O Client, Why Art Thou?

Thriving law firms achieve success by meeting or exceeding their clients' service-quality expectations. These expectations are shaped by clients' past experiences, word-of-mouth, and advertising, and create a baseline against which performance is measured when services are delivered. When a firm's performance exceeds the expected level of service, clients remain loyal. Conversely, when performance fails to meet expectations, clients go shopping. It thus behooves law firms to continually explore and experiment with strategies for exceeding their clients' highest hopes.

Service marketing experts have developed models and checklists for ensuring delivery of high quality service. They have also identified the shortfalls that result in poor service quality.

Closing the Gap

One of the most common shortfalls is the “gap” between client expectations and management perceptions (the Perception Gap). That is, attorneys do not always correctly perceive what qualities clients value most highly when a service is delivered. Some dimensions of the service experience where a perception gap might exist are:

• Communications (“How quickly do I want my attorney to return my calls?” “How do I prefer my attorney to contact me concerning day-to-day matters ' by fax, phone, e-mail?” “Does my attorney avoid using technical jargon”);
• Access (“How quickly can I locate my attorney?” “Have I been provided with multiple contact information for my lawyer?”);
• Credibility (“Do my bills provide ade-quate detail of the work performed for the fees billed?” “Does my attorney provide sound advice even when it goes against his economic self-interest?”);
• Courtesies (“Does my law firm of-fer helpful seminars or e-mail or print newsletters to keep me apprised of potential issues?”); and
• Tangibles (“Are the firm's offices and marketing materials professional in appearance”).

To close the Perception Gap along the above and other dimensions, top law firms implement systems to measure client expectations, and monitor firm performance against those expectations. One important tool for accomplishing this is Importance-Performance Analysis. With this type of analysis, the marketer employs various feedback tools such as interviews and surveys that ask clients to rate both the “Importance” of various service criteria (eg, “returns calls promptly,” “supports bills with appropriate detail,” “offers seminars on cutting edge legal topics”) and the firm's “Performance” against those criteria.

“Importance” can be measured on a four-point scale of “extremely important,” “important,” “slightly important,” and “not important.”

“Performance” can be rated on a four-point scale of “excellent,” “good,” “fair,” and “poor.”

Taking an example from the professional service arena. If many clients rate the service criterion of “offers seminars on cutting edge legal topics” as “extremely important”, that criterion might earn an Importance score of 3.83. If these same clients then rate the firm's performance on this criterion as only “fair” or “poor,” the Performance score might only be 2.50. The large gap between 3.83 and 2.50 ' 1.83 ' means the firm can start earning some major goodwill ' and strengthening client loyalty ' by offering seminars.

In other cases, the gap might be a lot smaller (in which case, “keep up the good work”), and even be negative (in which case, the firm is engaging in overkill and can probably save money by cutting back on a particular service criterion because clients don't value it very much).

Rating Performance

The above analysis raises an obvious question: How does one go about conducting an Importance-Performance Analysis? “Live” interviews will usually yield the most accurate and comprehensive results, since a skillful interviewer can pick up on subtle points and probe more deeply into interesting responses. However, interviews can be very expensive and time-consuming, and interviewees may articulate their responses to match what they think the interviewer wants to hear.

Another face-to-face option that is less formal in nature is the tradeshow. Many law firms don't view tradeshow participation as particular appropriate for attorneys, but the fact is client tradeshows do exist. These shows are an ideal opportunity to “schmooze” with existing and prospective clients and learn ' in a setting that is much less formal than an interview ' what they look for in a professional, and what turns them off. A major downside, though, is that tradeshows are infrequent.

Paper surveys mailed to respondents require effort to answer and return, and thus often end up sitting in a “To Do” pile that never gets done.

In searching for an Importance-Performance Analysis tool that is cost-effective yet yields a high response rate, the e-mail survey is an ideal option. E-mail surveys can be distributed very inexpensively and at any time of the year, and can be personalized to each recipient to encourage higher response rates. Using HTML, an e-mail survey can also be designed to look attractive ' even enticing. Finally, e-mail surveys are very convenient to answer since a respondent need only click some buttons and hit “Submit” ' no trip to the mailbox required.

In sum, especially given today's tougher operating and more competitive environment, law firms need to do everything they can to keep existing clients loyal and attract new business. Using e-mail to measure what qualities of the service experience clients value most highly, and determine whether your firm is meeting those expectations, is an important step in that direction.

