Modern Claims Magazine 25 - The Legal Consumer

The marketing of legal services would be greatly improved if there was more transparency around price, service and quality Michelle Lennaghan

The Legal Consumer: Breaking Down the Barriers

The Legal Consumer Supplement 2017

MODERN CLAIMS

WELCOME While most of the claims sector has spent the last year making preparations for the impact of whiplash reforms that were ultimately shelved, some firms may have been oblivious to another change affecting them, and one that has been happening for a lot longer than twelve months.

W

The 21st century has seen ever-increasing popularity in the transparency provided by aggregator websites, the convenience provided by companies like Amazon and Domino’s Pizza, and the platform to share opinions that social media and Trip Advisor-type sites have created. These traits have become so commonplace in everyday life, that when it comes to more sporadic purchases, legal services being a prime example, consumers bring those same expectations of transparency, convenience and feedback options.

It is therefore imperative for claims professionals to be aware of how their customers are changing, and how this should influence the services they provide. That’s why Modern Claims has teamed up with Lyons Davidson to produce this special supplement all about The Legal Consumer. We gathered a group consisting of not just forward-thinking legal and insurance experts, but also customer service experts too, to lend the consumer viewpoint to the Roundtable that is covered in this supplement.

This Roundtable, and the interviews and articles that were constructed around it, resulted in some fresh and original

viewpoints that those inside the claims bubble may not have previously considered. While it might be easy to assume the consumer only looks for price and then consequently focuses on services with the best possible value, this project revealed that there are in fact numerous other factors that influence consumer choice, especially in a product laden with intricacies like legal services, and that value is about more than just price.

In all product and service types, what a business wants to provide to its customers is becoming less and less relevant, and it is more frequently the customers who are influencing service providers, rather than vice versa. In response, companies are broadening their offerings, improving their customer service and emphasising the importance of customer feedback, giving their customers the ability to tell them exactly what they want; without this, the only way customers will share dissatisfaction is by looking elsewhere, something that is easier and quicker for them than it ever has been.

In the past, the legal sector has been slow to keep up with the changing world around it. I hope the Legal Consumer Supplement will demonstrate why that doesn’t have to be the case anymore.

Brendan Gurrie, Editor, Modern Claims Magazine.

01765 600909 | @ModernBrendan | brendan@charltongrant.co.uk

CONTENTS INTERVIEWS

FEATURES

4 Michelle Lennaghan

Michelle Lennaghan, Lyons Davidson, chaired this supplement’s Legal Consumer roundtable. Michelle spoke to Modern Claims about some of the points that were raised during this discussion, particularly around the ways the sector can become more transparent and accessible for its customers.

8 Lisa Beale

While comparison sites have revolutionised the way consumers purchase insurance, the subjective nature of legal services makes them more difficult to compare. Lisa Beale explained to Modern Claims how pro-active firms should be seeking to collect and utilise customer feedback to help them stand out from the competition.

12 Rebecca Conway

Legal expenses insurance is often overlooked by consumers at the time they require it, but, as Rebecca Conway, Arc Legal, explained to Modern Claims, its profile could be raised with the implementation reforms to personal injury.

14 Dr. Tom Wormald

In an outcomes based service like legal services, it can be all too easy for firms to overlook the fact that results and price aren’t always the primary influences on provider choice, and that service and customer experience should always be an important part of a business’s offering, as Dr Tom Wormald, Deliberata, explained to Modern Claims.

Group Editor Brendan Gurrie

May 2017

Project Manager Rachael Pearson

20 Consumer Roundtable

As consumer expectations towards the products they buy continue to evolve, it becomes increasingly clearer that the legal sector isn’t keeping up with this change. Modern Claims gathered a roundtable of experts to discuss consumer perceptions of law, and how the sector can adapt to provide better service for the contemporary consumer.

26 Customer service moving into the legal sector

While cost and outcomes are still important influences on customer decisions, Katherine Howells-Price, Lyons Davidson, argues that legal service providers can no longer rest on this alone, and that the contemporary consumer has a whole new array of expectations.

28 The benefits of customer communication through online interaction

Lindsey Edwards, File Dynamics, discusses the options for customer communication, and how online interaction can improve the process for the customer while delivering benefits to the business.

30 Putting the customer first

The Law Society once said: “complaints are a business risk which cannot completely be avoided, but must instead be managed”. It is true that we cannot keep all clients happy all of the time, but at Lyons Davidson we have a designated Customer Service and Compliance team where we try pretty hard.

Editorial Assistant Poppy Green

Events Sales Kate McKittrick

The Legal Consumer 03

Self-serve not only minimises cost for the consumer, but also reflects the changing nature of the legal processs, which is becoming more streamlined with the use of online facilities

INTERVIEW

Michelle Lennaghan Michelle Lennaghan, Lyons Davidson, chaired this supplement’s Legal Consumer roundtable. Michelle spoke to Modern Claims about some of the points that were raised during this discussion, particularly around the ways the sector can become more transparent and accessible for its customers.

Q

How do you feel the public currently perceives legal services, and is there more the sector can be doing to improve this perception?

A

There are a number of different types of purchasers of legal services, but for the purpose of this interview I’ll focus on the individual consumer, rather than businesses.

Most people don’t want to purchase legal services. For many, they are making a distressed purchase; responding to an immediate problem that can be emotionally charged. They should be able to easily navigate their way through the legal market to find a provider that can give them the advice, support and outcome they require, but the transparency in the sector around price, quality and service means that this is a difficult task.

The Competition and Markets Authority report quotes that only 17% of law firms publish their prices online. This lack of transparency leads to the consumer perception that legal service providers are expensive to use. Even where price is quoted, quality and service are not easily understood or compared within the market and therefore the value of the purchase, i.e. what your money buys you, isn’t always obvious. Again this leads to the perception that the service is expensive.

The CMA report found that many customers don’t understand that they have a legal issue or have problems diagnosing the type of legal assistance that they need. This means that for some consumers the sector is daunting and intimidating.

To improve on these perceptions, we as a sector need to be more accessible and approachable to consumers, so that they are able to make an early diagnosis of the assistance that they require, and be transparent in the price, quality and service that we offer. There needs to be some consistency across the sector about how this is measured so that the consumer can make an informed choice about its legal provider.

Q A

How can affinity partnerships improve access to legal services for consumers?

At Lyons Davidson, we work with a number of affinity partners (some are large household brands). These affinity partners refer to us their customers where they may have a legal need.

May 2017

There are a number of benefits these types of arrangements deliver in terms of consumer access to legal services. They break down the barriers for some consumers who may have been intimidated or overwhelmed in approaching the sector, and the referral usually means an earlier diagnosis of the legal problem, often at no cost to the consumer. By virtue of the volume of customers the affinity partner refers, they are able to negotiate favourable pricing structures for their customers. As their own brand could be impacted by the recommendation, the affinity partner will drive quality for the consumer by requiring the legal service provider to act within strict service levels which they usually audit against.

In addition, many of our affinity partners are from sectors that are more sophisticated than the legal sector in areas such as customer experience (including tone of voice), measuring quality and generating customer feedback. We’ve worked with our affinity partners to develop our business in those areas, which ultimately benefits the consumer.

Q A

What are the possible pitfalls of forming an affinity partnership for the consumer?

Affinity partnerships need to be managed carefully to ensure that the referral to the legal provider is in the customer’s best interest. Possible pitfalls include driving the consumer to the wrong type of legal provider. Similarly, where efficient pricing structures are agreed, care has to be taken to ensure that this doesn’t impact the quality of service provided.

The CMA report found that many customers don’t understand that they have a legal issue or have problems diagnosing the type of legal assistance that they need. This means that for some consumers the sector is daunting and intimidating The Legal Consumer 05

INTERVIEW

Customer feedback is essential to the improvement and development of legal services, although it is estimated that only 24% of law firms collect it

Q A

Are law firms currently doing enough to market themselves, and where can this be improved?

In recent years we have seen some large-scale investment into marketing campaigns by some law firms, associations of firms and brand names trying to establish a “household” brand for legal services. This is a difficult proposition given that most people don’t require legal services on a frequent basis; it’s capturing the customer at the right time in their lives or creating a brand that they will remember when they do need a legal service. This is a difficult challenge to overcome, and we have seen a number of household brands with extensive marketing budgets who have had very limited success.

The marketing of legal services would be greatly improved if there was more transparency around price, service and quality, so that the consumer is able to compare across the market for the service they are purchasing.

Q

Is there a need for firms to tailor the marketing of their services for different demographics of consumer, e.g. those of a different age or income?

A

It is unlikely that a firm will be able to appeal to all demographics of consumer. It needs to decide what its target customer groups are and then understand the needs of that customer, both in relation to the outcome of the overall transaction but also how the customer will want to interact with the law firm throughout the transaction. Whilst price is an important factor to the consumer in choosing a legal provider, so are other factors such as trust, accessibility, ease of the transaction and reputation, and all these issues need to be considered when marketing to your target consumer group.

Talking to consumers in focus groups can be a great way to get a better understanding of what it is they are looking for and how to bespoke the service offering accordingly. Law firms should also engage with their own customers about their experience to better understand how to market their service.

Q

What is the role of customer feedback in legal services, and how can law firms improve the measurement, quality and application of this information?

A

Customer feedback is essential to the improvement and development of legal services, although it is estimated that only 24% of law firms collect it. Whilst customer feedback can be useful in measuring service performance against the law firm’s aspirations (which in turn can also help drive the performance of its people), its real value lies in giving the business key information about how it can improve the quality and delivery of the service and products that it offers; it is key to ensuring the business improves and develops in line with customer expectation and demand.

Customer feedback can be used to improve an individual customer’s experience; so for example, at Lyons Davidson we collate feedback during the transaction with the customer, not just at the end. This gives us the ability to address any concerns the customer may have and make any necessary improvements before he reaches the end of the transaction.

Customer feedback should also be used to make improvements to the overall service delivery and product development within a law firm. At Lyons Davidson we collated 17,000 customer feedback responses in 2016 and that has given us a wealth of information

06 The Legal Consumer

on differing aspects and issues within our business from which service, quality and product improvement have been developed.

