Research & Judging
Research manager
Beaton Research + Consulting (beaton), the leading researcher in Voice of Your Clients services to professional services, manages the independent research behind the Awards.
We have analysed over 300,000 responses since we began in 2005, we are leaders in online research of clients of professional services firms, and we apply best practice cyber-security standards.
Research method
The survey research for the Client Choice Awards is done online in ways that ensure each respondent completes only one survey and imposters are blocked.
Firms’ clients and referrers of work complete the surveys as individual respondents. They rate and comment on firms’ brands and performance in delivering services on a range of criteria including quality, value for money, price, and innovation.
In addition, in some surveys respondents nominate and rate individual practitioners who deliver exceptional quality and service.
Respondent support
If respondents encounter technical survey problems or have concerns about privacy, they have access to email and telephone support from beaton throughout the survey period.
Judging firms
1
Clients rate one or more firms on overall client service
2
Each firm’s score is ranked against others’
3
Finalists are the highest scoring firms
4
Winners are firms with the top scores
Judging practitioners
Only practitioners in firms that have entered the Awards are eligible.
1
Clients nominate top-performing practitioners
2
Clients rate these practitioners on quality and service
3
Finalists are the highest scoring practitioners
4
Winners are practitioners with the top scores
Judging startups
More details on the judging process for startups can be found here on the Professional Services Startup category information page.
Questions?
If you have any questions or suggestions about how we judge firms, practitioners or startups, please write to Dr George Beaton at george.beaton@beatonglobal.com.
FAQs
Eligibility
To be eligible to enter you must provide services to clients in Australia and/or New Zealand in at least one of these categories:
- Accounting & Consulting
- Built Environment
- Law & Related Services
- Specialist IP & Related Services
- Professional Services Startups
Category definitions
Accounting and Consulting: Accounting and tax advisory firms and related consulting services, e.g. operations, human resources, risk, information systems.
Built Environment: Architects, consulting engineers, environmental scientists, planners, project managers, quantity surveyors and other consultancies in the engineering and built environment.
Law and Related Services: Law firms, law companies and providers of legal outsourcing and NewLaw services.
Specialist IP and Related Services: Patent and trademark attorneys, related law and commercialisation services.
Professional Services Startups: Providers of professional or quasi-professional services based on tech or business model innovation in any of the classes listed above.
Entry in more than one category
You can only enter in one of the categories in FAQ #1 above.
Geographies covered
You have one of three entry options if your business operates in both countries: Australia only OR New Zealand only OR Australia and New Zealand. If you tick ‘Australia and New Zealand’ on the Entry form, you will be entered as one business. This means you cannot have two entries in the same name.
Client confidentiality
Do clients know their details have been provided to beaton?
Yes, they do. When clients complete or, in some cases commence, the survey they are informed which firm/s provided their details.
What should we say if a client asks why we provided their contact details to beaton?
Advise your client as follows: “The way beaton conducts the surveys for Awards complies with the spirit and letter of privacy laws in Australia and New Zealand. In doing so beaton acts as our agent in using the personal details we provided to beaton to conduct the research. Here are full details of beaton’s Privacy Policy”.
Made a mistake when entering?
If you made a mistake in completing your entry form, email ewa.foroncewicz@beatonglobal.com and explain what needs to be changed. Save the confirmation email you received.
After the survey is complete
A range of reports and services are available for all firms that enter the Client Choice Awards. Details of these and any associated costs are provided in the profession specific information pages here.
Judging the Awards is not connected in any way with whether a firm does or does not subscribe to beaton’s reports.
Client contact details after the surveying process
With the formal consent of a business, beaton may use parts of its database for special-purpose surveys. Some respondents may also choose to opt-in to future beaton surveys.
Media Coverage
All Finalists and Winners feature prominently in advertising in The Financial Review in the lead up to and after the gala dinner.
There’s major coverage in the digital media channels and social media of sponsors, professional associations, Winners, Finalists and beaton.
And there’s also colourful editorial in business and trade media.
Professional Associations
In the early 1990s the Australian Corporate Lawyers Association, now the Association of Corporate Counsel, and Chartered Secretaries Australia, now the Governance Institute of Australia, were the first to support our studies of professional services firms and their clients.
Today many Australian and New Zealand professional associations are integral partners in our research, including of their own members’ satisfaction.
The partnership constituted amongst professional associations, professional services firms, their clients and beaton in our studies is unique. Nowhere else is the depth of involvement and trust so great and enduring. The mutual benefits grow each year.
These are logos of those professional societies that far-sightedly support the Awards:
Clients
Since 2005, more than 180,000 clients have responded to our surveys, providing over 300,000 ratings of 335 professional services firms.
Each year we send respondents a Summary of Trends Report as a small way of saying ‘Thank you’.
This email reflects our strong relationship with clients of professional services firms – the ultimate beneficiaries of the Client Choice Awards:
G’day beaton
I’m glad that I checked with you re the legitimacy of the survey; I will now complete it.
Good luck with the Client Choice Awards. I’m former Chairman of AustCham in Shanghai and we have the 25th annual Australia China Business awards this year.
I fully support these forms of industry recognition.
All the best,
Peter Arkell, Managing Director, Carrington Day