Future-proof insights: Embracing an 'always-on' approach to client listening

For modern law firms, standing out in a crowded market requires more than just delivering excellent legal advice. Firms also need to demonstrate their commitment to understanding and responding to broader client needs.?

Traditional client listening programmes, often based on periodic research and selected client feedback, leave too many blindspots. Forward-looking firms are now embracing an 'always-on' approach to client listening, enabling them to continuously gather and act on client intelligence. This shift in momentum delivers more than enhanced client experiences. It also enables firms to differentiate their brand, drive organic growth and improve operational efficiency.

The Feedback Flywheel: Building momentum with continuous listening

An always-on client listening programme is characterised by five key hallmarks:?

?? Always be listening

?? Centralise the data

?? Automate the analysis

?? Give results context

?? Close the loop.?

Together, these elements form what we call a "Feedback Flywheel". This flywheel creates momentum where early successes lead to further success, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and engagement. More insights lead to more actions, which generate further insights, thus ensuring that firms make evidence-based decisions that strengthen relationships, reputations and revenues.

Always Be Listening: Capturing client voices continuously

Clients want to share their needs and experiences at times and places that are convenient for them. To support this, firms have repositioned formal research as just one part of a bigger puzzle. Client and market intelligence is now gathered from a wide array of sources, from informal conversations to structured feedback processes.

To implement continuous listening, start by searching out all the existing feedback and data sources that may not be considered “client listening”. As well as survey and interview data, these could include complaints, testimonials, CRM notes, emails, and operational data. These sources can provide valuable signals about current client experiences and future priorities when integrated into a unified client listening programme.?

Additionally, consider adding an instant feedback form to your email signatures or website. This form should focus on a couple of open-ended questions like, "What are we doing well?" and "What could we do better?" This simple tool allows clients to share their thoughts without feeling restricted by predefined options.

Centralise the Data: Breaking down silos for holistic insights

Voice of the client data is often scattered across different systems and managed by various teams. These silos limit the insights that listening teams can create. Centralising all client feedback into a single platform enables a comprehensive view of trends and patterns across different clients, sectors, and data sources. For example, interviews tend to go deep with a small number of clients, while surveys collect less data but across more clients. By combining the data sources, trends can be identified and root causes discovered.

However, centralisation doesn’t mean dumping all feedback into a CRM system. While CRMs are excellent for managing structured data, they fall short with unstructured text data. They store it, but can not summarise or report on it. A modern client listening platform designed to handle various data formats is essential for aggregating and reporting on this valuable information.

Automate the Analysis: Leveraging AI for scalable insights

Manual analysis of text data is not fun, unless you really enjoy using highlighter pens! So it has traditionally been a major bottleneck in expanding client listening programmes. Manual analysis is hard to do quickly or keep consistent, and scaling it is expensive. This has led firms to limiting the open questions they ask and frequency with which they report results.?

Forward-looking firms are now turning to AI-powered analysis to keep their flywheel spinning. AI can analyse text data in seconds, performing tasks that would take humans days. The choice is between proven Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms and newer Large Language Models (LLMs). While LLMs have gained attention for their versatility, their ‘black box’ calculations remain unpredictable. In contrast, NLP offers a robust and consistent method for analysing text, identifying topics, sentiment, and value drivers. The consistency of NLP enables benchmarking of insights generated from text data.

Give Results Context: Turning insights into actionable strategies

Automated analysis can identify what clients are talking about, their sentiments and the themes and trends behind them. But AI shouldn’t be determining the actions that a firm takes in response. Two firms might receive similar feedback but take different actions based on their strategy, positioning and the context of the client relationship. For instance, a client might label two firms as expensive, yet a premium-priced firm will handle this feedback differently from a price-competitive firm.?

This is where client listening and account teams add crucial context. Only they can answer ‘so what’, the crucial question for turning insights into meaningful action. I’m often asked how much data is required before the insights are “right”. But statistically significant is not the same as strategically significant. I don’t know of any firms who would wait for a statistically significant number of key clients to complain before taking action.

Close the Loop: Demonstrating value through action

Closing the loop transforms passive listening into a dynamic feedback flywheel. Closing the loop creates trust and demonstrates that the firm is genuine about being client-centric. Clients need to see that their input is valued and acted upon. At a human level they want to know that the time they spend engaging with client listening, is time well spent. People within your firm also need to see the feedback loop being closed. It demonstrates that the firm takes client listening seriously and therefore they should be fully engaged with the process.

Start by acknowledging the feedback with individual clients. Thank them for their input, reflect on any positive comments, and follow up on specific actions or issues raised. This builds trust and encourages future feedback.?

Then, close the loop with the wider client base by sharing aggregated insights and the resulting actions. Highlight both praise and areas for improvement to show clients that their feedback leads to tangible changes. If you only share the positive comments, clients will be sceptical of the results.?

Finally, share the impact of client listening internally. Highlight positive feedback and actions taken. This ensures that the entire firm understands the value of engaging with the client listening programme and taking action on what’s being heard.

Murgitroyd: an example of always-on client listening in action

Murgitroyd have embraced the philosophy of ‘listen differently’ by expanding the formal and informal feedback they collect. For example, they created a short form to capture unsolicited feedback emailed to their attorneys. They also added a short “instant feedback” form to their email signatures to make it easy for clients to share their experiences.?

Data from both these sources is combined with survey and testimonial data and analysed in real-time, with the results accessible within their CRM system. Then to close the loop, they created social media graphics and posters to show how they acted on the feedback, using a simple “you said…” “we did…” format.

Future-proofing your firm with always-on client listening

Adopting an always-on client listening approach helps law firms remain agile and client-focused. By continuously gathering and acting on feedback, firms can differentiate their brand, drive organic growth, win more pitches, improve operational efficiency, and deliver consistently excellent client experiences.?

The Feedback Flywheel ensures that every piece of feedback becomes a step towards further success, giving your firm a competitive advantage. If implementing this always-on approach feels like too much work, don’t worry. It doesn’t happen with a flick of a switch, but the benefits accrue as you go through the process. Adding a feedback source to the start of the client journey, or combining siloed data sets, or sharing past actions with your client base all generate positive momentum.

If your firm is needing more actionable insights than periodic research can deliver, feel free to DM me. I’m always happy to have a chat, hear about your plans and share how we’re seeing other firms approach similar challenges.