Are You Hearing Voices?

Yesterday, I responded to a post on Heather Milligan‘s blog, Legal Water Cooler, with a reference to an article in the American Marketing Association’s November/December 2008 Marketing Management on utility of Voice of the Customer (VOC) data in American companies. This piece was authored by Randy Brandt of Maritz Research and reflects results of the 2007 Maritz VOC Practices and Challenges Survey. The survey and the article are compelling reads for any marketer.

A key observation in the early part of the article is that “in nearly every industry that has participated in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) since its inception in 1994, current scores are essentially the same as they were in that baseline year, or else they have declined.” Yet, a 2005 Forrester Research survey reported that 96% of senior executive respondents believed it was critical to their business to improve the customer experience. How do we reconcile this desperate interest in the customer’s satisfaction with the reality that no improvement has been achieved?

Brandt writes that many research studies show companies that encourage and collect VOC data do not effectively act on the data. His observation, confirmed with the 2007 Maritz study, is that the majority of companies have no defined processes that support implementation. He concludes that 1) companies must have a standard set of categories measured across all customer-company intersections, 2) that these categories should be linked to measures of business results and 3) companies must have a formal process and assigned accountability for acting on the VOC data.

Beyond the parameters of Dr. Brandt’s article is a question for all law firms of the value of VOC data. Matt Sherman correctly notes in his response to the Legal Water Cooler post yesterday that the customer experience and its satisfaction are a “partner by partner” effect. I’ll add that the one sure way to get the VOC data into action in a law firm is to connect the partner bonus to it. Frankly, my feeling is that most legal firms lack the courage to monitor client satisfaction, although there are an increasing number of consulting firms who have superb processes for this research.

As a profession whose primary intellectual capital is characterized by service based on “proving” assertions, law firms should be clamoring for this data. Relationship partners ought to insist that the client’s voice be solicited so that they and the firm can have irrefutable evidence that the relationship is solid and linked primarily to the partner. The lack of courage may be due largely to the law industry’s paucity of innovation and reliance on the status quo, at least as far as business operations are concerned. However, by protecting their compensation to partners with lock-step and production systems that depend on completed, billed and paid-for work (hours), they ensure that the client’s voice will go unheard until a complaint interferes with the collection process. Which, in my mind, is way too late to save the client relationship.

How closely does your law firm listen to the voice of your clients? Is there action connected to what you hear? How can you increase the volume and frequency of this conversation?