Searches UK discuss recent findings from Shopper Anonymous who investigated a client’s experience when seeking services from 85 law firms in the UK.
Shopper Anonymous recently conducted the largest ever UK Mystery Shopping survey, called ‘The Client Journey Project’. This project involved 85 law firms. The purpose of this activity was to explore a client’s journey when requiring services from law firms.
The Client Journey Project involved a series of mystery shopping methods using walk in office enquiries, website enquiries and telephone enquiries.
The project explored a variety of basic scenarios including property purchase, rental agreements, wills and probate and commercial business structure.
Walk – In Enquiries
Highly trained mystery shoppers were asked to walk into a firm and seek help with a legal issue. They found:
- 65% of clients would contact this firm in the future
- 60% of clients would recommend the services of the firm
- 35% of client received an “added value” experience
The finding’s highlighted that on many occasions law firms could be missing out on potential business due to a lack of customer service and attentiveness.
In 71% of instances, the mystery shopper spoke with a solicitor or conveyancer within the practice yet surprisingly only 7% of queries were followed up.
50% of receptionists provided the name of the contact they would be seeing to clients however, 49% of firms did not use the client’s name during meetings. In only 25% of cases did the solicitor maintain contact with the client to gain future business.
Website Enquiries
As our society continues to become more reliant on digital services and clients increasingly use the web as a first point of contact when seeking new services, it is important that businesses take advantage of this powerful marketing platform.
When exploring queries through law firm’s websites, the mystery shoppers found:
- 59% of clients would contact the firm again
- 59% of clients would recommend the firm
- 25% of clients received an “added value” experience
Although 88% of firms responded to the original query, only 24% actually spoke to the client and just 6% of queries were followed up by firms.
How businesses represent themselves online, whether it be through content or visual aids, can make the difference between a client making contact or not.
All websites investigated included contact details, but not all mentioned information such as where they were located. This can be particularly important in property law, when clients on many occasions prefer to use a firm local to them.
Approximately a third of clients felt that emails were not personalised. Additionally, a fifth of clients noted that emails were poorly written, including spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. It was also noted that some firms used irrelevant or inappropriate visual aids to sell their services online.
Telephone Enquiries
While conducting over four hundred calls during and after opening hours, Shopper Anonymous found:
- 57% of clients would contact this firm again
- 56% of clients would recommend the law firm
- 32% of the time the client received an “added value” experience
Over 50% of clients were happy with the customer service they received, noting the solicitors to be helpful, polite and professional. However the report did highlight areas of improvement for some firms.
For example, just 43% of receptionists asked for or used the client’s name. Only 31% of receptionists told the client who they were speaking to and just under half of firms took contact details from the client. It comes as no surprise that just 6% of telephone queries were then followed up.
Additionally when calling a firm out of office hours mystery shoppers found 5% of firms did not even have an answerphone for clients to leave a message. When leaving a voicemail, 45% of law firms did not call back the client.
Providing useful information such as confirming the company name, the services on offer and the benefits available when using your firm can encourage a client to call back. Over a third of firms did not mention the advantages of their services on their answerphone. All of which provides the client with the opportunity to consider other alternatives.
Overall this report provides useful information for law firms to consider when reflecting on customer service, communication strategies, as well as powerful sales and marketing tools to help generate business and stand out against competitors.
For more information about any of the products and services from Searches UK visit their website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+. Alternatively call them directly on 0800 043 1815 or email them at info@searchesuk.co.uk to speak to one of their dedicated team today.
This article was submitted to be published by Searches UK as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Conveyancer. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Conveyancer.
