Design Thinking brings about a new way of thinking about client interactions and experiences of working with your firm.
Applying design thinking to an accountancy firm might result in:
- First impressions – the look and feel of the office reception. Any nice surprises? e.g. the offer of a lavishly made cup of coffee and freshly made cookies?
- Meeting rooms that inspire creativity and a sense of possibilities – flip charts, colour markers, giant stickies, sharpies, building blocks, play-dough etc
- Reports and correspondence that are sleek, unfussy and easy to understand (+ recycled of course – or the offer that all correspondence can be sent in digital form only)
- An ethos that seeks to (and actually manages to) exceed expectations in terms of timetable for delivery and quality of work. Going the extra mile to achieve a WOW service.
- A Firm that has a social purpose. A social object. Something that binds its team and its clients together for a higher purpose e.g. a proportion of its profits being reinvested in local aspiring companies?
- Constantly reinventing services. Always fresh. Always invigorating. Clients leave an interaction with your Firm feeling that they are at the cutting edge.
- Seeking feedback on a continual loop. Was that report good? Easy to understand? Was the presentation good? Did you like the use of graphics? Was that strategy meeting useful? Any suggested improvements? Note comments – then reinvent.
- Asking better questions. Eliciting new insights. Moving forward with new (potentially game-changing) ideas for clients.
- Flexible one-size-fits-NONE approach to client work. Assume nothing. Possibility seeking. Yet a turn-key system for internal things that work / need doing e.g. adminstration.
- Building a porfolio of clients that turn into fans. Where ideas can cross-pollinate. A support network. A tribe. A community.
Think about it…