Complete Satisfaction: Can Client Surveys Walk You Through the Extra Mile to Provide It?

Originally Published in Law Practice Management

More and more law firms are conducting client satisfaction surveys. Marketing today focuses on the needs of clients rather than on the firm's shining reputation. But despite heightened awareness of client satisfaction issues, law firms continue to lose business from significant clients. Why?

The answer was suggested in a December 1995 Harvard Business Review article, "Why Satisfied Clients Defect," by Thomas O. Jones and W. Earl Sasser Jr. They pointed out the important distinction between clients who are "completely satisfied" and those who are merely "satisfied."

"In markets wehre competition is intense, we found a tremendous defference between the loyalty of satisfied and completely satisfied customers," they wrote. "In the automobile industry, even aslight drop from complete satisfaction created an enormous drop in loyalty. This dramatic prenomenon is not limited to markets for manufactured products; it also occurs in services."

Complete satisfaction translates into client loyalty. Based on a satisfaction scale of 1 to 5, with 5 representing "completely satisfied," clients may defect from a firm that rates in the 3 or 4 range. The firm must determine what it can do to garner that client's highest rating.

Take the Initiative

Amazingly, few law firms that conduct satisfaction surveys follow up with their clients. Surveys should not end with the gathering of feedback. They are complete only after the information has been analyzed and the firm has taken steps to ensure complete satisfaction.

The path to complete satisfaction continues with face-to-face follow up meetings with every targeted client. Ask, "What can we do to improve our service to create complete satisfaction for you?" Your personnel conducting these meetings must be trained in active listening skills focused on drawing our responses.

In-person meetings can be time-consuming. Yet, if attorneys want to grow (or at least maintain) their client base, they must be willing to communicate more effectively with clients. This may involve client interviews by the firm's director of client relations, managing partner or marketing committee, or by an outside consultant.

These meetings address specific client concerns. Many necessary changes, interviewers discover, can be acomplished quickly. Examples:

• Providing succinct, narrowly focused client newsletters;
• Formatting invoices to match client payment procedures;
• Setting up a meeting between several of the firm's litigators and the client's in-house consel, who may have been 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;
• Substituting attorneys on a matter to address the client's personal or business needs better.

On the other side of the table, these interactions help your clien's in-house counsel reflect better on such matters as:

• How they prefer the delivery of legal services;
• What type of matters may be coming up and how to best utilize your 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, while incorporating alternative fee options.

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 a lack of actual or perceived follow-up by the law firm. It is important to budget time for implementing the changes.

Results

Measuring results is a critical part of the program. Partners will buy into the survey and follow-up process if they see that it yields a percentage of increased business or new matters.

There is also an intrinsic reward. In our experence, every partner who has attentded even one face-to-face interview has left feeling enlightened.

Statistically, we have found that 100 percent of the clients interviewed were complimentary about the process. One hundred percent of the clients also looked forward to specific follow-up tailored to their company. More than 22 percent of the clients interviewed had considered using other attorneys or firms because of frustrations or previously unidentified problems. New business resulted more than 65 percent of the time - usually in less than six weeks.

Several methods commonly are used to obtain specific feedback from clients. Face-to-face meetings, preferably at the client's office, produce the most in-depth feedback. Written or telephone surveys provide important information about client prefrences in the way legal services are provided.

Case Study: Survey, Listen & Grow

The fictitious law firm of Survey, Listen & Grow used the "Client Satisfaction Survey" published in 1995 by the California State Bar. It received a 62-percent response rate. By any standard that was a strong result.

The survey invited participants to respond in 20 Categories by ranking answers in order from 1 (rarely satisfied) to 5 (completely satisfied). Space for comments was provided after each question. Questions touched on three vital topics: communications issues, understanding clients' business needs, and billing and alternative fee arrangements.

Because clear, two-way communication between a law firm and its clients is a paramaount issue, questions concerning communication included:

• How satisfied were you with the turnaround on the work we performed for you?
• How satisfied were you with how we listened to your concerns?

