Post-Matter Client Service Survey

The following is adapted from practicePRO’s Managing a Better Professional Services Firm, and it and the other Managing booklets are available here.

A post-matter client survey is one of the best ways to collect information about what clients thought about the services you provided to them. Make sure your survey is structured to help you identify specific areas for improvement. Ideally, it should include some open-ended questions.

For major or top-billing clients, consider sending a managing partner or other senior person to meet with clients on an annual basis to review and assess how the relationship is going, how matters are being handled, and what changes or improvements should be made.

Recognizing that the world has gone electronic, some firms have an online survey form on their website. Other firms use online tools such as Zoomerang (www.zoomerang.com) or SurveyMonkey (www.surveymonkey.com) which allow you to do professional-looking online surveys easily and quickly at little or no cost.

practicePRO has a sample post-matter client survey. An electronic copy of this survey that you can adapt for your firm is available at www.practicepro.ca/servicesbooklet.

The questions on the survey include:

• How were you referred to our firm?
• Why did you select our firm?
• Would you recommend our services to your family, friends or colleagues? If you would not recommend our firm to another person, please state your reasons, especially if not detailed elsewhere in these questions.
• What could we have done to be more responsive to your legal needs?
• Do you have any suggestions on how we could improve our written and verbal communications (telephone calls, correspondence, personal meetings) with clients?
• If there was one thing you could change about the legal process you were involved in, whether in our office or the legal system, what would it be?
• What suggestions do you have for improving the way we charge for services and our billing process?
• What suggestions do you have for improving the way our office staff assisted you?
• What additional services could we offer to make your legal representation more complete?