Formulating a client satisfaction survey

Transcription

1 How-To-Guide Formulating a client satisfaction survey This How-To-Guide is part of the Bellwether 2015 series. Visit to download the full report and other supporting resources to help your firm prepare for the Age of the Client.

2 2 Regulatory requirements You must: provide a proper standard of service to your clients SRA Principles 2011 ensure the service you provide to clients is competent, delivered in a timely manner and takes account of your clients needs and circumstances SRA Code of Conduct 2011, O(1.5) ensure clients are in a position to make informed decisions about the services they need, how their matter will be handled and the options available to them SRA Code of Conduct 2011, O(1.12) You should: agree an appropriate level of service with your client, for example the type and frequency of communications SRA Code of Conduct 2011, IB(1.1) explain your responsibilities and those of the client SRA Code of Conduct 2011, IB(1.2) If you are Lexcel accredited, you must have a procedure to monitor client satisfaction across all areas of the practice. Lexcel England and Wales v6: Standard for legal practices, s 6.6

3 Measuring client satisfaction 3 It is important to monitor client satisfaction regularly as clients needs change. There are a number of ways that you can monitor client satisfaction, including: satisfaction surveys mystery shopping suggestion boxes personal interviews with clients This How-To-Guide focuses on formulating an appropriate and useful client satisfaction survey.

4 Measuring client satisfaction 4 Formulating a client satisfaction survey - general considerations It is important to devise a survey that will: provide you with the information you need to monitor performance, and enable you to identify what action you need to take to adapt your services to better meet your clients needs A poorly designed survey may not provide you with the right information and could affect your ability to properly monitor client care. When designing your survey you should: keep the survey short so as not to discourage clients from responding - you should aim for no more than one double-sided piece of paper consider anonymising the form but make provision for the client to give their name if they wish arrange questions in a meaningful manner, with each leading into the next avoid lengthy and wordy questions make questions clear to avoid any ambiguity include questions that ask for positive as well as negative feedback so that you can determine what is and is not working well consider using scales requiring clients to make a decision on their level of agreement with a particular statement, for instance the Likert 5 point scale (ie very good, good, unsure, poor, very poor) Survey questions requiring the client to make personal statements are often left incomplete and should be kept to a minimum. If you wish to use this type of question you should place them near to the end of the survey. You may wish to note the name of the advisor or department on the survey before it is sent to the client as this will help you to monitor variance of responses across different advisors or departments. What questions should you ask? To formulate the questions in your survey, you should consider what information you are looking to obtain and how that information can be used to improve standards of care. Questions should be based on what you need to know from your clients in order to monitor client care and improve standard levels. Information that you may need to monitor could include the following: location and access, eg to determine whether there are any obstacles that make it difficult for clients to locate your offices or whether you need to improve access to your offices, including for clients with disabilities competence and manner of staff members, eg to monitor the degree to which your staff members (including support and reception staff) are polite and helpful to clients and/or to determine the extent to which clients experience any delays or other disruption in the service they receive communication, eg to determine whether there are any issues with regard to how well the advisor communicated with the client More generally, you may wish to determine whether the service provided met the client s expectations and whether clients are satisfied with the level of service provided. To help you develop new initiatives or potential areas for improvement, you may wish to determine whether there are any needs with which you are not presently able to assist and which may lead to clients seeking assistance from competitors. Finally, it is important to ask whether the client would use the firm again if necessary and perhaps the likelihood of their recommending the firm to others. Make it easy for a client to return the survey, for instance by asking the client to complete the survey while they are at your office or by providing a stamped address envelope. You may wish to test your survey on a small selected group of clients in order to fine tune your questions and identify any questions that are routinely left unanswered.

