HLB has warned that accounting and advisory firms are losing revenue because many do not systematically listen to, understand, and act on client needs.
The global network of independent advisory and accounting firms has partnered with client-experience consultancy McorpCX on a new report, Stopping Revenue Leakage, which examines how firms collect feedback, use client insight, and connect experience to retention, pricing, expansion, and differentiation.
The study combines McorpCX’s XOS Pulse maturity data with interviews from leaders across HLB’s network. XOS Pulse ranks companies on a 0 to 100 scale, with higher scores indicating that client centricity is more fully embedded across the organisation.
The report found that professional services firms recorded an average customer experience maturity score of 57.9, below the global cross-industry average of 62.5. In client understanding specifically, professional services companies scored 50.6, pointing to weaker capability in experience mapping, client data unification, insight generation, segmentation, and client listening.
HLB said most professional services firms are strongly focused on delivering high-quality technical service, but fewer have prioritised disciplined client listening as a way to prevent revenue leakage.
Revenue leakage occurs when advisory work goes elsewhere, fees become harder to justify, opportunities remain hidden inside existing relationships, or a firm becomes interchangeable despite strong technical delivery. The report argues that the root cause is often weak insight: firms do not hear concerns early, do not see emerging needs, or fail to identify where additional work is available.
Lesley Hornung, Chief Marketing Officer at HLB, said: “Most firms have some way of tracking client satisfaction, but far fewer have a disciplined systems in place to understand whether the experience is actually contributing to retention, referrals, pricing confidence and additional work.
“At HLB, we believe the future of professional services belongs to firms that combine technical excellence with a deep understanding of their clients’ evolving needs. This report challenges leaders to rethink client listening and consider it not just as a feedback programme, but as a strategic growth capability that helps uncover hidden opportunities, prevent revenue leakage and create stronger, more valuable client relationships.”
Micheal Hinshaw, President of McorpCX, said: “Client listening is not about collecting better satisfaction scores. It is about understanding what clients value, where revenue is at risk, and where the next opportunity may be hiding. Firms that turn those insights into action will be better positioned to retain clients, defend fees, grow advisory work and stand apart in an increasingly competitive market.”
The findings land at a moment when accounting and advisory firms are under pressure from automation, artificial intelligence, fee scrutiny, skills shortages, and rising client expectations. Compliance work is becoming more software-enabled, while clients increasingly expect advisers to offer broader commercial insight, faster response times, and more tailored guidance.
That shift changes the economics of client relationships. Technical accuracy remains essential, but it is no longer enough to secure loyalty or expansion. If routine work becomes automated or commoditised, the value of the advisory relationship depends more heavily on understanding the client’s business, anticipating decisions, and connecting insight to practical action.
Client listening also affects pricing confidence. Advisory and accounting firms often struggle to defend fee increases where clients do not see the value being delivered. Better insight can help firms understand which services clients value, where communication is weak, and where additional support would justify a deeper relationship.
Satisfaction and loyalty are not the same thing. A client may be content with annual accounts, audit, tax compliance, or payroll work while still taking restructuring, systems, ESG, corporate finance, or strategic advisory mandates elsewhere. Without structured listening, the firm may not discover that work was available until after it has been awarded to a competitor.
Data fragmentation compounds the problem. Client knowledge is often held informally by partners, managers, or relationship leads rather than captured across a firm. When people leave, retire, or move accounts, important intelligence can disappear. That creates continuity risk and weakens cross-service collaboration.
The report’s emphasis on client understanding also points to a management challenge inside professional services. Firms need systems for collecting feedback, but they also need incentives and processes that turn feedback into action. A survey score does little commercially if it does not influence service design, pricing conversations, sector focus, training, or partner behaviour.
AI may make the gap more visible. As more compliance processes become automated, clients may compare firms less on basic delivery and more on interpretation, accessibility, responsiveness, and business understanding. Firms that cannot demonstrate differentiated insight may find themselves competing on price, even where their technical standards are high.
The strongest firms are likely to treat client listening as a revenue discipline rather than a marketing exercise. That means mapping key relationships, identifying growth opportunities inside existing accounts, reviewing where advisory work is leaking, and using client insight to shape propositions before competitors do.
Professional services firms do not need to choose between technical excellence and client understanding. The commercial risk lies in assuming that one can substitute for the other.
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