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Value You Can Feel: How The Primestone Group’s Core Values Shape the Client Experience
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When Values Impart Value: How Culture Creates a Competitive Edge at Lowe Engineers
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How Customer Stories Can Showcase Your Firm’s Value
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By Benjamin Culbreth
DOMAIN 5
Walk down the aisles of just about any big box retail store and you’re almost guaranteed to see the word “value.” It’s cleverly placed on price tags or large signs to draw our attention and persuade us to make a purchase. These businesses love to tell us what a great “value” we’re getting.
But that “value” is relative, right? Just because the entity selling the good or service says it’s a great deal doesn’t mean the person making the purchase feels the same way. As buyers, we ultimately make the call of what value means to us.
Your Clients are Your Best Storytellers
In the A/E/C world, value is presented differently. Firms aren’t putting their pricing on tags and they don’t have someone standing on the corner of a street spinning a sign that says, “Get Your Building Designed for a Great Value!”
And the decision-making process is much more complicated than deciding whether buy-one-get-one-free is actually a good deal. All the same, value means something to your clients. When it comes to explaining your worth to them, you can talk until you’re blue in the face. Maybe they’ll buy your spiel and maybe they won’t.
But they will listen to other people who have worked with you. Just like when we’re making a purchase decision for ourselves, the input of others who bought a product we’re interested in carries weight. Think about what you ask when you’re talking to someone about making a purchase. You want to know the pros and cons or maybe have a specific question to help guide your own decision. The responses we receive, those customer stories, shape the meaning of value for us.
A Natural Way to Share Value
The same principle applies to your firm’s clients. They’re the ones who can tell the story of your value in a way that you’ll never quite be able to capture. That voice of the customer can speak volumes to the value you provide. By interviewing customers and letting them tell the story of their experience, A/E/C firms can share value in a way that will naturally connect with the people who are interested in working with you.
These conversations can shed light on what you do well and can be distributed in multiple marketing assets. Let’s unpack how to conduct these interviews, what you can do with all that information, and why it’s a critical part of learning how to tell the story of your firm’s value.
That’s the beauty of talking to the people who pay you for your services. Their perspective is often much different (and arguably more important) than yours.”
Uncovering the Value Story
The process of interviewing clients unpacks a lot of rich insight. When you engage in these conversations, you’ll likely discover that your clients find aspects of your work valuable that you haven’t even considered. Maybe your firm is particularly good at breaking down complex ideas in easy-to-understand ways. Or your project updates are something a client really loves.
That’s the beauty of talking to the people who pay you for your services. Their perspective is often much different (and arguably more important) than yours.
But getting this information is much easier said than done. And it involves more effort than simply asking for a testimonial. Many firms don’t engage in client interviews because they’re afraid to ask in the first place. They may be worried about taking up too much of their client’s time. Or maybe they’re simply afraid of being told “No.”
A Guide to Asking for the Interview
The task may be more difficult than the actual interview itself for some folks. Here’s how to approach it. Set expectations upfront about why you’re doing this. Be transparent and honest about it. If you’re not quite sure what to say, here’s a message template you can use to frame it up:
Hi Client! We’ve loved working with you on [insert the name of a project or two]. As our firm looks to improve and understand more about what we do best, we’d love to find a time to talk with you about your experience working with us.
This would be about a 30-minute conversation. We can do it virtually or over the phone [or in person if you’d like!]. What we talk about will not only help us understand more about ourselves. If appropriate and with your permission, we’ll use part of the conversation in our marketing materials. Does this sound like something you’d be interested in doing?
The worst they could do is say, “No.” In all likelihood, they’ll agree or say they can do it at a later time. And when that time comes, here’s how to put together an interview that unpacks value and what you can do with everything you learn. If they do say no, offer to take them to lunch to find out why. There may be something critical your team is missing.
How to Ask Great Questions
Informative client interviews are the result of a great line of questioning. Developing solid questions is more than half the battle to understanding the client experience. And that’s an important thing to note. Your goal here is to understand what they find so valuable about working with you, not to get a quote that sings your firm’s praises.
Before the interview, think through what it was like working with this client. Read project sheets and talk to the technical staff who supported them. Get some of their insight to guide the questions you write.
Four Questions You Can Use
These can vary, but here are a few that are indispensable to understanding the value your firm offers:
Tell me about a time when the project hit a snag or faced a challenge. How did we handle that moment?
At what point did you realize you’d made a good decision by partnering with us?
What was surprising to you about the process of working with us?
Was there anything unrelated to the design work that stood out to you about our work together?
While these questions aren’t comprehensive, they can set you up to have a conversation that uncovers the value your firm delivers for clients. Some of the best information will come from the follow-up questions and side conversations that happen organically, so don’t be afraid to let the conversation lead you a bit.
Getting the Value Story Out There
The beauty in having these conversations with your clients is how they can be deployed to showcase how your firm delivers value:
- Through longer-form customer stories (or case studies)
- One-pagers for your business development teams to share as leave-behinds
- On social media with quote graphics and other details
- In statement of qualifications packages
The Best Ways to Share Your Client’s Voice
Customer interviews are tailor-made to be shared on multiple platforms, like social media posts. Take the best moments where the story of value is clearly told, and use those in your posts and campaigns focused on telling how your firm delivers value. Share the direct quotes, the challenges, and the moments your client talks about that demonstrate when your firm came through.
Client Interviews Will Change Your Marketing Approach
Through the process of interviewing and listening to your client, you’ll begin to really understand their mindset. As a result, you’ll develop empathy for their perspective. You’ll see the value in writing to them instead of at them. Writing about how your firm makes their work and their life better instead of talking about how great your work is and why your process is different.
Over time, this shift in how you create content and speak to prospective customers in your written communications will change and it will resonate more with the people you want to work with.
And when you include client interviews and the voices of the people who have worked with you, the story of your firm’s value will unfold in a way that draws in folks who are looking for people just like you to solve their challenges.
Ben Culbreth is a content strategist and copywriter and the only one who shows up for work at Culbreth Copywriting LLC. He helps AEC firms land more of the clients they want through marketing workshops and training, leading brand messaging and content strategies and writing copy for websites and customer stories. He lives in South Carolina. You can read his words and see his work at benjaminculbreth.com.
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