Shopper Anonymous, the UK’s leading legal client feedback organisation, have announced that they will be undertaking another Client Journey mystery shopping project in February and March 2018, following its success in 2016 and 2017.
In the inaugural project in 2016, 85 UK law firms volunteered to be part of the client journey project where they received a series of complementary mystery shopping visits. More than 500 experiences were conducted. The findings of the visits were then presented back to those firms by the Shopper Anonymous Regional Directors, who also demonstrated how the firm benchmarked against the sector.
The overall results, which identified performance in relation to the sector as a whole, were made accessible to all firms.
Some of the key headlines were:
- 86% of enquirers gained a positive first impression of the firm
- Contact details were clear and easy to find on websites
- 45% of all messages left on direct dial or reception answerphones did not receive a call back
- 5% of direct dials did not have an answer phone where a message could be left
- When a serious enquiry was made, only 27% of firms outlined the benefits of using their firm over their competitors
- When a prospective client sent an email enquiry, 35% received a response within 4 hours. However, it took longer than 2 days for a reply in another 35% of cases
- When a potential client walked into an office and spoke to a fee earner, on only 42% of occasions did the discussions take place in a suitably private area
- Just 7% of those personal conversations were followed up
Jonathan Winchester, Chief Executive of Shopper Anonymous commented: “The feedback we received from participating firms was very strong. They felt the reports made a real difference to their ability to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their service offering. Many firms have gone on to enhance their clients’ experience as well as reviewing processes to improve sign up rates and bottom line profitability.”
The 2017 project involved more than 500 experiences based around office walk ins, in and out of office hours phone enquiries and web enquiries.
Following this project, the Shopper Anonymous team of 21 Regional Directors spoke at numerous legal events and presented to firms, highlighting the major opportunities to make a great first impression and to ultimately sign up more new business.
