by Traverse Legal, reviewed by Enrico Schaefer - October 21, 2005 - Alternative Billing, The Billable Hour
Tom Collins at the MorePartnerIncome blog has this post on law firm customer service surveys, encouraging law firms to prepare them and use them.
One of those concerns is client service quality. We know from surveys that when clients consider service, it isn’t the quality of the lawyer’s work they talk about. They talk about poor billing practices, unreturned phone calls and their experience when visiting or calling the firm. ..
An increasing number of firms have a published Client Bill of Rights or an internal Client Service Quality Standard. Preparing either and communicating it to everyone in the firm will make a difference. But for the best immediate impact, have the team prepare it. Depending on the size of your firm, bring together the entire staff or a quality committee. Their mission is to spell out standards for delivering quality service to the firm’s clients and that includes addressing the little things that make a big difference.
The failure to survey clients, I believe, is largely intentional by most law firms who spend a lot of energy keeping clients in the dark about their cases, strategy, budgets and expected results. Most traditional hourly billing firms don’t have any inclination to solicit feedback from their clients because they have no intention of provoking change.
As a founding partner of Traverse Legal, PLC, he has more than thirty years of experience as an attorney for both established companies and emerging start-ups. His extensive experience includes navigating technology law matters and complex litigation throughout the United States.
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. This page was approved by attorney Enrico Schaefer, who has more than 20 years of legal experience as a practicing Business, IP, and Technology Law litigation attorney.
