Independent perception survey summary

Campbell Tickell scores highly with stakeholders 

In late 2021, CT commissioned a second external perception survey to test what clients and other external influencers really think of our business.  Although CT often conducts stakeholder surveys for our clients, as with our first survey in 2018, we appointed Creative Bridge to bring independent challenge to the process, and senior consultant, Jacquie Anglin, carried out interviews with 39 people.

Participants were drawn from diverse sectors and organisations across England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, including: care and support, charities, commercial housing and property companies, government, health, law firms, local authorities, registered housing providers, regulators and sport, including umbrella bodies.

Below, are the main perceived strengths, areas for improvement and response as a business to the findings.

Main perceived strengths

The most positive perceptions were about (in order of number of mentions) included:

• CT’s extensive knowledge and highly respected expertise, across the housing and local government sectors, but also in governance and regulatory requirements more broadly across a range of sectors. This was linked to people also seeing the consultancy as a very safe pair of hands;
• The quality of relationships and the personal and professional characteristics of CT people, with clients highly valuing the calm counsel and measured insights offered;
• CT’s willingness to probe and challenge, being honest and constructively critical to help clients find solutions;
• The quality of approaches in terms of how CT people deliver services;
• CT having a wider voice and profile to share good practice and different thinking.

Areas for improvement

While no major weaknesses were found, there were a few areas identified in which we could do better. These included the perceived need to refresh and broaden the offer to match the many challenges facing each sector, as well as ensuring a higher profile for more of our team members. Additionally,  consistent high quality and insight in all areas of work, as well as enhancing direct communications with clients.

Our response

The findings shed very helpful light on areas where CT can continue to improve, and resultantly the Partners have set out several commitments:

• They will ensure all our communications, internally and externally, are fully accessible, reflect best practice, and add value to our clients by keeping abreast of the latest issues and trends. Indeed, effectively publicising our full range of services, skills, and giving higher prominence to our track record of inclusivity, diversity and equality across our service delivery, is also key.
• With regard to in-house skills and capacity, the Partners will further strengthen our associate consultants and in-house team, and continue to promote on-going professional development.
• Lastly, the business will seek to grow our networks further across all the sectors and areas in which we operate.

Further surveys will be conducted to ensure the views of partners and others are regularly heard.

For further information

Please contact Greg Campbell, Partner, at greg.campbell@campbelltickell.com or call +44 (0)20 8830 6777  

• Read Greg Campbell’s reflections on carrying out a post-covid stakeholder survey
• View the summary findings from our first perceptions survey in 2018