As a sector we should care about what our customers have to say and proactively seek their feedback on their experience so that we drive better quality and service overall. Providing that feedback should be made easy for the customer. At Lyons Davidson we collate client feedback using text, email and/or post, depending on the nature of the transaction and the type of customer.

If the sector were to listen to the customer and action the feedback, this should improve the overall quality and service, but also shape the sector to be much more customer focused, ultimately improving accessibility.

Q A

What impact will the Ministry of Justice’s personal injury reforms have on consumer access to legal services?

There has been much speculation about access to legal services after the reforms. The proposed changes to the small claims track means that where customers have relied on the costs recovery from the other side to pay for their legal representation, this will no longer be available in a majority of motor personal injury claims. Under the reforms, the customer will need to pay for the service, and this in itself could limit access to representation.

The consumer is also likely to have less choice and potentially therefore less access within the market for legal representation in motor personal injury cases. There will be fewer law firms within the sector prepared to undertake motor personal injury cases because of the impact on the commercial value of the work post reform. Firms will need to invest in highly efficient processes, aided by sophisticated technology, to make the work commercially viable. For this reason, some firms will simply not survive in the new environment.

Products such as legal expenses insurance are likely to become more valuable post reform, providing access to justice to those that can’t afford to pay for legal representation.

Q A

What new and emerging technologies should law firms look to take advantage of in the next few years?

There is a wealth of interactive digital technology to improve customer communication. This type of engagement allows the customer the ability to interact with the law firm at a time convenient to them as well as streamlining the internal processes of the law firm, particularly where the digital engagement is linked to a case management system. Digital interaction with suppliers will also increase internal efficiencies.

The marketing of legal services would be greatly improved if there was more transparency around price, service and quality

May 2017

INTERVIEW

If the sector were to listen to the customer and action the feedback, this should improve the overall quality and service, but also shape the sector to be much more customer focused, ultimately improving accessibility Digital engagement is also important to increase the level of selfserve options available to the consumer. There is an increasing demand for self-serve legal solutions where the customer wants to remain responsible for dealing with their legal issue but with the comfort of some legal support and guidance. Self-serve not only minimises cost for the consumer, but also reflects the changing nature of the legal processs, which is becoming more streamlined with the use of online facilities and therefore encouraging consumers to self-help.

The advancement in analytic search engines will bring structure to those cases with large amounts of evidential data. In addition, law firms hold a vast amount of data in relation to the performance of third party suppliers and courts. Analytic search engines can establish trends in that data, allowing the law firm to take a strategic view of the information.

Q A

What are some of Lyons Davidson’s projects over the next twelve months?

What’s great about Lyons Davidson is that it doesn’t stand still. We have a number of exciting projects over the next twelve months, some driven by the legal reforms but many to develop and improve our service to the consumer.

In readiness for the personal injury reforms we have already made a significant investment in our technology to create a highly efficient and streamlined process that meets the commercial challenges around the reforms, but also importantly develops the way we interact with the consumer and the third party experts we may use to assist them. A key response to the reforms is providing our injury clients who don’t have legal expense insurance with the ability to complete much more of the process themselves, but within a structured and supportive legal environment.

We’re also working hard to develop our communication with customers. Some of our customers have access to our legal helpline 24 hours, 7 days a week, but we need to do more in terms of the options open to them. We understand that people are stretched for time and don’t always want to deal with us in usual office hours when often they’re at work themselves. We have developed our client portal so that consumers can communicate and make decisions about their legal matter at a time convenient to them and in a way that should be hassle free.

Michelle Lennaghan Michelle is the Commercial Director of Lyons Davidson Limited and is responsible for the operational delivery within the business. As a solicitor she managed the firm’s employment law practice. She moved to a role on the senior management team and became a Director on incorporation of the business.

Her operational responsibilities have included being involved in the design and implementation of some of Lyons Davidson’s consumer law solutions. She has played a pivotal role with her operations team in reviewing and improving customer experience and how customer feedback is generated. She has also been responsible for developing the businesses staff engagement programme to align it with its core values and ultimately drive better customer service.

Last year we launched our online document drafting service, which gives customers the opportunity to draft and download their own legal documents, including drafting their own will. We will continue to develop this over the course of the next twelve months, as well as launching an online document service for businesses.

Given the changes in our sector we have always seen it as important to maintain a diverse legal business. As such, we have a number of projects with new business partners, which will provide growth in areas such as non-motor personal injury, consumer legal services and business legal services. Watch this space.

May 2017

The Legal Consumer 07

The key things consumers usually look for are reputation, trust, convenience and a firm they feel provides good quality service

INTERVIEW

Lisa Beale While comparison sites have revolutionised the way consumers purchase insurance, the subjective nature of legal services makes them more difficult to compare. Lisa Beale, Checkaprofessional.com, explained to Modern Claims how pro-active firms should be seeking to collect and utilise customer feedback to help them stand out from the competition.

Q A

How do you believe the public currently perceives the legal sector?

The public use legal services only when they need to, and from our experience, a lot of people will say that they don’t know what they are looking for. They will just see a solicitor and no one else. They will often ask a friend, family or work colleague, so they are not always aware of the differences in types of legal service.

There is a large majority of consumers out there who have the perception that legal services are going to be expensive and feel that they are unapproachable, as they do not understand enough about their services and who they will be dealing with to feel comfortable.

Q A

Other than price, what are the key things consumers look for when purchasing legal services?

The key things consumers usually look for are reputation, trust, convenience and a firm they feel provides good quality service. The biggest issue for the clients we have been speaking with is that they often feel frustrated or have been let down in the past, as they have experienced bad service levels and a lack in communication. This is why so many consumers are keen to view previous clients’ experiences, as you can only get good value for money if you receive good service.

Q A

What are the different methods available to law firms for collecting customer feedback?

Most law firms are doing their own customer service questionnaires. A lot of feedback that I get from those firms is that they have to do the CSQs, but there is a crossover and they are trying to look towards doing other independent feedback.

What they don’t want to do is bombard their clients. However, they do agree that although the CSQs are important and are needed for their CPD, it is not independent. By the time the CSQs come back to them they are not useable or powerful enough and then they’re just filed.

independence goes out of the window. If we could get to the point where independence is given in the place of CSQs, it would make more sense and hopefully be more useable for regulators, firms and prospective clients.

Q A

How have aggregator sites evolved to meet changing consumer demands in recent years?

They have evolved because of demand. After nineteen years of Checkatrade, there are still so many people that come back for our services because they enjoy being able to make an informed choice.

The legal service sector is one of the last where there is no choice in the way of independent reviews, and this would benefit both providers and prospective clients. Comparison sites have evolved because people appreciate and value being able to make an informed choice, something that started out in sectors like insurance, hotels and restaurants; even when buying a hoover or a toaster you can go online and look at reviews.

Consumers feel empowered to make confident decisions and feed off others experiences.

Let people have a choice, wherever possible, about all those who are available for them to engage the services of, rather than the choice being made for them

Independent feedback is more powerful because it actually gives realistic feedback that is genuine, whereas if somebody is filling out feedback and sending it back to the firm, they may feel that they do not want to put down certain things, and so that

May 2017

The Legal Consumer 09

INTERVIEW

The biggest issue for the clients we have been speaking with is that they often feel frustrated or have been let down in the past, as they have experienced bad service levels and a lack in communication

Q A

How do customers of legal services compare them with other types of products or services?

Quite simply, they currently do not have many ways of being able to compare, which can lead to a lack of understanding, or for some, complaints, as they have been unable to make an informed choice like they do for many other goods and services.

Price is a factor, however, people are looking to find out what they are going to pay, because legal services are an unknown service; they don’t know what they’re getting for their money, and service is therefore very important.

Q A

How can law firms better utilise smartphone and app technology to deliver improved customer service?

It is about giving prospective clients as much information as possible. It is reported that there are still some law firms out there that have no websites, and some have very confusing websites, or very limited information. Firms are going to have to engage in the technology and platforms their clients are using, and this should be clean, clear and simple, with no barriers like requesting clients register to use. Private data is precious, so requesting this information at the outset will be off-putting.

When instructing a law firm, we are often informed who will be dealing with the service, but with this we often only perceive what we think the next steps are going to be to carry out the service required. Of course, when we receive the invoice at the end of the service provided, it can be questioned whether we have received the service we thought we were and what we are being asked to pay for! The comparison is therefore more about the quality of services; it is about that customer journey and the person whose services have been engaged.

Q

For legal service providers, the mind-set is often that choice is all about price. The price is important for prospective clients, but as with many things, quality of service, good customer service and understanding of the client’s needs, all help the client justify the price. When they are provided with the tools to make an informed choice, which can be easily accessed without any barriers, and they have independent evidence of previous service levels experienced, the client feels empowered to make a choice.

Provide information on service levels expected and, wherever possible, the chance to check this out completely independently.

Placing testimonials on a firm’s own site that they have collected does not give a completely independent view, so, although they are lovely to see, these are not always trusted. If you provide the tools to make a choice, then you are showing that you value your clients, which in turn will gain or keep their confidence and their business.

Q A

Is there a danger of customer feedback on legal services being based on outcomes rather than quality of service?

From day one, the Checka brand has always been about the quality of service and the customer journey. We currently ask five questions, and those five questions are all about this customer journey.

In the nearly four years we have been obtaining feedback on legal services, I can genuinely say that not one person has come back and commented on whether they have won or lost a case. For our users, they like and enjoy the idea of being able to make an informed choice, via third party verified feedback. Our sites receive around 1.3 million visits a month and have become a trusted, household name around the UK.

Sadly, there are firms who are concerned, almost scared, of customer feedback because they may receive negative comments

Do you believe there is a need for increased transparency in legal services, and what forms could increased transparency take?

A

The approach should be very much about showing prospective clients information on all those who provide legal services within the firm. Let people have a choice, wherever possible, about all those who are available for them to engage the services of, rather than the choice being made for them.

