Curious about legal trends? Here are some interesting statistics and takeaways discussed at the 2019 ABA TECHSHOW:

When rating lawyers, people complain more about customer service issues than the cost of legal services.

When selecting a lawyer, clients value guidance, certainty, and clarity.

When assessing the emotional state of clients, lawyers chronically underestimate feelings of confusion, disbelief, frustration, and urgency.

Lawyers and clients are on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to communication:

• • The majority of lawyers expect clients to send an email or visit the office in person when asking to schedule an appointment. In reality, clients shun both approaches and prefer overwhelmingly to call.
  • 70% of clients want to meet in person when sharing all the details or facts of a situation. 18% are willing to meet by phone. Similarly, clients want to hear lawyers explain the legal aspects of their case in person (55%) or by phone (23%) not by email or other means.
  • For getting quick questions answered, 46% of clients prefer the phone, 29% prefer email.
  • Lawyers strongly prefer to call with status updates (64%), but clients are split between phone (37%) and email (35%) in their preference.
  • Signing, viewing, or delivering documents? 64% of clients prefer to do this in person. 20% are okay with email. Interestingly, 35% of lawyers prefer to review documents with clients by phone – only 5% of clients preferred this method.
  • Websites and client portals only factored significantly into client preferences in two areas: checking the hours a lawyer is spending on a case (26% of clients) and making payments (31% of clients).

Key Takeaways

1. Solicit feedback from clients.
2. Consider using client surveys that measure your “net promoter” or client loyalty score. Survey Monkey is one example.
3. Focus on in-person moments with clients and minimize interruptions.
4. When deciding whether to call, email, or meet in person, put the client first. For the most part, clients want to talk – not read messages or correspondence.

For more information and a link to the complete legal trends report, see my story on Wakelet.

All Rights Reserved 2019 Beverly Michaelis