The client–consultant relationship in the context of customer insight process : a local study

Abstract

This study determines how top management executives differentiate across business consultants across a set of perceived value dimensions. Various earlier studies about customer insight and business to business services shed light on how these consultancy aspects are perceived and managed. However, most studies examining the relationship between the client and the consultant focus only on an organisational level rather than on the individual level, offering limited understanding on what are the main factors that influence a client to choose a particular business consultant. A repertory grid technique was employed for this study and this stems from Kelly’s personal construct theory. A purposive sample of ten executive managers participated in this study, subjected to a repertory grid interview. Each participant was selected on the basis of extensive experience in the use of customer insight and dealing with at least five external consultants. A manual process of data categorization ensued where all elicited constructs emerging from the repertory grid interviews were categorized into twenty-seven unique and distinct categories. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the 27 categories led to the identification of 11 key dimensions of perceived value on which managers distinguish between consultants as sources of insight. The most valued factors that top management executives see in business consultants is termed as security, meaning the reliability and punctuality of the business consultant. Reliability is followed by factors such as ingenuity and potential eliciting important values such as the knowledge and connections of the consultant. These findings offer an alternative explanation to how top management executives perceive value as offered by business consultants. Generally, earlier literature focused on analysing the relationship and use of customer insight on an organisation level rather than on an individual level. The findings emerging from this study have various implications on business consultants. This study reveals that business consultants have abundant prospects for refining their value offering towards top management executives. From an academic perspective, this study offers a starting point for future research as it uncovers a particular dimension of how business consultants are perceived on an individual level rather than on an organisational level.