Best Practice: Client satisfaction surveys

Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. We have recently lost a key partner, several key institutional clients, and we don't know why. We are considering doing a client satisfaction survey to insure that we are not falling asleep at the wheel and providing the best service possible. We also want to make sure we understand current client needs and whether our services are still adequate. What are your thoughts? A. For institutional clients we would recommend telephone interviews, face-to-face interviews, or a combination of both. Typically, when we work with a client we establish the initial research objectives of the project and then the best way to achieve them. For example, do you just want obtain feedback from your top 10, 25, or 50 institutional/business clients or your entire client base? In the case of a study population of your top 10, 25, or 50 clients we usually recommend a telephone interview technique. We shoot for a 90%+ response/participation rate. We develop the questionnaire with the client and then conduct the interviews and compile a report consisting of both statistical metrics (grades if you will) and client commentary/narrative. Often it is the narrative commentary that provides the most actionable information. Recently, when conducting interviews of an insurance defense law firm's insurance company clients, a client advised us that they had stopped sending new files/cases to the firm because of poor communication and status reporting. Based upon our interviews, the firm was able to resolve the internal issues and repair the relationship with the client. The law firm also contemplated implementing a blended billing rate structure and wanted us to obtain the client's reaction. We also obtain feedback from these clients on what topics they wanted presented in seminars that the law firm put on for their insurance clients - both in group sessions with other insurance company clients and private onsite sessions for individual insurance company clients. Before conducting the interviews we ask the law firm client to contact the client and solicit (sell them on) their participation in the study. We then contact them, make the appointment, and conduct the interview. For individual clients, due to the number of clients, a paper mailed survey is typically used. The response rates will be less (30% tops usually), these will less narrative/commentary, less actionable information, and there will be no ability to probe. In these cases we develop the questionnaire, the law firm mails out the questionnaires for us, the returned questionnaires come to us directly in the provided reply envelope, we compile the data and the report and provide to the firm. If you decide to handle the project in-house - rather than outsourcing - a similar approach would be recommended. Just ensure that you staff and resource the project properly. John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC, is a past chair and member of the ISBA Standing Committee on Law Office Management and Economics. For more information on law office management please direct questions to the ISBA listserver, which John and other committee members review, or view archived copies of The Bottom Line Newsletters. Contact John at jolmstead@olmsteadassoc.com.