jack Kolmansberger, looks back to share what they’ve learned and achieved after ditching their DIY efforts in favor of a professionally-supported client survey program with clear ROI.

Challenge

After planning and managing their own client satisfaction survey for two years, Herbein’s marketing team had nothing to show for it but an overwhelmed team with an excess of data-filled spreadsheets.

“It was just a ridiculous amount of work. We aren’t statisticians and didn’t know how to identify trends or insights from raw data,” says Jack. “Plus, we didn’t plan the actual survey well. We asked too many questions and didn’t include any open-ended ones, so we got zero testimonials and finding actionable feedback seemed impossible.”

Jack’s team needed a solution that would take the work off their plate and come with both expert guidance and an easy-to-use survey analytics platform.

“One of the best pieces of advice that I can offer to others about investing in a client survey initiative is to consider the realities of your team’s resources and expertise.” – Jack Kolmansberger, Chief Growth Officer, Herbein

Solution

After grappling with the realities and challenges of his team’s DIY approach, Jack decided to seek out other survey options that would help guide his team’s efforts, take some of the work off their plates, and help tell Herbein’s story of service excellence. He found ClearlyRated.

“We’ve found that by working with ClearlyRated, we are able to take far greater action on the data, which is really what a survey is all about. Action and improvement. Plus, the ClearlyRated program posts testimonials in the most transparent means possible.” – Jack Kolmansberger, Chief Growth Officer, Herbein

Outcomes

From Jack’s point of view, the value Herbein gets from surveying clients with ClearlyRated is priceless.

“We use ClearlyRated’s platform to understand how we’re doing across the board and to see how we’re perceived by specific clients. It’s rare to get information that you can use on a micro and macro level,” he says, noting that the data and client comments don’t just tout Herbein’s service excellence but also inform its entire marketing program.

“This survey tells you almost everything you need to know to inform your marketing strategy. You could say that everything tracks back to the survey,” Jack says. He notes that this applies to everything from marketing strategy and staffing choices to future service offerings and emerging expertise. “Survey responses helped us figure out where we needed deeper knowledge which helped us make informed hiring decisions. Now we’re expanding with new specialists that help us stay ahead of the market and best meet our clients’ evolving needs.”

“When people have told me that they’d love to use ClearlyRated, but just don’t have room in their budget, I respond, ‘What if you make the investment and your clients are happy – you get great testimonials. But what if you don’t make the investment, and your clients are not happy – you’re in jeopardy of losing those clients. If you want actionable feedback within a system that is user-friendly and delivered by a great support team, this is an investment that every firm should be making.” – Jack Kolmansberger, Chief Growth Officer, Herbein

Here are just some of the outcomes that have resulted from Herbein’s client satisfaction survey program:

Saving at-risk clients.

During their first-ever survey, The Herbein team identified a Top 50 client that had recently transitioned to Herbein and didn’t feel they were getting the value they expected. The Herbein team acted on this feedback immediately and successfully retained this critical client relationship.

Adding profitable new services.

“ClearlyRated’s survey program has helped us find and pursue our next adventure with confidence,” Jack says. After Herbein included a question in its survey about client concerns, Jack’s team discovered an unmet need for HR advisory services. Shortly afterwards, they acquired an HR consulting practice to respond to and grow from those insights. Doing so allows them to cross-serve their clients, delivering a better CX while also boosting revenue. Jack says that year one revenue for the new service resulted in over 30% growth over the prior year.

Identifying cross-selling opportunities—and generating eager leads.

In a recent survey, ClearlyRated’s account team suggested asking respondents which other Herbein practices they’d like to hear from. “We were overwhelmed by the number of people who not only wanted to learn more about our various services but asked for someone to reach out to them,” Jack said. “It was like opening the floodgates to what clients needed.”

Showing credibility in marketing materials and proposals.

Herbein uses the ClearlyRated dashboard to add relevant testimonials to proposals. “Whether we’re segmenting by partner, by industry, or by service, I’m confident that our ability to offer the most relevant testimonials helps us stand out to prospects,” Jack says.

Positive morale.

Herbein shares positive feedback internally, especially when specific members of the client service team receive shout outs in survey responses. “Sharing positive client feedback internally helps us to reinforce our commitment to client service while providing clear examples of the types of behaviors that create a world-class client experience,” Jack explains. “Our CEO, Dave Stonesifer, asked why he was getting so many shout-out emails where our clients specifically cited team members – and that he loved seeing each one.”

