There is no activity that will produce a greater return on investment for a law firm than systematic client feedback.
What is most important to your clients?
How well is your firm meeting your clients' most important needs and expectations?
How does your performance compare to that of your competitors?
How can you be sure that you know the answers to these questions?
Walker Clark offers two services to help you get reliable answers to all of these questions.
Walker Clark® Strategic Business Development Survey
The Walker Clark® Strategic Business Development Survey is a sophisticated, in-depth analysis that will help your firm to identify short-term opportunities for new business, as well as strategic opportunities to develop compelling competitive advantanges in the areas of legal services that are most important to your clients and prospective clients. It stands out in sharp distinction from the ordinary client satisfaction surveys that most law firms use, and which are more suitable to a hotel or rental car companry.
Here are the main steps:
1. Prepare for reliable results.
A Walker Clark researcher confers with your management and marketing team to schedule the administration of your firm's Strategic Business Development Survey and to finalize the optional features of the questionnaire that we will use.
In addition to our standard questions, which we use to ensure reliable benchmarking of your firm's results against those of similar law firms, we include up to five customized questions, of your selection, specific to your firm.
We also help you to identify and define those clients and potential clients who can provide the most reliable and valuable information. Usually these are the clients that collectively contribute 70% to 80% of your total fee revenue. This can often be as few as 30 or 40 clients, or as many as 200; but they are the critical ones for your firm's future.
2. Administer the survey.
We administer the survey to the selected group of clients and potential clients of your firm. We send out the invitations and chase those who are slow in responding.
This is a confidential survey, in that we will not disclose the identity of the source of any specific opinions or comments. Participants will be free to waive confidentiality if they wish to do so, so that your firm may follow up directly with them.
Most law firms prefer to conduct the survey in English to accommodate their multinational client base better. However, multilingual surveys also are available at a reasonable additional charge.
3. Analyze and report the results.
Walker Clark tabulates and analyzes the results in a comprehensive and detailed written report to your firm, which we typically deliver within five days after we close the survey. Our report includes specific recommendations about how your firm can apply the results. We also can benchmark your results against our database of more than 4,800 survey responses compiled by Walker Clark over the past 13 years.
4. Brief your firm.
Our Strategic Business Development Survey includes a three-hour briefing and planning session for your partnership and other senior leaders of your firm, conducted by internet-based videoconference or in-person, as you prefer.
5. Apply the results.
For 30 days after we deliver our report, the Walker Clark principal who supervised your Strategic Business Development Survey remains available by telephone or e-mail to answer your questions about the results, our analysis, and their importance for your firm.
Trusted Client Interviews
Sometimes a survey -- even an comprehensive inquiry like our Strategic Business Development Survey -- is not enough.
Sometimes your firm needs to probe a specific issue more deeply, or get critically important strategic intelligence from a specific sector of your client base.
Our Trusted Client Interviews seek detailed, actionable information from a carefully selected group of your best clients. The interviews are custom-designed for each firm and conducted by experienced senior Walker Clark members. We use a consistent methodology and research agenda to get the accurate, reliable feedback that you need to make fully-informed strategic and business decisions. Our clients also tell us that our Trusted Client Interviews produce a highly positive secondary effect by reinforcing client loyalty and goodwill.
next steps
We will conduct a Strategic Business Development Survey or a series of Trusted Client Interviews for your firm or law department for a fixed fee that includes travel expenses, if you desire an on-site briefing and planning session. For more information contact one of the points of contact listed on this page.