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January 25, 2006
Polling The Real Jury-Part III--"So Then Michelle Checks In, and She Says..."
No sooner did I finish a post just below about changing my mind on who should conduct client satisfaction interviews that Michelle Golden at Golden Practices, who I greatly respect, tells me, in effect, that I was right the first time. In a well thought-out and highly persuasive comment Michelle says she believes--and by the way I can tell she's clearly not drumming up work on this--you should use a third party neutral and not senior lawyers in your firm if you want the truth about your firm's services (especially if there is a relationship issue). And, she continues, don't ask for a referral because it likely won't go down well. Michelle also has a nice post about it entltled "Satisfaction Survey or Marketing Pitch? Pick One". I like fights, disagreements and disputes of almost any nature--and always have. But I'm dazed, confused and still thinking on this client polling thing. So I'll just wimp out and watch. Anyone else? Rumble, maybe?
Posted by JD Hull at 11:02 PM | Comments (0)
Polling the Real Jury--Hassett Redux.
Jim Hassett at Law Firm Business Development has yet another nice post entitled "How To Review Client Satisfaction--Part 4" on the subject that I call client polling, or client interviews. For a variety of reasons, this is a truly important subject. I had commented after Jim's Part 3 post that I thought only third parties--to ensure more honest, candid results--should do polling. Both Jim and Pat Lamb suggested a senior member of the law firm should be present.
My new thinking is that Jim and Pat are right. Generally, you should have a senior partner, and one not involved in the work, if possible, to do the client polling. Jim's reasons are important here. While I think eliciting the maximum amount of candor is a key goal of the interview, he identifies an even more important, overriding objective. A senior lawyer with your firm has the most incentive to carry out the goals of the interview: protect revenue streams from the client, increase them from that client, and get referrals. These are the goals of a senior lawyer inside your firm. And aside from doing great work for clients, what else is there?
Again, this really is an important topic. Well-done client interviews not only get you the real skinny on how you are doing, but you can ask clients what they really want. I'd love to hear more commentary on this one.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:47 PM | Comments (0)
Tom Collins Has Got a Bunch of Things Right.
Not only does Tom Collins at MorePartnerIncome have by far the best name for any blawg I've seen, earlier this week he may have captured what blogging is all about in a moving post called "Blogs That Improve Law Firm Performance". If you haven't read this entire post, you should. It is more than the title implies. Genuine, humble and thoughtful--made me want to keep doing this. It's right here.
Posted by JD Hull at 09:09 PM | Comments (0)