Q A

Are law firms currently doing enough to market themselves, and where are there areas for improvement in this?

Some firms are really doing well. We have some really pro-active firms out there, and they are very transparent and trying to open themselves up; they are making themselves more accessible.

Most businesses will have separate IT and marketing departments, and they will have set budgets in those departments; these don’t necessarily have to be fortunes, just organised and carried out by those who can concentrate on them. Unfortunately, some law firms don’t; they either do their marketing between partners or they will sometimes instruct someone on an ad-hoc or part-time basis, but they don’t allow that person to make any decisions. Every decision still has to come back to the partners, who often do not have the time or the knowledge in these areas, however they still hold the final yes or no vote to take an idea forward!

Some firms see the value in the concept, however they are concerned and often frightened by change. But law firms are in competition with each other whether they like it or not; they are businesses and they’ve got to attract clients and make profits. And like most businesses, they have to realise that in order to reach clients, they have to step out of their comfort zone and plough money back into their IT and marketing departments to survive.

Q A

How do you see the acquisition and utilisation of customer feedback by law firms changing in the future?

Firms are now becoming a lot more open to customer feedback. I think that there are pro-active firms that are realising the benefits, and other firms realise it but won’t take advantage of it until they see their competitor take it up before

10 The Legal Consumer

May 2017

INTERVIEW

Law firms are in competition with each other whether they like it or not; they are businesses and they’ve got to attract clients and make profits they do. This will always cause them to be a follower and not a leader, which I don’t understand, as not many businesses can afford to adopt this concept now.

Sadly, there are firms who are concerned, almost scared, of customer feedback because they may receive negative comments, which is natural. We usually find that it takes them a good two to six months to get their heads around the concept properly.

Some of them are tentative on how feedback is used and promoted, however when they start experiencing how powerful the independent feedback is, they embrace it, and they become almost reliant on it.

We have received feedback from our members along the lines of: “we’ve had people come back to us, and even though we may not have been the cheapest or the most expensive in the area, they’ve read the reviews, and they like what they’ve read and decided to use our services”.

If firms were to utilise customer feedback in the future, it would provide the clients of those pro-active firms with the transparency they require, who would in turn reward them for this, as they will welcome this open view of their services. We often hear of prospective clients who have been able to check information on our site and have chosen those on our site over others they may have previously been viewing to engage the services of.

Lisa Beale Having originally worked in London for a large global bank, Lisa was responsible for a wide range of financial services.

She was then able to use these skills to set up her own mortgage advisory business dealing directly with clients and ensuring they obtained the best possible mortgage deal.

This attention to detail and experience of dealing with clients on a one to one basis put Lisa in good stead, and on joining Checkatrade she was placed in charge of pushing the business forward, from a 500 membership base to nearly 7000, before being asked to head up the new and much requested sister site Checkaprofessional.com.

May 2017

The Legal Consumer 11

INTERVIEW

Rebecca Conway Legal expenses insurance is often overlooked by consumers at the time they require it, but, as Rebecca Conway, Arc Legal, explained to Modern Claims, its profile could be raised with the implementation of reforms to personal injury.

Q A

How will legal expenses insurance (LEI) evolve following the introduction of personal injury reforms?

Increasing the small claims track limit to £5,000 will mean that solicitors’ costs will no longer be recoverable from the opponent. Therefore, LEI will have even greater relevance to customers, as the policy will now pay these costs, ensuring that customers receive 100% of their damages.

This will create greater focus on the claims process, with solicitors efficiency being driven by the LEI providers or alternative servicing models considered to limit the premium impact to customers arising from these additional claim costs.

This is particularly relevant with the new tariff of compensation to be introduced for whiplash claims, as the costs of bringing those claims must be proportionate to the potential compensation available to the claimant.

There will no longer be a ‘one size fits all’ approach to legal expenses and the focus will be on ensuring that the product remains relevant and continues to deliver value.

Q A

What effect will a tariff system for personal injury compensation have on LEI?

The tariff system will put a cap on the compensation available to claimants, and therefore any costs incurred under an LEI policy to bring about those claims must be proportionate to the level of compensation available. We are working with our legal partners to create new servicing models, which will make this achievable.

For straight forward, low value claims, greater automation and elements of self-servicing need to be given significant consideration to achieve proportionality of costs.

Q

How does LEI differ in the UK from other countries, and are there areas of the UK LEI market that can be improved by adopting practices from other countries?

A

The key difference between the UK and the rest of Europe is that most continental countries offer standalone products, making them much more expensive. The UK has adopted a lower cost, add-on structure. For example, in Germany, purchasing LEI is seen to be as important as home and car insurance, whereby the UK market considers LEI as a secondary purchase. This has been largely driven by the difference in the cost recovery position.

Q A

Is there enough knowledge about LEI among consumers, and what can be done to create more awareness?

Many customers are unaware that they have LEI, so we need to highlight this and explain its benefits, encouraging them to call the legal helpline and giving them access to a law firm that could help. The legal helpline is important as it is the first point of contact for the customer seeking support or information about their issue.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have released a number of reviews relating to general insurance products. We

12 The Legal Consumer

For straight forward, low value claims, greater automation and elements of self-servicing need to be given significant consideration to achieve proportionality of costs support their move to improve consumers’ understanding and confidence in LEI products, and we actively work with all our partners to provide product and sales training. This is to make sure the customer understands the extent of the coverage, its benefits and any exclusions in the product.

Q A

What are some of the biggest challenges currently facing Arc Legal as LEI brokers, and how is it meeting these?

The sector has experienced a number of changes in the past few years. While others who have relied on generating income from claims have faced challenges to their business models, our position of only ever earning income through the premiums we charge has enabled us to concentrate on continuing to develop our products and services in the best interests of our partners’ customers. We therefore view any change as an opportunity, rather than a threat.

May 2017

INTERVIEW

In Germany, purchasing LEI is seen to be as important as home and car insurance, whereby the UK market considers LEI as a secondary purchase

Q A

What benefits or pitfalls does bundling LEI insurance present to both LEI providers and consumers?

Unbreakable ‘add on bundles’ are not permitted under FCA rules, however, including LEI within the underlying motor or home insurance policy, for example, will enhance the value of that product. However, the difficulty with embedded cover is the lack of customer awareness of the product; the customer may not know that they have LEI as they have not opted in, and usage could therefore be lower.

This does depend on the sales method for the underlying policy. If the customer was made aware of the full extent of the policy, they will have a better understanding of its benefits and will be more likely to use it.

We continuously work with our partners to increase customer product awareness and utilisation.

Q

Why do you believe some consumers choose not to purchase LEI, and what could be done to incentivise more people to purchase it?

A

A lack of product understanding means that many consumers think LEI only covers personal injury. We therefore need to increase awareness of the product features and highlight successful claims examples to reinforce its full coverage.

The impact of personal recommendations may have a role to play as consumers will look to the advice of a trusted friend or family member.

Q A

What additional benefits does LEI provide to those consumers who ultimately don’t claim on it?

Rebecca Conway Arc Legal Assistance are a leading provider of Legal Expenses Insurance and assistance services in the UK and Republic of Ireland, managing in the region of 15m Legal Expenses Insurance policies. Working with insurers, intermediaries, financial institutions and affinity groups, Arc Legal’s focus is upon delivering ‘best in market’ bespoke solutions.

As a qualified lawyer, Rebecca has worked both in private practice and within a number of legal expenses insurance organisations. Rebecca began her career at Arc Legal as Claims Manager and was one of the five original members of the business, working alongside the founding directors from 2005.

Since then, she has played a pivotal role in shaping and delivering Arc’s claims function and is now Head of Claims and Operations. Her responsibilities include the management of Arc Legal’s claims team, auditing of partner solicitors and implementation and overview of claims operations.

There will no longer be a ‘one size fits all’ approach to legal expenses and the focus will be on ensuring that the product remains relevant and continues to deliver value

Alongside legal services, customers also have 24/7 access to a legal helpline; providing advice on a range of personal and business matters.

LEI can offer a “lifeline” to a small commercial enterprise, providing them with access to a helpline and online documents.

We also have a range of other helplines available, such as a Debt Counselling helpline, Domestic helpline, Lifestyle Counselling helpline and Health and Medical Information Service.

Commercial LEI often provides cover that would only be required by businesses rather than an individual, e.g. cover for defending a health and safety prosecution or tax investigation and cover for directors.

We can also provide customers with an online legal document service that gives them 24/7 access to useful forms and templates that they can draft themselves; along with online guidance that may allow them to settle their own disputes prior to needing a lawyer.

However, we do see a crossover in the needs of commercial and personal customers, for example in our Cyber Support offering. We currently provide a Cyber Support product for SMEs, providing 24/7 assistance to help them survive a cyber-attack and loss of personal information. Since launching the product, we have received enough client feedback to lead us to develop a new personal cyber product, aimed at individuals rather than businesses. This product is still in development but we are looking to launch within Q2 of 2017.

Q A

How do the needs of commercial LEI customers differ to private policyholders, and how will these needs change in the future?

Commercial customers are usually more aware of the consequences of litigation, and therefore the benefits of LEI. The consequences of litigation on a business can be catastrophic and carry higher costs, so the need for LEI is paramount.

Q A

Commercial LEI is available for sole traders, right through to large corporations. This range of customers means that their needs will vary. A sole trader or small partnership will not have the resources of a large corporation, i.e. no dedicated HR or legal department.

Following the FCA thematic reviews, greater focus will be placed in increasing cover and product value, rather than price.

May 2017

How else do you predict LEI will change in the future?

The PI reforms and restriction on the ability to recover costs from the defendant will mean that LEI should gain prominence as a means of accessing justice. The LEI products on offer in the market will also need to adapt to the current reforms.

The Legal Consumer 13

The danger with measurement is that you pursue a high score or cost and you forget that customers choose you for such specific reasons [‌] It is really important that companies are clear on that and don’t just chase the numbers at any cost

INTERVIEW

Dr Tom Wormald In an outcomes based service like legal services, it can be all too easy for firms to overlook the fact that results and price aren’t always the primary influences on provider choice, and that service and customer experience should always be an important part of a business’s offering, as Dr Tom Wormald, Deliberata, explained to Modern Claims.

