Your survey should go to all your clients, new and old, and not just ‘fans’ of your firm. Don’t just pick out those you think will take the time to complete it, but send it to everyone to ensure you get both positive feedback and the feedback you need to improve.

We do this ourselves at TBD marketing. It doesn’t always feel comfortable but it is definitely the right thing to do. What you measure, you can manage.

You should definitely survey your clients at least once a year and make sure you survey everyone you worked for that year. If you do it in November/December the bonus is you’ll be able to use the results to plan and improve the year ahead and uncover which people might be your best directory referees.

You should coordinate your survey with other marketing activities, firm-wide launches and departments. You don’t want your survey to clash with any other mass mailing or overlap when you’re asking your client base to take another action.

You’ll get a representative response rate and even that can help you with your desired outcome. Whether you want to improve your service, client care, identify your best referees for your legal directory submissions, or gather testimonials for your website.

It’s more likely a client that’s had a bad experience with you will share it in the survey than if you asked them face to face. The fact that you’ve asked for feedback shows you care about your client service and gives you an opportunity to follow up.