The Law Society's research and policy planning unit has recently published a study of how existing and potential clients view the services offered by solicitors.

This article considers the lessons that can be drawn from this research.The findings confirm that the best way to attract clients is to provide a good service to existing clients and to invest additional time and effort to resolve any problems which lead to client complaints.Previous experience was the most important reason for choosing a particular firm of solicitors, followed by recommendations.

When prompted, clients also attached considerable importance to obtaining a reasonable quotation and to the location of offices.

Most clients expressed their loyalty to the solicitor they had recently used.Clients gave solicitors remarkably good satisfaction scores.

The majority of clients felt they had received value for money and would expect to use the same solicitor again or to recommend him or her to others.

They also gave solicitors good scores for their reception facilities, the way they communicated with clients and for providing a speedy service in which the client could have confidence.When seeking to attract new business, all firms must take into account the public image of solicitors particularly when, as the survey evidence shows, there has been a fall in regard for all professional service providers.

However, given this general decline in image, the very favourable scores which clients gave for their levels of satisfaction with the service provided by their solicitor and the positive terms in which they described their own solicitor can be regarded as highly encouraging.The survey findings on the image of solicit ors also found that clients who had recently used a solicitor had a more positive image of solicitors than the public as a whole.

While this was a promising finding it also has implications for solicitors' efforts to attract new clients, especially if these clients are able to choose between a solicitor and other legal service providers.

It appears that some stereotypical attributes of solicitors persist in the public perception.

For example, the survey found the general public, as opposed to recent clients, thought solicitors were less approachable, less able to explain things clearly and less easy to talk to.It also cannot be stressed too often that the extent to which firms will experience difficulties in attracting clients will depend upon how many of their clients are dissatisfied.

The fact that very few of the clients who expressed dissatisfaction with the service they received reported this to their solicitor, together with the importance of personal recommendations in determining which solicitor to use, means that a small number of dissatisfied customers could weaken the local reputation of a firm.The study showed that most clients who required conveyancing or will-writing services used a solicitor but also indicated that, in addition to competitive forces, potential changes in client behaviour will challenge solicitors' efforts to maintain or increase their share of these markets.In the conveyancing market, solicitors held over 90% of the market.

Licensed conveyancers were the main external competitors but their market share was only 4% so the major competition continues to be from other solicitors.

While clients favoured a personal recommendation when choosing a solicitor, almost a fifth of conveyancing clients had shopped around beforehand and for potential clients this figure increased to almost 50%.

In this context,The majority of clients felt they had received value for money from their solicitors 'potential clients' refers to those with no recent experience of using a solicitor and who were asked about who they would choose to conduct a conveyancing or will-writing service for them.A significant proportion of potential clients also indicated that they would be more likely to consider using other legal service providers if they were available, such as building societies or banks, eg through home arrangers.

Solicitors cannot rely on these competitive pressures being relieved by an overall increase in the size of the conveyancing market.

The housing market is not expected to recover during 1995 and some recent forecasts expect it to remain flat for a considerable period.Individual solicitors wishing to increase their conveyancing business therefore need to make clients aware that their conveyancing service is better than that provided by their competitors.While solicitors hold the major share of the will-writing market, their competitive strength is not as robust as in domestic conveyancing.

Competition exists not only from professional will writers, who hold 10% of the market, but from a slightly larger percentage of people who write their own wills.

More encouragingly, the percentage of potential clients who said they would use a solicitor for will writing, while lower than for actual clients, did not fall as dramatically as the percentage of potential conveyancing clients.

Nonetheless, there was an indication that potential clients would be more responsive to new opportunities.

In particular a significantly increased number of potential clients said they would write their own will.Unlike the conveyancing market, though, there are indicators that suggest that there is considerable potential for growth in the market for will writing and updating wills.

This survey found that only 8% of people had made a will during the previous five years and a Gallup survey in 1994 discovered that only 31% of all adults had made a will.

Public awareness of the will-writing services that solicitors provide had improved since 1989.

This can be attributed to the effectiveness of the make a will week and Will Power campaigns.Survey questions about the potential demand for other legal services asked people whether they had experience, in the last five years, of different situations where legal advice is sometimes sought and whether they had or would obtain legal advice.

The findings confirmed the importance of citizens advice bureaux as a first port of call for advice and therefore of the need for firms of solicitors to maintain close contact with their local bureau.There was evidence that shopping around and the demand for prior information on charges will continue to increase.

While the majority of clients had not shopped around before selecting their solicitor, a greater number of younger clients had done so.

As already mentioned, a considerably larger proportion of potential, as opposed to actual clients, said they would shop around if they required a solicitor.For clients in the process of selecting a solicitor, the importance of price appears to vary.

For clients who had shopped around, other important reasons for deciding between firms were the telephone manner of the solicitor and details given about the experience and expertise of the firm.

The main reasons given by clients who did not shop around were the desire to use the same solicitor again or to take up a recommendation.

Considered together, these results again emphasise the value that clients place on communication and interpersonal skills and on their preference for remaining loyal to a solicitor they are satisfied with.

This does not mean that price was disregarded.

Clients who did not shop around also considered the feature 'the solicitor provided a reasonable quotation' as highly important.Findings from other questions relating to the provision of information on costs provide further insights.

While clients may not recognise the difficulties of estimating in advance all costs that may occur in a particular transaction, they felt it was an important requirement and expected to be able to receive this kind of information.

Almost a quarter of conveyancing and will-writing clients and over a third of clients of other legal services had received no information on costs.

Potential will-writing and conveyancing clients expected to be able to acquire a full quotation if not at first contact with the solicitor then certainly when the solicitor was appointed.Expectations will be unfulfilled and solicitors will lose business by failing to meet these requirements.

Furthermore, misleading estimates of costs and timescales and the failure to explain the implications of hidden costs were negatively associated with consumer satisfaction.If new services are being developed then they must form only a very small proportion of the overall number of private client transactions conducted by solicitors because there were no mentions of their use by those interviewed for this survey.

Findings from the survey found the services most frequently used by private clients remain unchanged since a comparable survey in 1989 and continue to be domestic conveyancing, making a will, divorce and matrimonial pro blems, dealing with someone's estate and compensation for injury.Similarly, peoples' awareness of the services provided by solicitors was unchanged from 1989.

Alongside conveyancing and will writing, solicitors were most closely associated with trusts and settlements, divorce and law and order issues.More detailed findings of the issues outlined in this article and of the age, gender and social class of clients for different types of legal services are given in the full report: research study No.17, 'Client perceptions - existing and potential clients: experiences and perceptions of using a solicitor for personal matters', 1995, by John Jenkins and Verity Lewis, available from the Law Society bookshop, priced £17.50.