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A major, and common, form of listening to clients is a more or less formal program of visits to key clients by senior partners of the firm (or, if the firm is not a partnership, then by office or practice managers of “executive committee members). Frequently these “visits” are conducted not in the client’s offices, but over dinner.

The virtues of this practice include not only quality assurance (“How are our people serving you? Are you getting all you need from them?”), but also the opportunity to converse on the longer term issues that it might be difficult for the engagement team to do. Frequently, the professional firm’s senior partners or managers can, because of their position, arrange meetings “higher up” in the client organization than can the engagement team leader, thus gaining exposure to a broader and deeper view of the client’s challenges, concerns, and needs.

Excerpted from ‘Managing the Professional Service Firm’ by David Maister, page 66