Q A

Generally, how have consumer attitudes towards the products and services they buy changed in the 21st century?

There is a lot of discussion at the moment about the significant shift in the balance of power between consumers and businesses. Rightly, much of this commentary focuses on the fact that customers can now go on social media and use review sites to share experiences. But it’s also important to recognise that more immediate and multichannel ways of shopping are becoming open to people all the time. New entrants are disrupting existing markets by offering new levels of choice and experience to customers – just ask taxi drivers! So if customers don’t enjoy the experience of doing business with an organisation the way they want, it is a lot easier for them to take their business elsewhere than it used to be, both in terms of the channels available but also in terms of the range of competition.

So businesses really need to consider these big shifts. But at the same time, we should be careful about throwing the baby out with the bathwater. By this, I mean that I don’t believe that the underlying objectives of what customers want to achieve has changed enormously. Customers’ expectations about what convenience means today are different to what they were fifty years ago. But the fact that customers want convenience isn’t a new thing; customers have always wanted convenience, it is just always relative to the service opportunities that they perceive to exist.

A key message from all this is that businesses shouldn’t feel tempted to try and pursue new elements of service, like convenience, that they didn’t focus on in the past. Instead, the challenge is to hold true to the values the brand is known for and to recognise and invest in the best way to deliver those to customers in the new world.

Q

How do you feel the public perceives the legal sector, and what should firms be doing to dispel any apprehension from consumers?

A

I suspect that many consumers would see the legal sector as somewhat outside of that change. People don’t expect to be able to do business with a legal firm in the way they deal with other service providers, and they probably think the sector hasn’t changed in the same way that their shopping habits have changed.

I imagine in some respects there are low expectations around the sophistication of the experience legal firms offer to their customers. In general, customers expect to have to fit round how a legal firm works, not the other way round. But this should not be seen as a reason not to change. In fact, it suggests that there

May 2017

is a real opportunity in the sector to differentiate by beginning to tackle those perceptions and to sell far more on a service based proposition than they have done in the past.

Q A

How do you define customer success, and what does this mean for consumers of legal services?

There is a really important relationship between buying a product or service and buying an experience. You’ve got to see that when buying a product or service, you are also inevitably buying an experience.

Consumers now have more choice and the ability to easily access organisations that do business in the way they prefer.

As in every sector, new entrants are disrupting existing markets through propositions much more tightly focused on the customer experience. So, those who like convenience can find businesses that do it conveniently, while those who like security, safety and reassurance can find businesses that do it that way. The point is that increasingly, everybody sells widgets, but customers now can, and do, exercise much greater choice over how they buy that widget.

And this in turn relates to perceived value. Customers will pay potentially premium prices if they can find organisations that help them do business the way they want. Customer success in those terms really comes down to the idea that if you can help

The medical sector does a lot of work around customer choice and customer service in an environment where, typically, doctors say that how they heal people is neither here nor there as long as they heal people. Legal businesses have been in the same place for a long time

The Legal Consumer 15

INTERVIEW

By understanding the outcomes that a customer values, and the service elements that customers really appreciate, you can then measure how people use you, and see where the opportunity is to make a difference your customer achieve his or her goals, and thereby help them do business and be successful “in the way they want to work”, you as a business will be successful too.

It is often seen that companies’ growth strategies require them to make a choice between lowering costs and being more efficient or investing in customer service. Actually, one doesn’t have to be the enemy of the other. You don’t have to choose between quality service and more profitability; in fact, you can deliver one through the other by understanding the experiences your customers really want and focusing your efforts only on what’s important.

Q

How can specialist service providers like law firms help their clients, who may be unfamiliar with the litigation process, understand the services they are buying?

A

You buy legal services because you don’t understand something and need an expert to do it on your behalf; customers don’t understand the detail of what it is they are buying, otherwise they wouldn’t need to buy it. They need to take it for granted that you’re a legal expert. So expertise in law is not a true differentiator for law firms in the customer’s eyes.

While customers are not experts in legal services, they are experts in knowing what they want as customers. It is the businesses who sell expert services of any kind, legal in this case, who must be able to articulate the service proposition and tell their customer, “you can trust us to do the legal expertise, but we understand how you want to do business and we want to do business with you like that”.

In an outcomes focused service like legal services, customer service and experience is still important. The customer has to trust you on the basis of outcomes and they will look at your performance metrics, but actually the opportunity lies in the service proposition.

Q A

What is the importance of measuring customer feedback, and how does this change for legal services?

You need to be able to demonstrate that you perform in a way that customers value, that they are satisfied, that they would recommend you and that you are easy to do business with.

I would say that that is true for any sector where you have to deal with customers.

As far as this demonstration goes, customer feedback doesn’t necessarily need to be something that the organisation itself collects. In the era of review sites we live in now, the customer has probably put more stock in those more independent measures and feedback sources than they do in a brand or organisation’s

The customer has to trust you on the basis of outcomes and they will look at your performance metrics, but actually the opportunity lies in the service proposition 16 The Legal Consumer

own measures of success. It is much more believable to see other customers on an independent site rating of an organisation than if you go to the organisation’s website and they claim 90% of their customers are satisfied. That’s an interesting challenge for the measurement business.

Another consideration is the difference between measurement and diagnosis. Measurement tells you how you’re performing in the customer’s eyes, but is less good at explaining why. What are the actual drivers of success or failure? What is it about you that makes customers like you? What is it about the way you do business that your customers rate highly? The danger with measurement is that you pursue a high score or cost and you forget that customers choose you for such specific reasons, such as the nature of the service you have. It is really important that companies are clear on that and don’t just chase the numbers at any cost.

Q A

What are the potential applications of big data that law firms should seek to take advantage of?

Data is very typically seen as an opportunity for businesses to achieve some competitive advantage; “we can be more efficient, more effective, we can plan better, and we can resource things better”. That’s all potentially very true. But what progressive businesses will also consider is where interesting opportunities may exist around how businesses use data to improve the service that they offer to a customer.

By understanding the outcomes that a customer values, and the service elements that customers really appreciate, you can then measure how people use you, and see where the opportunity is to make a difference. An organisation can begin to see areas where it knows the customer values a particular element of service, but currently is much slower than it could be on that element. The data reveals that the business is actually being quite inefficient there from a customer perspective, so let’s zero in on that and put in a real effort to change it.

Q

Are there approaches to customer services the legal sector could adopt from recognisable innovative and disruptive businesses that have emerged in the 21st century, such as Amazon, for example?

A

Amazon is a great example of this. Amazon’s website isn’t the best looking website out there, and it hasn’t really changed in years. Other businesses are investing significant amounts of money into websites that look flashy, but Amazon understands that people don’t choose to use them for the website or for the fancy colours and animations. Amazon understands that what people value in them is something different, and they are single minded about pursuing that. So they don’t waste any time or effort in making a fancy website, when actually that will not improve the customer perception or experience and could even have the opposite effect, by making what is currently a very simple and clean process more complicated or prone to technical glitches.

Organisations that are really successful are the ones that have a very clear sense of what it is about them that customers value, and they pursue those things ruthlessly and do not allow themselves to get distracted by ultimately overserving customers; putting time and effort into things that customers won’t appreciate, and which won’t therefore improve the service proposition.

May 2017

INTERVIEW

You don’t have to choose between quality service and more profitability; in fact, you can deliver one through the other

Q

What is meant by the productisation of legal services, and what are its possible effects on the service provided to consumers?

A

We now live in a price comparison website world; what is it that you put into one hundred words to explain yourself as a business on a website that will make you stand out? The danger or the challenge is that that environment really pushes price to the fore as a key determiner of choice.

If you’ve got a list of companies selling services you don’t really understand, and the only thing you can see different about them is the price, then price will come to the fore. However, we know from all sectors that given the choice, customers will value other things about a business over the price.

Customers will pay more, and feel like they are getting value, if they genuinely believe the service will deliver what they want. It’s only when you reduce the whole thing to simply cost that price becomes the most important determiner.

Q A

How do you predict consumer behaviours will evolve in the future, and how do law firms need to adapt to meet these?

We will see the continuation of the trend that we have discussed. There will be inevitably more productisation, and in some respects a bit of race to the bottom on price of certain things. That is a challenge for legal businesses, who are going to see a decline in some of their higher margin areas, where they are ultimately churning out lower expertise services and making good money out of it. They might see themselves taking a bit of a hit in those areas, because price comparison will drive lower margins and the need for more competitiveness and efficiency.

That is all to the good of the consumer, but some legal businesses might not feel it’s good for them! And of course there are always going to be those areas where productisation is less possible, where the genuine expertise is required and where it continues to deal with a more complicated buying process.

But whether it’s about how you survive at the more productised end of the spectrum and drive more customer volume, or how you sell your complex bespoke services effectively, ultimately customers are going to buy the experience. The challenge becomes an opportunity, in which businesses can succeed by being clear about the experience they want to offer, recognising the target customer group and where their opportunity exists, and going after it ruthlessly.

There is quite a strong narrative here around the importance of service. The medical sector does a lot of work around customer choice and customer service in an environment where, typically, doctors say that how they heal people is neither here nor there as long as they heal people. Legal businesses have been in the same place for a long time, claiming it’s not their job to make customers smile, it’s their job to deliver prompt and effective legal services.

Dr Tom Wormald Tom has over 20 years of experience using innovative tools and techniques to understand behaviour on behalf of high profile clients across the commercial and public sectors and as an academic researcher.

He is currently Managing Director of Deliberata, a new insight consultancy established with the support of the Institute of Customer Service, the UK’s independent professional membership body for customer service. Deliberata is focused on the concept of customer success – a customercentric approach to insight that helps organisations align their business objectives with what their customers want to achieve, delivering both greater return on investment in customer experience and improved operational efficiency.