‘The Herbein Experience’—Defining it and training employees on how to deliver it.

In 2021, Herbein published a new internal resource: The Herbein Experience. What started as an aspirational exercise to cover the kind of firm Herbein wanted to be turned into a printed internal resource. “Delivering service that inspires client loyalty is incredibly important to us. To help explain how we work with our clients, we pulled testimonials directly from ClearlyRated surveys. Those quotes show what our service expectations look like in practice and how that impacts our relationships with clients. Capturing what we want to achieve in this format has been transformational for us,” Jack says. Now every new employee receives The Herbein Experience as part of their onboarding.

Overview

Accounting firm JA Del Río’s client base spans the globe. Its multilingual team performs auditing, advisory, accounting, finance, and tax services. To meet the needs of such a diverse client base, JA Del Río often partners with accounting and legal firms from the Praxity Alliance, a global collection of best-in-class firms.

“It’s essential that we offer a good experience to our clients across the board. We want to be certain that both our Praxity partners and we, ourselves, are delivering that,” says Bernardo del Río, Managing Partner at JA Del Río. “This is why we’re so glad to gain the ability to measure our customer experience (CX).” – Bernardo del Río | Managing Partner, JA Del Río

Read on to learn more about how JA Del Río maintains its CX excellence over and time has pioneered the use of ClearlyRated among Praxity members.

About ClearlyRated’s Partnership with Praxity

_‍Praxity, a global alliance of accounting firms, has partnered with ClearlyRated to empower member firms to gather feedback on their customer experience (CX) while measuring their Net Promoter Score® (NPS). Each firm can then showcase its score as well as customer testimonials in marketing communications and pitches, while using NPS surveys to identify internal areas for improvement. In its spotlight of our partnership, Praxity notes: “Member firms have often scored highly on CX, but until now there has been no consistent measurement of this metric alliance-wide.” The following is a case study of one of the first Praxity firms to implement ClearlyRated.

Challenge

Prior to using ClearlyRated, JA Del Río did not have a process or platform for capturing objective client feedback or generating a verified CX score. And because it shared that challenge with most other Praxity members, all within the alliance had difficulty showing a proven CX track record when joining together on RFPs.

JA Del Río wanted a way to measure and track its CX, and Praxity wanted to find a process for consistently measuring CX alliance-wide using the same metric.

Solution

JA Del Río was one of the first Praxity firms to implement the ClearlyRated survey program. They survey quarterly to track their Net Promoter® Score (NPS®), rotating clients to spread the feedback and their improvement efforts throughout the entire year. “The big four firms measure their NPS, and now JA Del Río can prove we play on the same field, matching or even exceeding their NPS scores,” says Alejandra Inguez, Client Success Coordinator at JA Del Río.

“Defining CX under one numeric score can be challenging, but having a third-party expert involved makes data collection easier and more reliable while giving our feedback data more credibility,” says Alejandro Ismael Flores | Project and Quality Coordinator at JA Del Río.

Outcomes

Feedback received from the client satisfaction surveys helps give more weight to employees’ soft skills and has better prepared them for quarterly business reviews, Del Río says. “When we have a business review with our clients, we are one step ahead, knowing where we need to improve and where we ‘shine,’” he explains. “Clients feel they are listened to and considered. This improves the communication and trust level which can lead to more business opportunities.”

Indeed, simply adding the question, “Are there any additional services you would need?” to JA Del Río’s client satisfaction survey brought in dozens of new business leads.

“Having a metric tied to CX has been huge for us. We’ve noticed a tangible shift in
our culture toward a more client-centric approach.” – Bernardo del Río | Managing Partner, JA Del Río

Along with gaining a channel to bring in new business opportunities, JA Del Río can now proudly show its world-class NPS to prospective clients and partners, and share its Best of Accounting™ award and client testimonials to boost marketing and sales efforts.