5 Measuring client satisfaction 5 Who should receive a survey? Ideally a survey should be sent to every client. This will enable you to review clients perceptions of the firm using the largest possible sample and irrespective of the type of matter or outcome. As with all surveys, not every respondent will complete it and so sending it to the widest possible range of clients will only help to improve response rates. However, particularly for larger firms, a sample approach is acceptable provided that a reasonable number of responses are being received. When to send the survey The survey should be sent to the client at the conclusion of their matter. The survey should be sent without delay as the client is less likely to respond to a survey sent weeks after the matter has been concluded. How to send the survey To encourage the client to return the survey, a stamp addressed envelope or a pre-paid envelope should be included along with the survey. Alternatively, if the client prefers to receive correspondence by , the survey may be sent electronically. If you experience a low response rate, you may wish to consider asking the client to complete the survey in the reception area at the final meeting. You should consider anonymising the survey but you may want to make provision for the client to give their name if they wish. Reviewing and monitoring completed surveys Each completed survey received should be reviewed by a manager to check for any adverse comments or issues of immediate concern. All replies should be marked with a return date and the firm may also wish to allocate the survey an identification mark or number which will be helpful when the surveys are later analysed for monitoring purposes. You should carry out regular monitoring reviews of the responses received. Monitoring may take place on a monthly, quarterly, biannual or even annual basis - the frequency will depend on your resources and the number of responses generally received. You may wish to schedule the review period so that it corresponds with any managers or supervisors meetings or so that any feedback can be filtered into staff appraisals. There are a number of ways that you can process the information generated by the survey responses. You may choose to manually review the responses and record a summary of the findings on a review record. The record could include records of the number of clients who expressed a particular level of agreement with particular questions in the survey. This data would then help you to determine the frequency with which each possible response was given and the average response in each area. See templates: Client satisfaction survey - annual review form and [Quarterly] client satisfaction survey results monitoring form. Alternatively you may wish to use a spreadsheet to process the responses so that the calculations and averages can be worked out automatically.

6 6 Lexis PSL Practice Compliance Produced in partnership with DG Legal. This guide is a practice note taken from Lexis PSL Practice Compliance. LexisPSL Practice Compliance is an online service designed to make risk and compliance easier to manage, whatever the size of your firm. It comes with everything you need to get your compliance house in order and keep it that way. It provides you with access to an unbeatable range of practical guidance, templates, flowcharts, checklists and other timesaving tools. From the SRA to DPA, LeO, SOCA or ICO we ve got it covered. For more information on how LexisNexis online solutions can help your firm, please: Call: Marketingoperations@lexisnexis.co.uk Visit:

7 7 About the authors Allison Wooddisse Head of Lexis PSL Practice Compliance LexisNexis Allison Wooddisse is a former partner of Shoosmiths, with extensive experience of legal management and practice compliance. She has recently completed an LLM in Corporate Governance, focusing on regulation of the legal sector and the challenges presented by the Legal Services Act. Laura Spooner Associate LexisNexis Laura joined LexisNexis in February 2011 as a Practice Compliance Associate. She is a Lexcel trained consultant and former Risk and Compliance Manager at Collyer Bristow Solicitors LLP, an international City firm, with extensive experience of legal management and practice compliance. She has been involved in law firm management and compliance for ten years with particular emphasis on financial crime prevention, complaint handling, negligence and professional indemnity insurance as well as wider law firm risk management issues. Prior to that, Laura was a regulatory consultant in the financial services sector and spent three years assisting a leading banking Silk on various publications and some high-profile commercial litigation. Emma Dickin Associate LexisNexis Emma has worked at LexisNexis for a number of years and is an expert in legal training. She is a qualified lawyer who, prior to her career at LexisNexis, worked as a legal assistant for British American Tobacco before joining a specialist property law firm.

8 Law. Tools. Business Support.. About LexisNexis Over the past 200 years, LexisNexis has combined a deep understanding of the legal profession with technology innovation to help practitioners work more productively, advise with confidence and better manage their businesses. For independent legal professionals, small to mid-size law firms and sole practitioners, LexisNexis covers over 25 specialist areas of law, with online products, priced and tailored to suit your business needs. The LexisNexis online suite consists of: Law Case law Legislation Legal developments Commentary Magazines & journals Tools Precedents Practice notes Drafting tools Forms Checklists Business support CPD Practice management Practice compliance Market intelligence Legal blogs LexisNexis online services have been developed with you in mind. Find out more today. Visit: or call: (please quote 20453). About the Independent lawyers and sole practitioners are under siege. With numerous regulatory and business challenges, who has time to practice law? Visit the where you will find expert commentary and a host of supporting resources to help your firm prepare for the Age of the Client. Subscribe today: The Future of Law. Since Reed Elsevier (UK) Limited trading as LexisNexis. Registered office 1-3 Strand London WC2N 5JR Registered in England number VAT Registered No. GB LexisNexis and the Knowledge Burst logo are trademarks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc. LexisNexis 2015 SA The information in this document is current as of September 2015 and is subject to change without notice.