Previously, Tom was Director of Future Insights at the research agency ICM Unlimited, building new data collection and analysis approaches to help clients respond to the challenges of the digital age. He has also served as a strategic consultant in the public sector, helping to establish the public engagement team at the COI. Before embarking on his commercial career, Tom’s work as an academic anthropologist explored the role of technological change in Hungary in shaping public attitudes to the country’s accession to the European Union.

But actually there is a real opportunity in specialist expert services to recognise the potential goals and benefits of the service element, because ultimately customers are not just buying your product, they are buying how you provide that product and the experience as well. And in fact, it is this that will cause them to choose one company over another.

May 2017

The Legal Consumer 17

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Consumer Roundtable As consumer expectations towards the products they buy continue to evolve, it becomes increasingly clearer that the legal sector isn’t keeping up with this change. Modern Claims gathered a roundtable of experts to discuss consumer perceptions of law, and how the sector can adapt to provide better service for the contemporary consumer.

ML. Consumer legal services to individuals and small businesses alone is estimated to generate a turnover of £11-12 billion. The Legal Services Act 2007 created alternative business structures, which allowed non-lawyers to own and manage law firms. The intention of the Act was to introduce more competition, more capital investment and to encourage different management skills to deliver more options and choice for the consumer. It was anticipated that a number of non-legal brands would seek to capitalise on this opportunity. Consumer legal services has been in sharp focus since the introduction of the Act, with reports by YouGov, the Legal Services Board and more recently the Competition and Markets Authority on the effectiveness of the provision of legal services to the consumer. So, is pricing the most important factor for customers when choosing products and services, and what other factors may influence their choice?

TW. We look at the world by trying to understand what customers are trying to achieve. That seems like a straightforward question, but in almost every case customers have more going on under the bonnet; how they want to do business as well as what they want to achieve is critically important. Obviously, for some customers the marker of success will be price. But for other customers, other things will stand out, whether that’s the sense of trust they have or the speed of the service. What is it that you as an organisation want to be known for? The challenge then becomes how to quantify that marketplace and know the messages that will resonate amongst that customer group, particularly when you’re talking about something potentially emotionally challenging as legal services.

DB. All sectors have had to learn to understand the customers’ motivations and aspirations and the emotions they’re experiencing in their particular circumstance. Pricing is just one component of that, and the empathy and understanding is really important too.

There’s more that we can do as a sector to express this empathy.

ReCo. Accessibility is another big point; consumers need to be able to access services easily from their tablets or phones. They’re used to Amazon culture, and although that’s completely different to what we’re selling, they still want that speed of transaction. We recently launched a new online claims system to make it easier for people to make a legal expense claim, and we had to get the language right; they’re not doing something fun, like booking a holiday, they’ve got a legal dispute. You have to make the language modern, but not too light-hearted, because otherwise it becomes flippant.

RC. In our research, reputation is the number one choice factor for individual consumers, and price is number two; for small businesses price is number four. Consumers are incredibly diverse, so it’s important not to try to overgeneralise.

20 The Legal Consumer

Attendees Michelle Lennaghan (ML), Commercial Director, Lyons Davidson - Chair Mark Savill (MS), Managing Director, Lyons Davidson Robert Cross (RC), Project Manager (Research), Legal Services Board Garry Simmons (GS), Head of HNW & Commercial Claims, Covéa Dr Tom Wormald (TW), Managing Director, Deliberata Lisa Beale (LB), Head, Checkaprofessional.com David Adam (DA), Senior Supplier Partnership Manager – Legal Services, RAC Rebecca Conway (ReCo), Head of Claims and Operations, Arc Legal Debbie Britton (DB), Marketing Director, National Accident Helpline

For those that have a legal problem and decide to handle it alone, 43% didn’t find out about costs because they assumed using a lawyer would be too expensive Robert Cross, Legal Services Board MS. The challenge in this whole area is understanding how consumers choose services and how they compare those services, and price is easy to compare. If you’re trying to bring in service quality, reputation or trust, it is difficult to see how consumers compare those elements to make that choice.

GS. We’re living in a world that has moved from mis-selling to mis-buying. Someone recently said to me, “all insurance policies are the same, aren’t they? I go on comparison sites and get the cheapest one”. Customers don’t see the inner level of detail. They might go for the brand, but it seems that price is still key, and it worries me that there’s such a lack of knowledge in the public around buying services.

ML. The recent Competition & Markets Authority report picked up that consumers approach the market without knowing what their legal need is, and there aren’t many places where they can have their problem diagnosed.

RC. People don’t recognise that a problem they have can be solved through a legal service, and that’s a big opportunity for the sector. You have to find the right measures for the particular consumer group you’re trying to offer your services to.

May 2017

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They’re not doing something fun, like booking a holiday, they’ve got a legal dispute. You have to make the language modern, but not too lighthearted, because otherwise it becomes flippant Rebecca Conway, Arc Legal LB. We’ve found most people aged 35-64 will say that price is a factor for any service, but the quality is more important, and they don’t mind paying for that. People want to learn through others’ experiences, and we’ve found that people are reading reviews for legal services. When we surveyed people about what they look for, the two things that came out on top were quality and that the provider was insured.

ML. When customers are considering these different factors, what do you think they consider is the value of brand recognition and brand association as against trusted recommendation?

DA. The RAC is without doubt a very well-known brand, having been serving motorists for 120 years, but even though we have more than eight million members, people naturally tend to think of us in terms of motoring and roadside rescue rather than providing them with the legal solution they need. This means our challenge is very different from many other companies as we already have a very large and loyal audience, so we just need to constantly remind them that we have a service which can help them. Therefore our objective is to make it as easy as possible for our members to know we are there for them and then live up to the trust they have in our brand.

ReCo. This is where personal recommendation comes in, possibly more than brand, because a consumer has heard the whole story from somebody they know and trust.

DB. The complexities in our sector make it hard for a consumer to see through, and that’s why recommendation and advocacy creates reassurance. Equally, we should create standout brands to help consumers choose, because our services are not something they regularly research.

MS. In the legal services sector there isn’t a set of recognisable brands like there are in insurance, and that’s the advantage that some of the recognisable brands moving into this sector have.

TW. In a complex sector you can’t expect consumers to be experts in the service they’re buying, that’s why they need legal support in the first place! But they will have a very strong understanding of what they want and how they expect that service to be delivered, the kind of service that matters to them. The brand is the business’s opportunity to connect, but it’s difficult to understand

May 2017

why your brand does so and what it is about you that different customers latch on to. So if you misuse that you end up getting the bad press, because your customer feels misled.

DB. Trust isn’t built, it’s earned, and the challenge is how to earn trust.

TW. You need to understand what trust means to a consumer, then deliver that again and again.

LB. Sometimes, people’s experience with a big brand isn’t good, because there are so many people within and they’re not all representing that brand as they should. Gone are the days when people can rest on a brand name. It’s got to go far deeper; I have to feel comfortable with who I’m actually dealing with, so for me experience is more important than brand.

ML. Could a brand as an intermediary give consumers confidence?

DA. In legal services, it should be assumed by the customer that if you exist as a law firm then you can be trusted. Our members trust us, and by virtue of that they can trust the law firms we trust. But if you put yourself out there as a big brand, everything you do has to live up to that trusted reputation, so standards, and our partners’ standards, have to be exceptionally high.

ReCo. Even if consumers get a reasonable outcome, it hasn’t been enjoyable, they don’t want to shout about good service.

RC. The potential power of brands is to get over some of those non-financial barriers to accessing legal services.

ML. What are the hurdles that prevent consumers accessing legal services, and how could affinity partnerships improve this?

ReCo. People see legal services as still being behind closed doors, and that’s an immediate hurdle; they’re scared of it.

DB. There’s the emotional hurdle too. It isn’t a pleasurable experience, like buying a car or a holiday; the service is linked to a bad experience of some description. You don’t go straight to a transactional exchange, you first have to decide what kind of service you need. It’s all wrapped up in emotion, be it nervousness, or anger, and it makes the decision much more complex.

The Legal Consumer 21

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RC. One big hurdle is the perception of cost, and not the actual cost.

Most people naturally perceive lawyers as too expensive. The CMA picked up on this as a result of the lack of transparency around price.

TW. Would we see these as barriers to using legal services at all?

Or is there a second set of barriers once you have decided to use legal services about who you will choose?

RC. There are at least two stages in the process: recognising a problem that I need a law firm for, and then deciding which one to use. Each consumer will have a set of different issues. For those that have a legal problem and decide to handle it alone, 43% didn’t find out about costs because they assumed using a lawyer would be too expensive.

ML. According to the CMA report only 17% of all lawyers advertise their prices on their website, so trying to make comparisons is really difficult as a consumer.

ReCo. Lots of people don’t even know they’ve got legal expenses insurance, so highlighting that they have it and advising them to call the legal helpline if they do have a problem gives them access to a law firm that can help them. The legal helpline that solicitors provide is key, because it’s the first time that the consumer is speaking to anyone about this problem. So having empathetic legal advisors who don’t just recite what the law says is important as well.

DB. A high proportion of our customers choose National Accident Helpline because it provides a toe in the water to understanding the claims route. There is value in having this type of interaction early on to break down some of those barriers.

GS. In most of the high net claims we have, there is some distress, but I read glowing testimonials every single week, and they’re not about us paying; they’re about the manner in which we’ve cared and helped the customer. It’s about tone of voice, not having scripts, vulnerable customer training and empathy. We provide HNW for well-known brands and customers are willing to pay that little bit extra from a trusted brand. In the early discussions with key brands, one of their biggest fears is, naturally, whether we were going to damage their brand, so it’s got to be all about the customer service, as well as the technical aspects of the product you’re providing.

TW. We say the customer isn’t buying what you think you’re selling; you’re selling legal services, but the customer is buying reassurance or trust or the solution to a challenge they face in their lives. Therefore, the journey from the customer’s perspective is likely to have begun long before they ever make contact; by the time they reach a touch point they may have already done 75% of the decision making, and they’ll come with a very strong set of priorities for the type of service they want to achieve.

22 The Legal Consumer

There’s a uniqueness in legal services in that only the outcome matters. Some lawyers are difficult to connect with, but if they get a good outcome does that matter?

