Creating Complete Client Satisfaction and Loyalty©
By Merry Neitlich
"Creating complete client satisfaction is not for the faint of heart. It is however for those firms looking to break through to new levels of success."
During the past few years, the number of law firms conducting client satisfaction surveys has increased dramatically. There has been an obvious paradigm shift towards marketing activities geared to meet the needs of clients nad prospective clients. With this heightened awareness, a frustrating and even painful observation has become apparent: firms are still losting business from significant clients they have interviewed. How is this possible?
The answer is suggested in an article from the December 1995 Harvard Business Review titled "Why Satisfied Clients Defect" by Thomas O. Jones and W. Earl Sasser, Jr.
According to conventional wisdom, the link between satisfaction and loyalty in marketswhere customers have choices is a simple, linear relationship. As satisfaction goes up, so does loyalty. However, we discovered that the relationship was neither linear nor simple. To a much greater extent than most managers think, completely satisfied customers are more loyal than merely satisfied customers. In markets where competition is intense, we found a tremendous difference between the loyalty of satisfied and completely satisfied customers are more loyal than merely satisfied customers. In markets where competition is intense, we found a trememdous difference between the loyalty of satisfied and completely satisfied customers. In the automobile industry, even a slight drop from complete satisfaction created an enormous drop in loyalty. This dramatic phenomenon is not limited to markets for manufactured products; it also occurs in services. |
How Does This Translate to Law Firms?
Although many law firms conduct client satisfaction surveys, few follow-up with clients. Contrary to a common belief, surveys should not end at the collection of the results buy are completed only after the information has been analyzed and the clients are given feedback geared to create complete satisfaction.
As Messrs. Jones and Sasser point out in their article, client loyalty occurs when a client is "completely satisfied." For instance, based on a response range of one to five - with five representing "most satisfied" - clients may defect from a firm even after rating it in the three or four range if the firm does little or nothing to determine what it can do to garner the highest rating.
Achieving Complete Loyalty and Satisfaction.
The path to achieving complete satisfaction continues with face-to-face follow-up meetings with every targeted client. Ask them, "What can we do to improve the delivery of our service to create complete satisfaction for you?" The individuals conducting these meetings must be trained in active listening skills focused on drawing out responses. Other service businesses such as accounting or consulting firms have used these strategies successfully for years.
In-person meetings can be a time consuming practice, and law firms must consider a variety of options in order to get them accomplished. If attorneys want to grow their client base or at a minimum just maintain it, they much be willing to communicate more effectively with their clients. It is becoming more common for the Director of Client Relations to conduct a percentage of these interviews either with partners from the firm or on his or her own. Other interviewers may include the managing partner, membhers of the firm's marketing committee, or an outside consultant.
These meetings yield specific client issues and concerns. Many of the necessary changes can be accomplished in a relatively short period of time. Actual examples include:
- Sending sample related matters for the client to examine.
- Formatting client matter invoices to match the client company's payment procedures.
- Setting up a meeting for several of the firm's litigators to meet with in-house counsel who were previously unaware of the firm's litigation services.
- Scheduling a meeting with the management team of a client company to present recent changes in a law.
- Necessity for the firm to subsitute attorneys on a specific matter in order to better address the client's personal or business needs.
It is important to avoid scheduling client meetings without adequately budgeting for implementation time. Clients generally enjoy the process and tell us they learn a lot from this type of interaction. However, nothing seems to incense them more than lack of actual or perceived follow-up by the law firm regarding specific issues and potential action discussed at the meeting.
These interactions allow in-house counsel to better reflect on such items as:
- How they prefer the delivery of legal services.
- What type of matters may be coming up and how to best utilize the firm's services.
- Problems they may be experiencing with other law firms.
- How they might partner with your firm to increase the amount of work given while incorporating alternative fee options.
The Results
Measuring results is a critical part of the program. Once a firm can statistically demonstrate to its partners a percentage of increased business or new matters brought in through this process, partner buy-in occurs with increasing alacrity. There is also a built in intrinsic reward. It has been our experience that every partner who has been on even one face to face interview has left teh meeting feeling enlightened. Every client interviewed has provided very positive feedback.
Statistically, we have found that 100% of the clients interviewed were complimentary about the process. One hundred percent of the clients also looked forward to the specific follow-up tailored for their company. Over 22% of the clients interviewed had thoughts or plans of using other attorneys or firms becasue they had frustrations or previously unidentified problems. New business was received over 65% of the time usually in less than six weeks.
When asked about this program, Jay Jaffe of Jaffe Associates, a Washington DC based marketing and consulting firm said, "Creating complete client satisfaction is not for the fiant of heart. It is however for those firms looking to break through to new levels of success."
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Merry Neitlich is Managing Partner of JM Associates, a law firm consulting firm located in Irvine, California. She can be contacted at merry@extrememarketing.org
