CXINLAW’s 2018 Client Experience (CX) Benchmark report, First Impressions Convert, explored how effectively firms are responding to new enquiries. The report highlights that only 1 in 10 prospects would instruct based on their first impressions. This result is a deterioration from the 2015 report.
These results should be viewed against:
- Global standards of service, not just those experienced in the legal sector – think Apple, Air New Zealand and/or your favourite coffee shop;
- Social media platforms which can easily allow one person’s outrage to override logic and undermine quality brands.
- A legal market where there is no shortage of law firms and each firm is spending increasing amounts of time and dollars to differentiate and generate new leads.
If the value of 10 new enquiries to your firm is worth $70,000, then the 2018 results suggest firms win only $8,000 of the total of new business that knocks on their doors.
No longer are customer expectations just set by the organisation they are dealing with.
How much time and dollars does your firm invest to generate new enquiries, what percentage convert into new business and why?
From our experience, most firms don’t track conversion rates of new enquiries or assess the entire client journey of prospects to understand where opportunities are being missed to gain quality new business.
Mystery shopping is the first step to objectively address the client experience at your firm.
With the help of CX experts, then craft a more cohesive, logical new client process that brings your firm’s service promise to life.
As PWC’s latest CEO report states “No longer are customer expectations just set by the organisation they are dealing with. In today’s ‘Experience Economy’ the bar is set by the Amazon experience, the Facebook experience, the hotel experience. To remain relevant for customers, the bar has risen.
The ability to understand and deliver value to your customers – at speed – is the new battleground.
Customers want an experience where empathy is the centrepiece and technology is the seamless enabler.”
So systematise your firm’s enhanced CX protocols into your practice management workflows to:
- consistently guide your team at each point along the client journey to manage clients’ expectations, build rapport and follow up quality leads. This is particularly relevant to new staff, junior staff as well as firms with multiple locations.
- Make new enquiry activity more controlled and effective (and in less time per call).
- Embed risk mitigation protocols to keep your team compliant with Legal Regulations. For example, the 2018 Australian Due Diligence Survey found that only 2 per cent of professionals are searching sanctions lists, and just 12 per cent are undertaking Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) searches.
Enhancing and continuing to evolve your firm’s CX standards is an untapped opportunity to differentiate, deliver happier clients (who value your services) and attract/retain more talented and confident staff.
CX Excellence is a holistic opportunity for firms to build their business by improving new business results from existing marketing investments.
So get in touch now to gain more insights from our 2018 Client Experience Benchmark report.
As a founding director of CXINLAW Carl has supported dozens of legal providers in Europe and Australasia. He co-authored the highly-regarded ‘Customer Experience in Law’ report in 2012 endorsed by the College of Law (UK), and led the market-leading Australian benchmark research in 2015 and 2018, in association with ALPMA. In 2015 Carl became a Faculty Member of the Queensland Law Society and is the former Vice President of the Continuing Legal Education Association of Australasia (CLEAA).