Client Development

Why Law Firm Client Feedback Programs Do Not Produce Action

Collecting feedback is easy. Using it to change something is hard. Here is why most law firm client feedback programs stall at the collection stage and what to do about it.

10 min read

Many law firms run client feedback programs. Very few of those programs produce anything a client would recognize as a change in how they are being served.

The process is usually the same. A survey goes out, or interviews are conducted. The responses are aggregated. The marketing department prepares a summary. The summary is presented to leadership. Leadership notes the themes. The next piece of work begins. Nothing changes until the next survey cycle, which produces nearly the same results.

Why the data does not produce action

Client feedback aggregated into themes becomes nobody's problem. If a summary says "clients want more proactive communication," every attorney reading that summary knows it applies to someone. Nobody knows it applies to them. Nobody's billing rate goes up or down based on their clients' responses.

Action requires routing. Specific feedback about how a specific client experienced a specific attorney needs to reach that attorney, with a specific expectation about what changes. Aggregated themes distributed to the partnership as a whole produce reflection, not action.

Why interviews outperform surveys

A client completing a survey while also managing their own schedule, their legal department, and a pending renewal negotiation with the firm gives you their available attention, which is usually about twelve minutes. What they write is constrained by how much time they have and how much they want to write.

A thirty-minute interview conducted by someone other than the relationship attorney produces a different kind of information. The client can say things in conversation they would not commit to in writing. The interviewer can follow up on vague answers. The resulting notes contain the specific language the client used, which is more useful for attorney coaching than a numerical rating.

This requires that someone other than the relationship attorney conduct the interview. Clients will not give candid criticism about the attorney they are paying while that attorney is listening. The marketing director, a senior administrator, or an outside consultant can get to the real feedback. The relationship attorney then gets a summary, not the raw notes, with specific follow-up actions attached.

The follow-up that makes the program real

The single most underused practice in law firm client feedback programs is closing the loop. After collecting feedback and implementing changes, the relationship attorney contacts the client to say what changed as a result of what they shared.

This is a significant client retention and loyalty driver. Most clients do not expect their feedback to change anything. When a firm demonstrates that it listened and acted, it differentiates itself from every other firm that collected the same information and did nothing with it. That differentiation is worth more than most marketing campaigns.

The close-the-loop conversation also generates the most candid forward-looking information the firm will get. A client who sees that their feedback produced a response will tell you what else they need.

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