CXINLAW Research: 78% of Law firms fail First Impressions Test

A new research survey by international Customer Experience specialists CXINLAW has revealed some significant, and potentially very expensive, service failings amongst Australian law firms.

78% of initial enquiry contact with law firms did not deliver a very positive result for prospective clients. 45% of firms left shoppers as likely to call competitors and a third of all calls were so poor that an instruction would definitely not take place.

The research No Second Chance: The Importance of First Impressions to Law Firms was produced in collaboration with the Australasian Legal Practice Management Association (ALPMA) and is being previewed at the 2015 ALPMA Summit at the Gold Coast this week. The research sampled a range of firms of various sizes across a range of law practice areas – from private and family to business law.

CXINLAW used ‘secret shopper’ techniques commonly found in the retail industry to establish the quality and impact of client interactions with legal staff. Over 65 ‘Perception Points’ were used to measure performance at the first contact stage. These were combined with results of other CXINLAW data to produce the analysis.

Carl White, Director of CXLINAW (Australasia) said, “There is worrying stuff for firms in these results. It can’t be good when over half of online enquiries received no response and when 40% of lawyers are conveying a tone of inconvenience when talking to a prospective client. Firms are spending significant money on branding and promotion, but then not delivering the service promise. Most clients do not know about law, but they know about great service. They get it elsewhere and they don’t understand why they don’t get it here,” he said.

ALPMA President, Andrew Barnes said, “We exist in very competitive times. Law firm differentiators are not easy to identify, let alone leverage. Firms who rely on the personal element of relationships will do well to introduce Client Experience Excellence into their thinking.”

The report is available free from the ALPMA website. Firms can have their own performance against the report benchmarks by contacting Carl White of CXINLAW.

About CXINLAW

CXINLAW is a trading division of CXE City, an international consultancy specialising in developing Client Experience Excellence for Law firms. The company developed the first UK report on Client Experience in Law in 2012 and has been at the leading edge of developments in the field. The company opened its Australian office in 2015 headed by our Director, Carl White, who is one of the co-authors of the report.

Interested readers can watch Carl’s compelling 2015 ALPMA Summit presentation "Understanding Your Customers' Experience".