The forthcoming ‘outcome focused regulation’ changes from the SRA will see measurement of client satisfaction become an integral part of regulatory compliance, and not just for those firms seeking Lexcel accreditation.
Regular client surveys are a key tool for evaluating client satisfaction, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and highlighting new sales opportunities. But they are time consuming and take up internal resources and time that could be used more productively.
To put the need for this service in context the proposed regulatory changes will see client satisfaction move sharply up the agenda with the shift to ‘outcome focused regulation’. Mandatory principle 5 of the currently proposed SRA handbook, states that solicitors must ‘provide a proper standard of service to your clients’.
In addition attention is drawn to two extracts from Chapter 1 of the proposed SRA Code of Conduct ‘Helping you and your clients understand each others expectations and responsibilities’ and ‘Ensuring you deliver competent legal services to clients’.
Help is at hand...
...from Legallybetter.com - the independent interactive solicitor directory. Smaller law firms can obtain client feedback in a quick, confidential, and efficient way… and save money at the same time.
Legallybetter’s new Client Feedback Service , operated in association with a well-established market research agency IRN Research, is a money saver for any law firm spending hundreds or even thousands of pounds or more a year on measuring client feedback (e.g. spending on both management and staff time, designing and printing feedback forms, postage, storing and analysing results).
In addition, use of the Legally Better Client Feedback Service will provide evidence in support of compliance with the new regulations rather than law firms having to create and administer their own client satisfaction process.
How one law firm is already saving money and improving client feedback
One of the first law firms to use the service is already saving money and getting a better client response. This is what the Personal Injury Practice law firm says:
“Prior to joining Legallybetter we used to send out a paper survey to clients with a reply paid envelope. This cost a lot in time, money, and stamps! Each letter cost us about £2 to prepare and send so the overall cost to us was over £1000 a year. To make matters worse the response rate was very poor.
Now we use the Legallybetter Client Feedback Service and a quarterly report allows me to monitor individual client’s experiences and to see which areas of our service are not performing. It also ensures that we continue to comply with Lexcel requirements, without the time and expense of posting out satisfaction surveys.
The cost of £30 per quarter is a fraction of the cost of our old procedure, saving us nearly £1000 per year and the client response rate is many times what we achieved using the post. In short, it works like a dream and as we progress toward Lexcel accreditation, there is one area of compliance that I don’t have to worry about.”
Further details about the service, which starts at just £120 a year for high street law firms, can be found at:
http://www.legallybetter.com/documents/LB%20Client%20Survey%20Case%20Study.pdf
The prices above cover pre-set client feedback questions but also offered is a more detailed, customised survey for law firms with the Legallybetter questions integrated into it. An example of a more detailed survey can be found at:
http://www.irn-research.com/surveys/csqlegal.htm
Legallybetter's Client Feedback Survey is operated in association with research agency IRN Research. IRN is a full member of the Market Research Society (MRS) and complies with the Data Protection Act to ensure that all survey results are treated anonymously.
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