24 more questions to ask current clients

Current clients are your most likely source of new business, and most lawyers need to spend more time listening to them. In addition to the 34 questions in last week’s blog, these 24 can get your clients talking about what they like and dislike, which is the easiest path to new business.

Fourteen big picture questions for current clients

1. What do you like about working with our firm?
2. What could we do better?
3. How would you rate your overall satisfaction?
4. What could we do to increase our rating?
5. In the past, what are some of the things that you’ve liked most about working with law firms, both our firm and others?
6. What have you liked least about working with law firms?
7. Do you see any future trends in your business or industry that will affect the need for legal services?
8. How important to you is it that we understand your industry?
9. What could we do to make your life easier?
10. Can you think of any other ways we could help clients like you, or new services we could offer?
11. Could we better use technology to be of service to you?
12. What type of status reporting do you like? Weekly? Monthly? Email or phone?
13. Would you recommend our firm to others? Why or why not?
14. If you managed a firm like ours, what would you do differently?

Ten detail questions for current clients

These questions address your service. They could easily be reworded to ask how clients perceive other law firms they have worked with in the past, which is an excellent way to get insights into where competitors are vulnerable.

1. How would you rate the quality of our legal product?
2. How well do we listen to your concerns?
3. How well do we understand your goals?
4. How well do we understand your industry?
5. Do we do a good job keeping you informed?
6. Do we explain legal issues in terms that are easy for non-lawyers to understand?
7. Do you perceive us as genuinely interested in your success?
8. Do you perceive our lawyers as prompt, responsive, and accessible on short notice?
9. Are our billing statements accurate and complete?
10. Do you think our fees are fair and reasonable?

This material was adapted from The Legal Business Development Workbook.