Last week, Jordan Furlong started an interesting discussion thread on the LinkedIn Legal Innovation group. I tried in vain on several occasions to add my comments to the thread, but for some reason, LinkedIn Groups just wasn't working for me and I couldn't get my comments posted, so I gave up and decided to post them here.
The discussion thread centered around Steve Bell of Womble Carlyle's Custom Client Service Solutions Blog post ( http://clientservicesolutions.blogspot.com/2009/07/great-questions.html ). He quotes Mark Maraia's seven questions to ask your client. They are:
- What do you like about how we handled that last deal/lawsuit/project?
- Is there anything you want us to do differently next time?
- How easy is it to do business with our firm?
- If a colleague of yours called asking for a reference, what would you say to him or her about us?
- Who from the team would you like to see more of or less of?
- How well are we doing at keeping up with your business and industry?
- During the past year, what's one of the most impressive things you've seen an outside professional do for you or your company?
Jordan opined that these questions get to the 'heart of value' with regard to legal services. Some group members discussed the challenges of written feedback questions and the merits of using a third party to speak with clients about these issues. Other members of the group offered additional suggestions for questions, including:
- How do we find more clients like you?
- How satisfied are you with the result the firm obtained in this matter?
- How responsive were our lawyers to your schedule and needs for this matter?
- How well did we keep you informed of the status of this matter?
- How would you rate the value of the legal services you received?
- How would you rate your overall satisfaction with our billing procedures?
Still others made the salient point that lawyers should not make the mistake of waiting until the END of an engagement before seeking this kind of feedback from clients. I couldn't agree more.
Lawyers can be so eager to jump into the work when they take on a new client that they skip the crucial step of defining and exploring the client's expectations, both for the outcome of the engagement and for the way legal services will be provided. Lawyers who carefully explore these issues at the beginning of the engagement can help their clients more effectively.
Some members of the group contributed these pre-engagement questions:
This also provides the opportunity to ask clients questions later in the engagement such as:
-
What were your expectations for the outcome of this case at the beginning of this engagement?
- How have we met or exceeded those expectations?
- How have we fallen short with respect to your expectations?
Obtaining client feedback should be an ongoing process - before, during and after the engagement.
Think carefully about the questions you are going to ask of clients and craft those questions so that they elicit substantive responses upon which you can act.
The original list of questions above appears to do a good job at getting to the issues that clients value, but how effective are the questions themselves? Questions like, "How easy is it to do business with our firm?" are broad, and could encompass everything from how pleasant the receptionist is to how quickly the client can get a question answered to whether the firm communicates with the client in the manner the client prefers. While these open-ended questions would seem to allow the client to comment on those areas which the client finds most important, in reality, they may leave many clients unsure exactly what kind of response the question is seeking.
These kinds questions don't encourage examples, and seem to seek a subjective, qualitative response, which may be of little use to the firm. One can easily imagine a client responding "fairly well" or "very well" to a question phrased in this manner. How helpful is this response to the firm? Better questions would encourage more specific, actionable feedback, such as,"What aspect of working with our firm was easiest (or most difficult)?" or "How can we improve our responsiveness?" or even "How can we improve our service offerings?"
Similarly, a question such as, "How well are we doing at keeping up with your business and industry?" might prompt a vague, insubstantial answer. Instead, consider asking questions such as, "What could our firm do to improve our knowledge of your business or industry?" or "In what ways can we improve our knowledge of your business or industry?"
Although the difference in the way these questions are worded is subtle, they can vastly improve the responses received by indicating that you are seeking specific and substantive responses and examples that you can apply in the future, rather than a subjective qualification of performance.
Do you conduct client surveys or seek client feedback on a regular basis? What works for you? Add your comments!Need help creating client surveys or obtaining client feedback? Contact me to see how I can help.
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