Client enquiries – is there a fault along the line?
19th October 2016
In this article, Sue Bramall explains why mystery shopping for law firms can shed light on how well staff and fee-earners respond to enquiries, address weaknesses and increase the percentage of enquiries converted into instructions.
Most lawyers would say their firm is built on quality of service and client following. But with law firm expansion comes the inevitable growing pains and providing a consistently great service can be difficult in a growing law firm. There may now be a number of stages before a potential client gets to speak with an experienced solicitor.
Almost every lawyer that I meet is certain that their client following has been built on the quality of service that they provide personally. But as a practice grows, it becomes necessary to build a team around you, delegating tasks appropriately and implementing systems that keep your firm on top of its game.
With expansion, can come the inevitable growing pains. Recruits from other law firms may not embrace your approach or follow procedures exactly as you would. New teams and offices that join via a law firm merger may be set in their old ways. Client commitments may mean that some staff miss important training sessions.
In our experience, few firms have examined their enquiry handling procedures, through every step in the client experience, to ensure that they achieve the best prospect of obtaining an instruction.
If your business has grown, there may now be a number of stages before a potential client gets to speak with an experienced solicitor.
Mystery shopping legal services provides a detailed evaluation of the client experience at a number of levels including:
- fact-finding via your website;
- telephone or online enquiry;
- reception at reception;
- enquiry handling by the lawyers;
- confirmation of proposals and costs;
- follow up;
- handling rejection; and
- overall perceptions.
The detailed results of a mystery shopping campaign will shed light on how well staff and fee-earners respond to enquiries – and how effective they are at converting them into new instructions.
Any weaknesses identified in your procedures can be ironed out and training and coaching can be implemented where required. Addressing such issues will measurably increase the percentage of enquires converted into instructions.
For a confidential discussion
If you would be interested in finding out more about how mystery shopping your legal services could help to improve the return on your marketing investment, then please email us at info@bernersmarketing.com.
Please click here to request a copy of our guide to mystery shopping for legal services.
Back to Blog