It is vital that a law firm understand the business of each of its clients. Questions in this area included:

• How satisfied were you that we understood your business and/or personal goals?
• How satisfied were you with the ability of this office to meet your legal needs?

Everybody wants value for dollars spent. Questions about billing included:

• How satisfied were you that we were cost-conscious in handling your work?
• How satisfied were you with the amount of information provided on our billing statement?

Finally, the survey asked a number of general questions, including:

• Please tell us what we should keep doing for you.
• Please tell us what we should stop doing.

The firm sent surveys to 125 Clients and received responses from 79, after a second mailing (two weeks after the first). Thank-you notes went out within a week of receiving each reply. The firm prepared a spreadsheet with statistical analysis.

Survey, Listen & Grow learned a lot. For example, 36 percent of its clients wanted to explore alternative fee options. Fifty-four percent wanted increased communication with their attorneys, and 92 percent were unaware of the various practice areas the firm offered.

The firm followed up with all respondents in a general latter summarizing changes taking place as a result of the survey. Changes included direct electronic hook-up with six clients, systematizing real estate and litigation documents, adding another dedicatd fax line, sending our practice group brochures, and forming a committee and hiring a consultant to explore alternative fee arrangements and partnering.

Missing: The Priceless Ingredient

Sounds great. A review 18 months later, however, brought a shock. To the firm's chagrin, 13 of the 79 clients who had responded to the survey had stopped engaging the firm. The lost business comprised 22 percent of the firm's receivables.

The missing component was face-to-face follow-up with clients. remember: Client satisfaction is determined only by the client. This is where a law firm gets and keeps it's business.

Many clients give scores of 3 or 4 out of 5 in some areas. Savvy law firms probe these issues with the clients in personal meetings to find out what it would take to provide complete satisfaction. "What should we deep doing for you?" they ask again. "What should we stop doing?" The best firms are prepared to do what it takes to deliver a 5 every time and keep its clients loyal.

Face-to-face follow-up interviews are the next generation in client surveys. These personal interviews are teh next generation in client surveys. These personal interviews are a critical part of the survey process for maximizing client satisfaction. Preferably, the meetings are conducted at teh client's place of business. This gives the firm's representative an opportunity to tour the facility. It also demonstrates the firm's commitment to the client. The representative always arrives prepared, of course, having researched the client company ahead of time.

Respond Quickly

Research conducted by JM Associates indicates 60 percent of a firm's existing clients give new business either that day or within 60 days, if the firm holds a face-to-face meeting with the client. Even lost or minimal clients who were not often satisfied were occasionally willing to reestablish a working relationshiop with the firm if they felt 1) listened to and 2) convinced a specific recovery plan to correct problems was in motion.

Survey, Listen & Grow did not follow up on its mailed surveys with personal meetings. Partners and staff were not trained in conducting follow-up interviews. Nor were they trained in active listening or client communication. Gradually, the business of neglected clients ebbed away to better-trained, more attentive firms.

In your interviews, focus on the client's business. Sample questions:

1. What new products or services are you developing?

2. What is your organizational structure?

3. Do you anticipate significant corporate changes in the next 12 months?

4. What types of legal services do you anticipate needing in the next 12 months?

5. Is there anything specific we can do to help you achieve your business goals?

6. I noticed we received a score of 4 on our question about "communicating with your attorney." How can we improve communication to your complete satisfaction? {Encourage elaborate responses.}

Repeat question 6 until all questions requiring improvement are addressed.

Creating complete client satisfaction is not for the faint of heart. It is for firms looking to break through to new levels of success.

Surveys provide the benchmark for gauging legal service and client loyalty. But the richest future will belong to those professionals who believe in the theory of survival of the most responsive.

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Merry Neitlich is a principal with JM Associates, a law firm consultancy based in Irvine, California. She is a member of the national board of the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) as well as a board member of the Los Angeles LMA chapter. She can be reached at (714) 260-9200; merry@extrememarketing.org