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by MBA and MBA
One of the best ways to get answers to questions that you might have
about your clients, your services or any number of other issues, is to survey the people
who can best answer your queries. Historically,
many businesses have always used surveys to gauge customers’ opinions. We’ve all received the questionnaires or
telephone calls from the auto dealerships to find out how we like our new cars or filled
out the postcards inserted in packages that solicit our views on newly purchased products.
Attorneys use surveys in a variety of ways, such as querying:
clients about the level of services provided by the attorney, executives on the visibility
of the law firm, referral sources on qualities that they value when referring business,
employees about the firm’s benefits package, etc.
However, many attorneys, in general, are reluctant to conduct surveys,
especially with their clients; they think that the results may reflect poorly on their
work. Yet surveys are one best ways to obtain
valuable information and can indicate a viable course of action when the attorney is
stymied about the direction in which to move.
Moreover, surveys are an excellent public relations tool. Clients are impressed when they find out that the
attorney is interested in their opinions, especially since so few attorneys bother to
survey clients. Surveys also provide a
benchmark and, when used on an on-going basis, can indicate the success or failure of a
specific program.
For example, a law firm wanted to increase its visibility
through a public relations campaign. When the
attorneys were interviewed, they thought that the firm had little or no visibility in the
business community. A visibility survey was
conducted among five industry groups. The top
executives in the largest 20 to 50 companies were asked if they were familiar with 10
local law firms. The results were revealing. In one industry group, every company knew the law
firm (100 percent visibility), yet in another industry group, the firm was virtually
unknown with only 10 percent visibility. The
mandate was clear – conduct a public relations campaign targeted toward the industry
where the visibility was low. Then in one or
two years conduct the same survey to gauge the results of the publicity.
If you mount a public relations campaign which publications do
you target? At another law firm, the
attorneys thought that certain industry publications were well read within the industry;
however, they decided to query a couple of hundred industry executives. Surprisingly, different publications surfaced as
the ones that were the top read. So the law
firm targeted those publications as part of their publicity campaign.
One of the most common types of surveys conducted by law firms
is to ascertain the clients’ view of the level of service provided by the firm. Twenty to 30 clients including the largest clients
should be randomly selected as well as representative clients with various matters across
different industries. About
10 to 15 former clients should be surveyed as well as the same number of referral sources. Former clients, oftentimes, shed light on problem
areas that may not have been uncovered in the past.
Attorneys, other personnel at the law or a third party can conduct
surveys, which can be completed by telephone, mail or in person. Third party interviews usually obtain more candid
feedback from the client. And a good
interviewer can gather more information from telephone interviews than from a written
survey. Face-to-face- interviews are
time-consuming and, oftentimes, the incremental value is not worth the cost.
During one set of surveys conducted for a law firm, we
discovered clients noted that they were not giving additional work to an attorney because
he always talked about how busy he was. The
attorney thought that he was impressing his clients by saying that he was busy, not
realizing that he was driving potential work away. The
survey results motivated him to change the clients’ perspective on his availability
to take on additional work.
An overlooked survey group is employees. Yet an annual employee survey will uncover areas
for improvement. In a business climate where
employees are difficult to attract and retain, knowing what motivates employees can be
critical in winning the employment game. One
firm that began employee surveys several years ago, discovered that employees were
underwhelmed by the benefits package. The
firm set about upgrading the package and the following year employees ranked the firm in
the benefits arena high, which resulted in an increase in morale and retention.
Over the years, we’ve conducted many surveys, most of
which have held some surprises for the firm. Many
of these surprises have been positive, but, on occasion, when the news is negative, firms
are able to quickly change the tide. Surveys
are one of the best ways to find out about the perceptions of your clients, referral
sources, employees and others. Too often,
attorneys are ready to make decisions without appropriate research. A simple survey can provide concrete answers, can
offer a course of action that is well supported and can benchmark the progress in reaching
your goals.
Make your decision based on the survey results. |