Mystery shopping: Ask, listen, act

This year’s YouGov tracker survey for the Legal Services Consumer Panel showed that 42 per cent of dissatisfied clients did not complain about the legal services provided, and considering 70 per cent of customers reduce their commitment after a negative experience (see McKinsey & Comp?any’s ‘The “moment of truth” in customer service’ report), it’s essential to create opportunities for customer feedback if we want to continually improve our service. 

The customer service model we use is ‘ask, listen, act’, and ?we audit our customer care excellence mark within LawNet’s membership through regular mystery shopping visits – walk-in, telephone, web, and out-of-hours enquiries – combined with bespoke online customer surveys, where overall satisfaction levels and fee earner performance are measured and benchmarked against fellow LawNet members and other firms taking part nationally. 

Collecting feedback in this way requires a willingness to see the truth and uncovers valuable opportunities to improve the customer experience.

Our online surveying has shown that clients choose our firms because they have used them before (29 per cent) or through recommendation ?(21 per cent), reinforcing the importance of providing a high-quality experience. ?And while generally LawNet firms are recording exceptionally strong results, any areas that are flagged for attention give our members an opportunity to respond and adapt. 

Customer surveying enables you to ask key questions to probe deeper into the client experience. It gives you comparative data and valuable insights that can drive business improvements. 

But it’s not enough to simply ask, you need to listen, too.

Tune in to the many conversations taking place with clients across your organisation every day. Front-line team members can give you a different insight into the voice of your customer. And there are many other channels that can be mined – from customer emails through to social media – to provide an understanding of the customer experience that may not easily surface through traditional quantitative research.

And that brings us to the ‘act’ element. For one member firm, survey responses highlighted a need to keep customers better informed of the progress of matters, and any resulting impact on cost. By encouraging each team to take ownership of the way they provide client feedback in these areas, the firm has seen much-improved scores. 

It’s no good measuring for measurement’s sake. The exercise is only valuable if it is used to drive improvements. So make the most of every piece of feedback you receive and use it to improve your customer experience.

Helen Hamilton-Shaw is member engagement and strategy director at LawNet @LawNetUK www.lawnet.co.uk