There is a marketing ‘tick’ that appears in many firms when they have the marketing bug. It’s the tendency to spend time and effort on client surveys. But while discussing this with a client keen to proceed with them, I came to the conclusion: ‘Why should we bother?’The process starts with the eminently sensible quest: ‘We need to understand what our clients want from us and how we can improve our services.’ This is the usual reason for looking at a client survey in the first place and a good question to be asking. The SRA did a good job answering that with their research published earlier this year. To spend the money and repeat the exercise would only provide the similar answers locally. Client surveys, whether a one-off or done at the end of a matter, most often produce responses from clients that have a problem, and therefore the survey is an unbalanced view of client satisfaction.

It’s worth remembering that clients don’t want to buy a solicitor’s time or expertise – they want a solution to the legal problem. So surveys will just reflect that derived need. There are two alternatives that should be considered that save time and money and do more for the firm.

First, the fee-earner that closed the matter and sent the bill should be responsible for making sure the client is pleased or at least satisfied with the service they received. If the client isn’t happy, it should be dealt with immediately, not left for a client survey to pick up months later when there’s little chance of retrieving the client’s good will.

The second alternative needs to find the end of that sensible quest: ‘We need to understand what our clients want from us and how we can improve our services.’ So ask them. A survey needs to be targeted at the client groups that are most important to the firm and conducted by the fee-earner closest to that client. So sending out a general questionnaire to clients should be avoided, as it’s better if the fee-earner uses the questions as part of a conversation with the client. The sort of information a survey reveals can be very useful for a firm, but they need to be committed to act on the collective conclusions.

Before you start to spend money on a client survey, ask yourself this: if you received a questionnaire from an accountant, utility businesses or computer supplier for example, would you fill it in and return it?