It’s how clients feel that matters

It’s not just about what firms deliver for their clients, but how they deliver it that can make the difference in an increasingly competitive market, says Nick Hayne, head of professional services at Quiss.

When it comes to attracting and retaining clients, the difference between success and failure for law firms will typically hinge not on the legal knowledge or technical expertise within the firm, but on the quality of service provided; how did they make the client feel throughout.

In the world of IT managed service providers, the same is largely true. Despite what marketing might say, the technical ability across firms is similar. So, the quality of service delivered and desire to go the extra mile to resolve every problem, should be the deciding factor when choosing an IT partner.

It is this realisation that makes customer satisfaction scores incredibly important for a business such as Quiss. This Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is a customer experience metric that measures happiness with a product, service, or customer support interaction through a customer satisfaction survey that simply asks: “How satisfied were you with Quiss?”

We have worked hard to improve the experience delivered to every user and every client, and this effort is paying dividends. Our CSAT score for quarter one of 2023 for our service desk saw 97% of respondents rate their interaction as being good or excellent.

The improvements we have delivered required us to focus on key considerations, including:

Empathy. Customers want to be heard and understood – it’s important to approach each interaction with empathy and genuine concern for the customer’s needs.

Responsiveness. Customers expect a prompt response to their enquiries, complaints or issues, which requires our service desk team to respond quickly and resolve issues as fast as possible.

Knowledge. Customers want to receive accurate information and guidance, which requires us to ensure our service desk team has a deep understanding of the products and services we support.

Personalisation. Customers appreciate when their individual needs and preferences are considered, which is why we use customer data to personalise our team’s interactions.

Communication. Recognising effective communication is crucial for good customer service – we ensure our team are clear, concise and courteous in all their interactions.

Professionalism. We understand our customers expect professional conduct and demeanour from our service desk team, which we work hard to deliver in all situations.

Accountability. Our service desk team take ownership of customer issues and commit to resolving them, while openly admitting and correcting any mistakes we may have made.

Engagement. Once a customer issue has been addressed, we follow up to ensure that the resolution was satisfactory, which demonstrates our commitment to customer satisfaction and builds trust.

Improvement. We recognise customer service is an ongoing process, always with room for improvement, which is why we undertake CSAT surveys and use the results to shape our service.

Although these are all important considerations and transferable to any business, including law firms, we are never satisfied. We strive to continuously improve. It helps us optimise processes, stay competitive, adapt to change and foster a culture of innovation and excellence.

This focus on client satisfaction, not only helps us more easily achieve our goals and objectives, but most importantly, it helps our clients in their everyday working life, which is the number one reason we strive to do better and check regularly whether we are or not.