David Adam, RAC ML. So can affinity partnerships diagnose and soften the introduction to legal services?

DA. We try to constantly remind our members that they have access to legal advice, yet we find time and time again that they forget this when they need it. People can have legal expenses insurance in several different places and not realise it, and it’s difficult to spread awareness. It ties back to this fear, or procrastination, of tackling a problem.

LB. Do affinity partnerships take the informed choice away from the client, as they don’t check the service of the provider they’re passed on to?

DA. We avoid the use of any language that would imply we recommend you speak to a specific solicitor. The language we do use is very soft, and is purely there to say you can go use your own solicitor or we can put you in touch with our partner.

LB. I’m sure there are other affinity groups who don’t offer that.

We see complaints when people feel they’re passed on to a firm without a choice. You’re only as good as the firm you refer a customer to, and if they do something bad it lets the brand down.

MS. As a supplier, we remind all of our people that we’re being given somebody else’s customer, and that affinity partner relies on us to get it right, since there’s a lot of trust in that introduction.

ML. And some of those affinity partnerships can drive behavioural change in law firms, since they have to behave in a way that reflects the brand. So when deciding on the purchase of legal services, what funding options are available to consumers and what knowledge do consumers have of them?

RC. Our research shows that most consumers pay for legal services using their savings, and in that research only 0.4% of consumers had their service paid for by insurance across all case types.

May 2017

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To a lot of customers, winning isn’t everything. More than ever, the way the service is delivered is as important as the outcome Debbie Britton, National Accident Helpline ReCo. A lot of people think legal expenses insurance only covers them for personal injury, so lack of understanding is another challenge for us to get over.

RC. A lot of union members often have a subscription to legal services as well, and many weren’t aware of that. Then when I renew my car insurance, there’s a reminder that I have legal cover, but that’s just once a year.

MS. It comes back to the transparency point. The legal services market is moving very firmly towards fixed fees, but there’s little awareness with consumers that these exist.

TW. Does fixed fees imply a productisation of legal services?

MS. It gives confidence and certainty. It demystifies legal services and makes it clear it is a product, and that’s not a bad thing at all.

TW. And that puts more onus on the service and how that product is delivered, because ultimately it will be easier for consumers who are not legal experts to compare and choose in a productised model.

ML. Should it be incumbent on the legal sector to make all potential funding options clear to the customer when they come through the door?

RC. That still misses the group of people who have opted not to use legal services in the first place because they think they can’t afford it. Tackling that expands demand in the sector, so everyone benefits.

GS. It’s easier to note the need in insurance because we have TV adverts.

LB. It’s not promoted enough, so perhaps there’s a problem in general marketing.

ML. How is service quality measured, or should it be measured, and communicated to consumers, and could the legal sector improve these practices?

good return rate; in 2016 we received feedback from over 17,000 customers. When we have our initial contact we move to collect some measurement by SMS; it’s immediate, simple and customers are happy to do that. We ask for it at the end of a legal matter, as well as doing interim service questionnaires. It makes a real difference if you can identify issues in the middle of the transaction and adjust the service for the customer. We don’t publish that feedback, and maybe we should. But would people trust it, or would it just be seen as marketing?

GS. That’s where it comes down to the culture of the firm. We wanted to look at flood claims, which are very emotional claims, so we actually sent our claims handlers to visit customers at home.

They were surprised at how many of them broke down in tears.

They normally just see a name, but when they saw all that emotion, they realised the impact they can have.

ML. There isn’t a general quality mark in the legal sector, so the consistency of approach is hard to achieve.

RC. The other side of quality is complaints, and the challenge for the Legal Ombudsman is the context of complaints. That’s where a quality mark could be very beneficial.

LB. The downfall of a lot of firms is putting feedback from their own surveys on their website, because people will think you’ve just cherry picked it.

GS. We should still do our own surveys, and we should do our own benchmarking as an industry. But there often appears to be disconnect between what a firm is saying and what we believe their customers are saying.

LB. In the early days of the internet, the big companies took it by storm and everyone believed what was on their websites. Now, anybody can set up their own business or website and say what they want to say, and that’s why we see mistrust among consumers.

ML. It does feel like there needs to be a central pull to get the sector into the right drive to understand and improve quality.

TW. Measuring service quality is critical in any business. A lot of companies will promote that they have the highest satisfaction levels, but consumers want to see a positive improvement in the service based on the feedback they’ve given, not just to be told the company is great. There is a danger of lumping together feedback, impairing your ability to take action by assuming one score speaks for everybody.

RC. The CMA’s recommendations should provide that push, and they’ve set a timetable of three years, so let’s see where we are then.

DB. One issue for the sector in measuring customer satisfaction is a lack of feedback volume; the number of claims per year in any category is so much smaller when compared to, for example, a restaurant with customers passing through every night, or an online retailer with volume transactions. So it’s more difficult to measure with statistical validity.

DA. There’s a uniqueness in legal services in that only the outcome matters. Some lawyers are difficult to connect with, but if they get a good outcome does that matter?

ML. Do we have a problem as a sector with challenging ourselves to measure quality, since only 24% of firms give out customer satisfaction forms at the end of the customer experience?

TW. At the end of the day, there is a danger that productisation is dampening the specialist element of legal services, since inevitably it becomes more of a tradable item. What’s interesting is that in this context, perceptions of customer service, rather than the legal expertise itself, becomes a core point of differentiation from the consumer’s point of view.

ReCo. We measure service by auditing solicitors. We don’t sell to the public so we don’t share the results. We share them with our panel firms, but the firms don’t publish them either; is it worth doing that?

MS. We work hard to get customer feedback, and we get a

May 2017

TW. It’s endlessly fascinating to see how different sectors value customer service. In something as specialist as legal services, is there the danger of an assumption that it’s not up to the consumer to judge, since they’re not experts?

DB. To a lot of customers, winning isn’t everything. More than ever, the way the service is delivered is as important as the outcome.

ML. What is the importance of consumer protection, regulatory control and consumer rights in legal services?

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RC. Regulation in the legal sector is vital, as it demonstrates to consumers that the people they go to can be trusted, and it keeps rogue professionals out of the market. About half of legal service consumers checked their provider was regulated, and the other half assumed this.

TW. Even in a rapidly changing world, the sorts of service outcomes customers are looking for remain remarkably consistent. Some companies think they have to change things because the world is changing, rather than looking at the customer’s point of view, and the customer wants consistency in that changing environment.

GC. The firms who have something to fear and have bad practises are usually the ones moaning about regulation.

ML. So in this environment what is the role of legal expenses insurance as understood by consumers, and how will this change in the future?

DA. It forces good behaviours in non-SRA regulated businesses as well. We have to conduct ourselves in a certain way to allow our panel solicitors to remain compliant, so the regulatory teeth go right through the supply chain. The consumer might not take an interest in that, but it’s a good thing for them.

ReCo. Legal expenses insurance will become more important, so trying to raise its profile is the challenge.

ML. What have been some of the key effects from external influences on your business, and how might they affect the availability of legal services to consumers?

ReCo. Not that I’m aware of; when people are buying their insurance, that’s the point when its importance should be explained.

ReCo. For us, it’s been the restriction on public funding, which has meant the relevance of legal expense insurance has gone up.

MS. You can’t approach consumer law without understanding the implications of personal injury reforms. There will be a fundamental impact on the profession as a whole, as we see some large businesses fail or leave the market, and there are huge questions about how people will access legal services in the future.

DA. For us, there’s been some inertia over the past few months while we wait to see whether the proposed reforms become reality and what the impact will be. It’s made a lot of the innovators in legal services more nervous than they once were.

MS. One positive is that a lot of work is going into the online court.

It will be interesting to see what rules and developments the government will introduce in to that. It could streamline the process and give some opportunities for access to justice in different areas.

ML. And this might give consumers a more productised service, because legal services can be unbundled if they’re streamlined, allowing more choice.

There is a danger of applying segmentation to a customer base, when your customers wouldn’t recognise themselves according to the “buckets” that a business puts them in Dr Tom Wormald, Deliberata 24 The Legal Consumer

RC. Are there any firms’ actively raising awareness of legal expenses insurance?

LB. From a consumer point of view, I’d want to look at the take up of it, and the reasons why people don’t take it up; is it because it doesn’t work when they claim on it?

ReCo. It ties in with customer satisfaction surveys, and it would be interesting to see how the answers vary between those who have been LEI funded and those who have paid privately.

ML. Even if they don’t claim, there’s the add-on benefit of being able to phone a legal helpline and a person they can turn to support them through dealing with their issues on an informal basis. It feels like there’s a growing demand for commercial legal expenses insurance as well now.

MS. There is a recognition by the government in the personal injury reforms that people won’t be able to access legal services, so in the consultation response they look at how to fill that gap, and LEI is one solution. But they do say it’s profile needs to be raised, so it will be interesting to see if they do anything to help that happen, or if it will be down to the market to respond. We’ve seen additional services included in LEI, and I don’t know how far that will go. We might even get to a subscription-type service, where it’s not just a distress purchase, but one that could be extended to cover things like wills, probate or conveyancing.

ML. Do changing consumer behaviours warrant new types of communication and structures of legal services, for example subscription based, online or self-services?

ReCo. Absolutely. People are used to doing everything on their phone or tablet, they don’t want long phone conversations. We need to change the way we provide our services to meet those expectations. Submitting information by these means would save time and costs as well.

GS. I wonder if home insurance disruptors, promoting the

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A company has to be multi-channel, and it has to be built around customer choice; as soon as you build it around your own operational efficiencies, you’re making the wrong call Garry Simmons, Covéa Internet of Things, will change the way insurance is packaged. If utility providers can lock customers in to extended contracts by providing them with smart devices to control water and energy consumption, through one simple monthly fee, then insurance might be thrown in free of charge. Home insurance could then be bundled in the same way as LEI. DB. That comes with developments in data as well. It’s a growing expectation that a provider shouldn’t trouble the consumer for the type of information and that they should be able to source elsewhere, or have already provided once before.

