LawNet has drawn on what is arguably the largest research project into client satisfaction in the legal sector, with over 13 years of internal data and sector stats from other sources, to set out the importance of client insight for legal firms.
Do you know your net promoter score? Or your client enquiry to conversion stats? As a busy professional – whether solo practitioner or part of a big team – do you perhaps feel that knowing such things is not part of your day job? Not when you’re already juggling demanding clients, firm-wide billable targets and the pressure of delivering fixed-price work profitably in a highly competitive market.
But understanding the client journey – from the point of first enquiry through to completion and beyond – could be the key to unlocking greater profitability, with a lot less pressure. The facts speak for themselves.
Losing potential clients at enquiry stage could be costing law firms as much as £1 million each year, according to recent sector research. It’s happening where enquiry handling has struggled to keep pace with the increasing expectations of clients, who are used to retail experiences and 24/7 service.
Building relationships
Rapport-building is the way to signal genuine interest, not just transactional processing, yet sector research shows only 40% of client-facing staff use a client’s name in conversation. Only 34% explain why there is a benefit in using their firm. Perhaps most strikingly, just 8% of potential clients receive a follow-up after the initial response to their website enquiry, and 14% after a phone-based enquiry.
That last figure deserves a moment’s pause. Whether for a conveyancer, family lawyer or private client practitioner, following up after the initial contact is more than a courtesy. It’s an important part of building the client relationship.
It might be the moment a passive enquiry becomes a committed instruction, just as a thoughtful contact at the close of a matter can help turn a satisfied client into an advocate for the firm. It’s a key step on the journey towards a truly client-centric culture, and the firms that understand this are the ones that treat it as a non-negotiable discipline, not an optional extra for when time allows.
Measuring satisfaction
Both translate into a positive contribution to that net promoter score (NPS), which is used to gauge client loyalty, satisfaction and enthusiasm for a firm. It can be measured at the enquiry or end of matter stage, but the question remains the same: would you recommend us to your friends or family?
The problem is that most firms are only measuring satisfaction when a piece of work is completed; they are not measuring the lost opportunity cost of never being engaged by a client, and that is where the real gains can be made.
I have seen the value of this throughout my career: first as a marketing director within a law firm, focused on delivering great client experience across teams, and now through LawNet’s Excellence Mark programme and CX discussion group, where we are supporting a community of firms committed to continuous improvement
Committing to standards
This commitment to measuring, monitoring and improving client experience is embedded in our ISO quality standard and requires independent benchmarking assessment of member firms through client experience reviews and satisfaction surveys.
Over the past 13 years the programme has generated more than 125,000 client satisfaction surveys and almost 11,000 client experience reviews, creating one of the largest datasets within the UK legal sector.
The value of benchmarking is not simply in knowing where you stand; it is understanding where focused attention can make a difference. With specialist support for members to tackle areas for improvement we have seen average enquiry experience scores rise across the network from 52% in 2013 to 79.3% this year. We also compare our results against the wider sector each year, and our latest analysis shows LawNet firms outperforming the sector benchmark by 33 percentage points.
Closing the gap
End-of-matter satisfaction levels among LawNet firms are also consistently high, with average results exceeding 97%, almost 10% higher than the result recorded by the Legal Services Consumer Panel in its sector benchmarking, demonstrating the value of maintaining focus on the complete client journey rather than individual touch points.
But while the performance may be measured in percentages, client experience is created in individual moments.
The data may sit at firm level, but improvement often starts with individual interactions. The next client call, the next follow-up, the next conversation about value: each is a chance to turn an enquiry into a relationship.
Every revolution starts with a single action. In client experience, that may simply be making a follow-up call: because the data can identify the gap, but only people can close it.
About the author
Karen Clarkson is head of community and communications with LawNet, the national network supporting SME law firms through collaboration, shared expertise and business support. She joined LawNet in 2026, bringing extensive experience in law firm management, marketing, events and member engagement. Previously marketing and business development director at Parker Bullen LLP, she now focuses on strengthening collaboration and knowledge-sharing across LawNet’s community of independent law firms, to support them in responding to the changing demands of legal practice. She leads the network’s client experience community, where her work draws on LawNet’s award-winning Excellence Mark, a major initiative focused on quality standards, client experience and innovation, now embedded in the network’s ISO 9001 standard.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of Today’s Family Lawyer.
