Customer experience (CX) is critical for law firms. In today’s highly competitive legal market, evaluating client satisfaction gives you the information you need to stay ahead of the competition. Your firm must go beyond being client-focused and become client-obsessed. One of the simplest and most effective ways for a firm to quantify their customer experience is to measure loyalty through the Net Promoter Score (NPS). As a Certified Net Promoter and a CX practitioner, I am surprised at the low adoption levels of the NPS in the legal industry. According to Mary Juetten, CEO of TrakLight and cofounder of Evolve the Law, the Net Promoter Score is underused and not highly understood.
The very core of the NPS methodology centers around the client’s likelihood to recommend your firm; which is incredibly valuable to lawyers who depend on referrals to win new clients. Accordingly, the NPS is determined by a single question—How likely are you to refer ABC firm to a friend or colleague? The respondent can select a number on a scale from zero to 10, with zero being not at all likely to recommend and 10 being extremely likely. Based on this score, a firm can categorize their clients into one of three groups: detractors, passives and promoters.
NPS customer categories
Detractors
If the client ranks their likelihood to recommend your firm below a six, they are considered a detractor and might have negative things to say about their experience when asked. These clients are also far more likely to engage with one of your competitors if they can offer a better experience or more value. In the current lean, legal landscape, knowing which clients might seek new counsel could mean the difference between losing clients or retaining them. Evaluating feedback from these clients offers you the opportunity to improve the customer experience for all of your clients.
Passives
The next category is composed of clients who scored your firm a seven or eight. These clients are passives and are a particularly interesting but sometimes overlooked category. They are generally satisfied, but not yet loyal. Merely being satisfied with your services isn’t enough to guarantee client retention. Passive clients are vulnerable and may defect to a competitor if they think a better offer is on the table. While they pose a risk, passives are also low-hanging fruit in the world of customer experience. Knowing which clients are passive gives you the opportunity to offer them a little extra attention that could turn them into a champion for your firm.
Promoters
Champions of your firm fit in our final category, clients who score a nine or 10. These clients are your promoters—absolute gold for any law firm. They will not only come back time after time for your services, but they will pay a premium and refer your firm to anyone seeking legal counsel. Promoters offer insight into what you’re doing right. You can then leverage that knowledge to create more impactful experiences that will turn your detractors and passives into promoters as well.
Scoring your customer experience
Now that you’ve collected the feedback, you can calculate your overall Net Promoter Score. The overall score is a good way to track how your customer experience efforts are working. In order to determine your NPS, you simply take the percentage of promoters and subtract the percentage of detractors. Scores can range from -100 to 100. According to Inavero, the average NPS for law firms sits at 19; which is down 13 points from 2015. A 13-point difference is significant, but at least those firms have the data to know which clients are at risk and which are loyal. They have the power to act in order to retain clients, get in front of defectors and increase their NPS.
5 ways to get more out of your customer experience survey results
Measuring your NPS is simple, but here are a few other tips I want to leave you with as you consider starting a program at your firm:
- Ask why the client gave you a particular score. This is only one additional question but is critical to understand how to improve.
- Keep your survey short. Clients are busy and limiting it to 5 questions or less will help keep a solid response rate.
- Read all your feedback. The verbatim comments from clients are incredibly valuable and if you start a program, you have to commit to reviewing all the responses.
- Act on the feedback. If you send out a survey and never act on feedback, your clients might not be as willing to complete the next survey.
- Close the loop with clients. Let clients know you appreciate their feedback and give them updates on how you acted on it. This shows clients that you care and are taking strides to improve their overall experience with your firm.
