Legal Commentary

Informative Survey: How Clients Buy

By Patrick J. Lamb

RainToday.com has published a new report, How Clients Buy: 2009 Benchmark Report on Professional Services Marketing & Selling from the Client Perspective.  The report, which runs 57 pages and provides data from more than 200 buyers of accounting, financial, legal consulting and other services, costs $345.  Among the many highlights and insights:

• 52% of the buyers of legal services, even those who rate their lawyers 4 out of 5 on a satisfaction scale, are willing to switch providers.
• 83% of buyers say the the service provider's website holds "some influence" or "a great deal of influence" over their decision to engage a provider.
• the most commonly experienced problems by buyers were that service providers did not listen to them (38%) and did not respond to requests in a timely manner (30%), did not understand their needs (30%).

The report includes RainToday.com's analysis of the survey data, which I found insightful.  Those who need to remind their principals of the need to continue to invest in marketing and client satisfaction efforts during economic downturn will want to have this report as part of their arsenal.

Full post as published by In Search of Perfect Client Service on January 23, 2009 (boomark / email).