Thriving law firms achieve success by meeting or exceeding their clients' service-quality expectations. These expectations are shaped by clients' past experiences, word-of-mouth, and advertising, and create a baseline against which performance is measured when services are delivered. When a firm's performance exceeds the expected level of service, clients remain loyal. Conversely, when performance fails to meet expectations, clients go shopping. It thus behooves law firms to continually explore and experiment with strategies for exceeding their clients' highest hopes.

Service marketing experts have developed models and checklists for ensuring delivery of high quality service. They have also identified the shortfalls that result in poor service quality.

Closing the Gap

One of the most common shortfalls is the “gap” between client expectations and management perceptions (the Perception Gap). That is, attorneys do not always correctly perceive what qualities clients value most highly when a service is delivered. Some dimensions of the service experience where a perception gap might exist are:

• Communications (“How quickly do I want my attorney to return my calls?” “How do I prefer my attorney to contact me concerning day-to-day matters ' by fax, phone, e-mail?” “Does my attorney avoid using technical jargon”);
• Access (“How quickly can I locate my attorney?” “Have I been provided with multiple contact information for my lawyer?”);
• Credibility (“Do my bills provide ade-quate detail of the work performed for the fees billed?” “Does my attorney provide sound advice even when it goes against his economic self-interest?”);
• Courtesies (“Does my law firm of-fer helpful seminars or e-mail or print newsletters to keep me apprised of potential issues?”); and
• Tangibles (“Are the firm's offices and marketing materials professional in appearance”).

To close the Perception Gap along the above and other dimensions, top law firms implement systems to measure client expectations, and monitor firm performance against those expectations. One important tool for accomplishing this is Importance-Performance Analysis. With this type of analysis, the marketer employs various feedback tools such as interviews and surveys that ask clients to rate both the “Importance” of various service criteria (eg, “returns calls promptly,” “supports bills with appropriate detail,” “offers seminars on cutting edge legal topics”) and the firm's “Performance” against those criteria.

“Importance” can be measured on a four-point scale of “extremely important,” “important,” “slightly important,” and “not important.”

“Performance” can be rated on a four-point scale of “excellent,” “good,” “fair,” and “poor.”

Taking an example from the professional service arena. If many clients rate the service criterion of “offers seminars on cutting edge legal topics” as “extremely important”, that criterion might earn an Importance score of 3.83. If these same clients then rate the firm's performance on this criterion as only “fair” or “poor,” the Performance score might only be 2.50. The large gap between 3.83 and 2.50 ' 1.83 ' means the firm can start earning some major goodwill ' and strengthening client loyalty ' by offering seminars.

In other cases, the gap might be a lot smaller (in which case, “keep up the good work”), and even be negative (in which case, the firm is engaging in overkill and can probably save money by cutting back on a particular service criterion because clients don't value it very much).

Rating Performance

The above analysis raises an obvious question: How does one go about conducting an Importance-Performance Analysis? “Live” interviews will usually yield the most accurate and comprehensive results, since a skillful interviewer can pick up on subtle points and probe more deeply into interesting responses. However, interviews can be very expensive and time-consuming, and interviewees may articulate their responses to match what they think the interviewer wants to hear.

Another face-to-face option that is less formal in nature is the tradeshow. Many law firms don't view tradeshow participation as particular appropriate for attorneys, but the fact is client tradeshows do exist. These shows are an ideal opportunity to “schmooze” with existing and prospective clients and learn ' in a setting that is much less formal than an interview ' what they look for in a professional, and what turns them off. A major downside, though, is that tradeshows are infrequent.

Paper surveys mailed to respondents require effort to answer and return, and thus often end up sitting in a “To Do” pile that never gets done.

In searching for an Importance-Performance Analysis tool that is cost-effective yet yields a high response rate, the e-mail survey is an ideal option. E-mail surveys can be distributed very inexpensively and at any time of the year, and can be personalized to each recipient to encourage higher response rates. Using HTML, an e-mail survey can also be designed to look attractive ' even enticing. Finally, e-mail surveys are very convenient to answer since a respondent need only click some buttons and hit “Submit” ' no trip to the mailbox required.

In sum, especially given today's tougher operating and more competitive environment, law firms need to do everything they can to keep existing clients loyal and attract new business. Using e-mail to measure what qualities of the service experience clients value most highly, and determine whether your firm is meeting those expectations, is an important step in that direction.