ML. The transfer of data between organisations in an affinity partnership can lead to a duplication of questions to the consumer, which can be a big frustration.

TW. I’ve done a fair bit of work around telematics in car insurance, and there’s a default position of mistrust towards how the data gathered is used. Although businesses are talking about the IoT a lot, it’s still yet to penetrate the consumer mind-set. Privacy is a lot to trade away for a small reduction in premiums. Unless there’s a stronger consumer proposition around these innovations, there will be a lot of push but not much pull.

GS. Younger generations are used to their information being in the public domain, so they have a completely different perspective on data sharing.

TW. They’re a lot more aware of the value of data sharing and better at judging what they see as “worth it” or not. Ultimately it comes down to where the consumer feels underserved. If we can take a difficult job off their hands, they’ll buy it like a shot.

ML. Online communication can also take away the nervousness about meeting a solicitor, but equally you can’t forget the empathetic human side to legal services.

MS. In our experience, take up of online services doesn’t have any age differentiators. By adding in more online functionality, our online take up has gone from 12% to over 70%, which is a fundamental shift in the way people are looking at legal services.

TW. There is a danger of applying segmentation to a customer base, when your customers wouldn’t recognise themselves according to the “buckets” that a business puts them in. If it’s not meaningful to customers, is it sensible that products and services are based on that? We’re using the data we can get hold of easily as a proxy to support decision-making, rather than allowing the customer to tell us how they want to be seen.

ML. What role might we see in consumer behavior and legal services from structural and service innovations or technological developments such as automation and robotics, and what impact will this have?

MS. So many jobs in society will disappear as a result of artificial intelligence, including legal advice. The question is, which parts can be automated, and which parts do you need the human input?

We’re already far down this road but it is a question of getting the right balance.

Lyons Davidson Lyons Davidson is a law firm providing legal services to businesses and individuals nationwide.

We believe in providing a service that is accessible and approachable. This means being clear and transparent with our clients about the fees we charge and, where possible, fixing our fees up front. It also means that we aim to provide advice that is clear, practical and straightforward, without the use of legal jargon. We understand the need to make our service available in ways and at times that are convenient to our clients.

We pride ourselves on the level of service our experts offer.

Our ability to deliver a consistent and high-quality service has allowed us to develop strong relationships with a number of business partners, such as insurers, banks and membership organisations that rely on us to give their customers and members the help and advice they need.

Innovation has been fundamental to our success. We have developed our own technology, including an online client portal and client document application.

We are a responsible business with accreditations for the quality of our approach to our impact on the environment, the security of our systems and the investment we make in our people, and we are proud to be the current Modern Claims Law Firm of the Year. Above all, we want to provide a service that addresses our clients’ needs and delivers the outcome they want.

TW. A lot of companies have tried to push all of their customer services online to save costs, but have then spent vast sums of money clawing them back, because they’ve realised for certain transactions the customer just wants a conversation, and no amount of sophistication will make up for that.

GS. The fact all customers are different is the key here. A company has to be multi-channel, and it has to be built around customer choice; as soon as you build it around your own operational efficiencies, you’re making the wrong call.

DB. We do need to look at the positives of these innovations. They provide a possibility of a new way of looking at our sector, still leaving a clear role for the human touch, supplemented with and supported by, the power of big data.

TW. You also need to align what you’re trying to achieve as a business and what your customer is trying to achieve; the damage comes when that’s out of kilter.

LB. Anything you introduce can be met with scepticism, although consumers do get used to it. But what’s important is that they’re given a choice.

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GS. Legal services are just waiting to be massively influenced by robotics. It’s just advanced workflow using sophisticated telephony. If the computer can self-learn as well, why wouldn’t transactional legal services be automated?

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Customer service moving into the legal sector While cost and outcomes are still important influences on customer decisions, Katherine Howells-Price, Lyons Davidson, argues that legal service providers can no longer rest on this alone, and that the contemporary consumer has a whole new array of expectations. eople used to take a day off work and put on their best suit to attend an appointment at their solicitor’s office, but now the perception is that people want to tap on their mobile phone at any hour of the night or day to buy a will or appoint conveyancers. Is this really the case? Should we be looking to start selling divorces on Amazon? (Other online selling sites are available!)

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What about price? Do people necessarily want the cheapest Aldi’s own brand legal service?

The recent Roundtable discussion hosted by Modern Claims Magazine allowed us to address these questions and more. I am sure everyone attending came away with concepts that struck them, and here are mine.

It’s horses for courses

This is almost my conclusion, but it makes sense to start here. If someone is seeking to recover their minor losses from a liability admitted motor accident, they are more likely to be happy to deal with their legal representative through a streamlined efficient process that takes away their need to meet their representative face to face. This means they don’t have to complete paperwork and put it in the post, but rather communicate via an online client portal, email or text.

However, if someone has suffered a serious and debilitating injury sustained in a motor accident, the chances are that they will be looking for (and needing) an entirely different service, which requires face to face meetings. This would mean building a relationship with a representative over a course of months, sometimes years, and given the level of evidence in these cases, this means that communication is less reliant on technology.

Similarly for other services; I recently purchased a will and was pleased with a simple one interview telephone process for a very good price. But I don’t have a complicated estate, property abroad or trusts to set up. If I did, I would probably want a lengthier process and be happy to answer more questions and deal with more paperwork; and I would be happy to pay for that service.

But that can lead us to fall into another trap.

What does ‘The Consumer’ want?

Consumers don’t club together and kindly deliver us a consensus on what they want from legal services. People are different with different priorities. The trick for solicitors is to quickly identify a client’s needs and the best vehicle for delivering those needs, or to offer a variety of services that potential clients can choose from.

It may be that you can deliver the same thing in many ways, or you may allow your own present structures and functionality to

26 The Legal Consumer

Most people can’t afford an hourly rate to build up, or to have uncertainty of what they will be expected to pay. Despite this, very few firms advertise their rates online limit your services and thereby accept that you are limiting your consumer base. This is the reality for most law firms because it is difficult to provide services that appeal to all people and their differing requirements.

Law firms have to decide who their target consumer groups are, otherwise they could weaken their proposition by being all things to all people and dilute their resources with the effect of delivering poor services across the board. From experience and discussion with others, there are some key themes we can all assume our customers are attracted to: price, fit for purpose and trust.

Building trust is usually achieved over time, but law firms often don’t have the opportunity to build that trust. For most people, buying a particular legal service may well be a one-time thing or something that is infrequent. We can attempt to communicate reliability in our branding, but more and more people are turning to reviews or recommendations when choosing legal services.

Is price the only or main factor?

In my opinion, when it comes to legal services, price isn’t usually the only factor. Value is a huge motivator, but this is a different concept. People will place value on different things, be that quality, convenience or peace of mind, to name a few.

For some clients, it is the status of their legal advisor that matters; they will only accept someone with the title of qualified solicitor doing the work. Price transparency is key; people want to know what their final bill will be. Most people can’t afford an hourly rate to build up, or to have uncertainty of what they will be expected to pay. Despite this, very few firms advertise their rates online.

However, more firms are moving to fixed cost packages, or to quoting up front, which is definitely a step in the right direction.

When trying to be competitive, there is always a danger that you compromise on quality, and, unlike some disposable consumer items, there are more serious consequences if you compromise the quality of legal advice or legal services. If you are embroiled in a dispute, you need to match the other side on skills and competency of representation. If you are instructing a will, you

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If you aren’t going to be the cheapest, you need to be able to explain to the consumer why not. What does your price buy them? want to know that the person drafting it is capable of and has the time to consider all elements of your estate and all of the potential consequences of your decisions. You can then ensure that your wishes are carried out as you intended, and your family aren’t stuck in probate for years following or being subject to huge costs or deductions from your estate.

The price someone is willing to pay “usually” goes hand in hand with how important the matter is to them, and how much they want your service. If you aren’t going to be the cheapest, you need to be able to explain to the consumer why not. What does your price buy them?

What is more important – the journey or the outcome?

The customer service culture has well and truly moved into the legal industry. Some lawyers have had a reputation for being crochety or arrogant, but for many consumers this type of behaviour is no longer acceptable. Consumers want to be spoken to in a language they understand, as equals. It is likely that they are dealing with a solicitor because they need help with a difficult situation. At these times people want understanding, they want empathy and they want reassurance.

That doesn’t mean a lawyer has to be a counsellor, but it does mean they need to bring a personal touch to their dealings to strike up a relationship with their clients, and to help make the process more palatable for them.

In litigation I have seen and heard of clients reacting to the outcome of their case in surprising ways; a win resulting in a complaint because the process was unpleasant or difficult for the client, or a loss resulting in a gift hamper, because the client knew you did everything you could and eased the process for them.

Fitting into the consumer culture

What do we, as a sector, need to do to make sure we are providing what consumers want and need?

• Listen: We need to listen to our existing clients, our business partners, people who have gone elsewhere, to find out what barriers there might be to people using our services.

• Innovate: With more advanced case management we can run legal matters more efficiently. Better use of mobile and tablet apps can help us to keep in touch with consumers in a way that’s convenient for them, which is how it should be! However, we can’t lose the human touch that people are looking for by relying on technology to communicate.

• Be open: There is undoubtedly a perception that the legal world is overly complex, and this can be daunting and make us inaccessible. Many people assume that any interaction with a lawyer will leave them gazing sadly into their empty wallets.

We need to be more forward at advertising our prices, open to building consumer-friendly packages of services that are accessible and high quality, and make sure we are communicating with people in a language that they can relate to.

Personally, I think there are a considerable amount of opportunities out there by taking the best parts of the consumer culture and applying them to the legal market, without losing the professionalism and quality that we all strive to deliver.

Katherine Howells-Price is Divisional Manager at Lyons Davidson.

A lawyer often has to deliver difficult news; that someone’s case has no prospects of success, that they can’t achieve the outcome they are looking for, or that their matter is more complex than they anticipated. Our job is to manage expectations from the outset, to be mindful of our clients’ feelings when having a difficult conversation but to remain firm in our position. Whatever else is going on, the client’s best interests have to remain at the heart of what we do. Communicating these things can be challenging at best, but done right will serve you well in the long run.