• 4.6 star rating
• Consistent world-class NPS, well above the industry average
• ~100s of new client testimonials
• 2x winner: Best of Accounting Client Satisfaction

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Overview

Prioritizing client experience has long been a hallmark of how The DAVIS Companies does business. The IT and engineering recruitment firm prioritized listening to both clients and consultants long before putting its formal survey program in place, but gathering honest feedback – both qualitative comments and quantitative rating data – got much simpler and more rewarding after partnering with ClearlyRated in 2014.

Now you can learn from their journey as The DAVIS Companies looks back on our decade-long partnership and celebrates its 10-Year Best of Staffing Diamond Award.

Challenge

Prior to working with ClearlyRated, staff at The DAVIS Companies wanted feedback but didn’t have a mechanism in place to gather it beyond personally requesting comments from clients and consultants. While doing so demonstrated that they cared about their customer experience (CX), they couldn’t be certain that the feedback was genuine or a complete evaluation of how they were doing.

Solution

When leaders learned about ClearlyRated’s survey program, they were excited to find a consistent way to collect CX data, from both their clients and talent.

“With the survey program, we were finally getting comments from people who would otherwise have said nothing,” says Andrea Pion, Vice President of Marketing for The DAVIS Companies. “The platform is also a great technical tool. It’s easy for us to deploy, for users to participate, and to re-share with people who missed their survey invitations.”

Andrea notes that her team also benefited from the guidance ClearlyRated offered, including communication best practices to both distribute customer feedback internally and share actionable takeaways with customers.

“We distribute every survey response at the desk level and up to leadership,” she says. “We celebrate the good things and work on what needs improvement.” Her advice to those considering the program: “Do it. You’ll get information you otherwise wouldn’t.”

And Andrea’s advice to those just starting out with ClearlyRated: “Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Your contacts at ClearlyRated can be so helpful in pulling data, setting up lists and more. Maintain communication with them. They have great insights and feet on the ground. They’ve guided so many before you and are always ready to help.”

Outcomes

Each year, before launching their ClearlyRated survey, Andrea’s team prepares by laying their groundwork internally and externally.

“Our sales team helps us develop the list, and we assign a specific point of contact to communicate with each customer ahead of time so they’ll be looking out for our survey,” she says, noting that her team also makes an effort to help everyone on staff understand the value of this survey. Thanks to their consistent efforts each year, they’ve implemented the following CX improvements:

“Once we’ve made an improvement, we always know there’s something else we can work on. Getting regular feedback from ClearlyRated surveys has helped us continue to optimize and fine-tune all our processes.” – Andrea Pion | VP of Marketing, The DAVIS Companies

Improved communication practices with both consultants and clients

The DAVIS Companies now keeps a timely pulse on its talent experience (TX) throughout the hiring process and while on assignment. With consultant feedback in mind, they clarified and simplified the onboarding process, including guidance on whom to reach out to for specific needs. While on assignment, consultants receive email marketing reminders as they approach defined milestones, and recruiters proactively ask questions rather than waiting for consultants to approach them with concerns. Finally, account representatives share the consultant feedback both internally and with their clients. Andrea notes that sharing aggregated consultant feedback with clients after each survey is value-added service, helping to improve both the clients’ TX and their own.

Talent benefits that align with modern expectations

Consultant feedback helped The DAVIS Companies learn where and how it could improve its payroll process and benefits package. For instance, when leaders learned that consultants wanted more flexible ways to receive payment, they added paycards alongside existing options such as direct deposits and mailed paychecks.

Informed marketing efforts supported by credibility-boosting testimonials and awards

Talent testimonials gathered via ClearlyRated surveys regularly populate the DAVIS Companies’ social media calendar. The marketing team also takes full advantage of the firm’s Best of Staffing badges, including them on the website, social media backgrounds, employee email signatures, and RFPs. After earning the award each year, The DAVIS Company has touted its accomplishment with a video announcement shared via email marketing, social media posts, and its website. “The format changes every year,” says Andrea. “For our 10-Year Diamond award, we had a more celebratory focus and thanked everyone for helping us get here.”

“Only the top 2% of staffing companies qualify for Best of Staffing, so our consistency in earning the award is a great differentiator for us.” – Andrea Pion | VP of Marketing, The DAVIS Companies

Congratulations to The DAVIS Companies on earning the 10-Year Best of Staffing Diamond Award for outstanding service to both its clients and its talent community. Learn more about how your organization can also learn from its customers and implement feedback that improves your offerings and drives growth.