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The benefits of customer communication through online interaction Lindsey Edwards, File Dynamics, discusses the options for customer communication and how online interaction can improve the process for the customer while delivering benefits to the business.

Customer communication and interaction

Customer communication is a key part of customer service.

Enabling the customer to access the information that they want quickly and easily will increase customer satisfaction, which in turn leads to a higher customer retention rate. That principle applies equally to legal and insurance services as any other business.

Multi-channel communication

The starting point has to be to provide a range of communication options for the customer and to let them choose their preferred option, rather than forcing them down a route that they are not comfortable with or that doesn’t fit their needs at the specific time. Recording their channel preference within your workflow so that this drives any communication option is fundamental; it’s no good asking how and when they want to communicate and then ignoring that.

The telephone will still be an important communication route, especially if the contact is very interactive. It gives the best opportunity to build a rapport with the customer and improve the opportunity to sell a service to them and retain their business.

However, the telephone is an expensive service element to provide, both in terms of the time taken for any handler in the call, but also in relation to the amount of resource needed to ensure that incoming calls are answered.

If not managed properly, telephone communication can be an easy way to get things wrong, since delays in answering, delays in returning call backs or the frustration caused by multiple IVR steps can quickly wear away at customer satisfaction.

SMS updates can be efficient and system driven, providing information or reminders to customers, removing the need for further contact or prompting further action that is needed to move the service forward Services Consumer Panel reported that 1 in 4 customers use online platforms to communicate with legal professionals. That ranges from pricing information and online questions through to full customer portals.

Provision of the range of options is not enough though. The channels need to be connected so that the customer has a seamless experience whichever channel they choose, and linking the information that the customer can access and the handler or agent can provide is essential.

Customer online communication

Multi-channel communication provides other options to ensure that information is provided to customers effectively and efficiently, and at times that are convenient to them. Email is now probably the most commonly used communication tool, bringing its own pressures as customers expect much quicker response times. A 5 day SLA for post might still be acceptable, but customers expect a response to email within 5 hours, not 5 days, even though the response process is little different.

Customers are now used to interacting online with businesses, whether it is purchasing goods online, completing tax information online, buying their car tax or even looking for a date! There is not only an expectation that service information can be provided online, but customers are comfortable accessing information in this way. The key is to explain the benefits that the use of the online system will bring to the customer. Technical issues, such as encryption of information, are important for the business but mean nothing to an individual. If you recommend this as the best way to communicate it allows us to start the claim straight away, speeds up the claim and helps get their money to them faster; it becomes an easy decision.

SMS is an increasingly useful tool to update customers and one that is becoming a standard feature of many transactions. How many deliveries now take place without a text update to confirm the delivery date and time? SMS updates can be efficient and system driven, providing information or reminders to customers, removing the need for further contact or prompting further action that is needed to move the service forward. Most importantly, it is often immediate with customers, usually having contact to their mobile picking up the SMS.

By adding additional functionality, explaining the benefits to customers and simplifying the sign up process, we were able to move one legal business area from a sign up rate of 12% to 89%, with 74% continuing to use the service after the initial log in.

The system has to provide the information that the customer wants in as simple terms as possible. A legal claim might have a number of stages and options, but reducing this to four or five key milestones makes the process easy to understand and manages the customer’s expectation better.

However, it is online information that is increasingly an essential element of any communication strategy. In 2016 the Legal

The functionality has to make the process as easy as possible for the customer. The best example is the signature of documents:

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Unbundling becomes a much more interesting inter-relationship between the customer and the lawyer, and emphasises the point that the communication at different stages of the transaction needs to be a seamless experience asking someone to print off a document, sign it and return it by post inevitably leads to it sitting on the kitchen table in a pile of post. Even signing and scanning a document back is an additional step that sometimes delays the customer from taking action.

Giving the customer the information that they can access online and click to sign not only removes that delay, but also the risk that the customer doesn’t sign up for the service.

The business benefits of an online solution are beyond enhancing the customer communication options. Driving communication through an online portal ensures that any messages, uploads or data are automatically on the customer file, removing the administration overhead of filing.

Data input by the customer allows information to be added at the time that is convenient to the customer, and removes the cost overhead of adding data to the system as well. If the input includes instructions, this can initiate business rules and automate the next steps, providing an efficient workflow for the relevant process.

that the communication at different stages of the transaction needs to be a seamless experience. The idea of an unbundled service is to enable the customer to complete parts of the transaction or claim themselves, and to either seek professional input at certain stages or simply to seek advice, support and review at specific stages. A fully integrated unbundling process that stores customer created documents within the claim file creates the most effective way for the customer and law firm to work together, and provides that seamless communication even when the process is divided up.

The Legal Service Consumer Panel believes that around 1 in 5 transactions involve some form of unbundling, occurring mostly in probate, employment and immigration matters, and being most prevalent in social groups ABC1 and younger age groups. The Panel is clear that an unbundled service should not be a secondrate service and their data suggests only small gaps in satisfaction with a lawyer providing a full service (84%) and unbundled provision (81%).

Documents can be sent through a portal, ensuring it is done in a secure and encrypted process. Database management of the documents also allow handlers to be informed if the document is received, opened and reviewed, or whether it remains unopened and a chase up process needs to be used.

The concepts outlined above will be fundamental in the area of personal injury if the Ministry of Justice proposals are introduced.

The ability of law firms to manage a claim will only be possible on a very low cost base. This will require customers to use a Portal to provide all instructions online, with business rules and automated documents ensuring that the process is as efficient as possible, and with elements of the claim being done by the client themselves.

There is not only an expectation that service information can be provided online, but customers are comfortable accessing information in this way

An integrated service

The Role of self-lawyering

An online process can help to provide access for a consumer to self-service within the legal claim or transaction. This can range from a customer completing parts of the work required to full selfservice; these options are increasing in popularity within the legal service provision. This is partly driven by cost, giving consumers a cost effective route to access legal services, often where the only other option is not to do anything with the legal problem or issue.

Similarly, there is an increasing confidence with consumers that the technology that exists now will enable them to complete legal documents themselves.

The communication channels discussed provide a wide range of options to the customer in dealing with their legal service provider.

The Institute of Customer Service research shows that a growing number of service interactions begin online, but their advice to providers is still to adopt a multi-channel approach to service and deliver the seamless experience that customers expect. This multichannel approach provides the flexibility that customers are looking for, as well as the technology framework needed by the business to drive efficiencies within their process and reduce costs.

Lindsey Edwards is Legal and Insurance Manager at File Dynamics Limited.

Unbundling becomes a much more interesting inter-relationship between the customer and the lawyer, and emphasises the point

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CASE STUDY

Putting the customer first The Law Society once said: “complaints are a business risk which cannot completely be avoided, but must instead be managed”. It is true that we cannot keep all clients happy all of the time, but at Lyons Davidson we have a designated Customer Service and Compliance team where we try pretty hard.

Customer Service team is quite an innovative measure for a law firm. It is a world away from the archaic ‘complaints department’, where customers are automatically going to feel negatively about the fact that a whole department is based on complaint handling, and that is before they receive a defensive response to their complaint! At Lyons Davidson, our approach is completely different. Not only do we handle customer service in a proactive and positive way by engaging with our customers at the outset, we also, through a series of “quality controls”, audit and review customer feedback, and develop and improve the overall service offered across the business. This could be by way of developing strategies in handling certain issues and improving our processes of training our people.

A

The key for us is to listen to our customers and act on what they tell us. As a business, we listen to what our customers need from a legal service provider in 2017. All our customers receive periodic Service Questionnaires through the life of their claim and at the conclusion. This vital feedback enables us to find out what works for our customers and perhaps what we could do differently. We received 17,000 responses from customers in 2016, which is a huge amount of feedback that we learn a lot from. Since our Customer Service Officers come from a wide variety of backgrounds (some are legally qualified, while others have worked in the insurance industry, legal costs or have already held customer service roles), we are well equipped to analyse customer feedback, which we then develop and use to make changes to our customer experience. An example of this would be changing how frequently we contact our customers and the method of communication; many customers prefer to receive communication by our client portal, text or email and we have developed our processes to meet that need.

A Customer Service team is quite an innovative measure for a law firm. It is a world away from the archaic ‘complaints department’

Our Customer Service Officers use what we learn from our customers to provide training seminars and feedback sessions to our case handlers, case supervisors, and team and group leaders.

These sessions cover common trends and complaint themes, as well as providing practical tips on how to prevent complaints and reduce customer dissatisfaction. We have also worked with our training team to ensure that our case handlers are provided with the appropriate soft skills training to handle sensitive situations, but also to ensure that they engage with the customer, putting the customer at ease and in a position that they feel comfortable dealing with us.

Quality management

Quality management is one of the most significant challenges that any business faces. In a time where the market is saturated with legal service providers, it is vital that Lyons Davidson stands out from the crowd. This is achieved by ensuring the very best customer service and we have several quality control measures in place to facilitate this. We audit case handlers’ files once they have been with Lyons Davidson for six months. This involves a quality review across the caseload to ensure our service standards are being met and that the claim is progressing to the customer’s satisfaction. This also helps any new employee understand the Lyons Davidson way when it comes to customer service. We also undertake a Total Quality Review (TQR) of a random sample of files across all teams within our insurance divisions on a monthly basis. This in-depth analysis allows our Customer Service Officers to feedback recommendations, which are then implemented by case handlers for the benefit of our customers.

The work carried out by our Customer Service team is in addition to the quality management we have in place within the departments. We have dedicated Performance Managers situated within the departments and working with our case handlers and managers to ensure our customers’ needs are met, and exceeded as much as possible.

At Lyons Davidson, we believe that putting the customer first is paramount. We want to help our customers get through what for some will be the most difficult time in their lives. We achieve this by communicating in clear simple language and by always looking for the best solution for the customer. When a problem arises, we are proud that we can often resolve the issue to the customer’s satisfaction.

Michael Greybanks is Head of Customer Service and Compliance at Lyons Davidson.

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