Turning client feedback into a competitive advantage

In episode 34 of the Empowering Law Firm Leaders podcast, Graham discusses with Amy Bruce, marketing director at Osprey Approach, the practical steps SME law firms can take to build sustainable feedback programmes, gather richer insight from client interviews, and turn findings into lasting change.

In this conversation, Graham Archbold, founder of Chorus Insight, draws on years of hands-on experience running client feedback programmes for professional services firms to reveal why so many initiatives stall, and what the most client-focused firms do differently.

In this conversation we cover:

• Why a sustainable, ongoing feedback programme matters – and what happens without one
• The three main reasons client feedback programmes fail
• Why personal interviews are an investment no firm should skip
• How to turn findings into clear, accountable recommendations
• How to communicate insights to the board in a way that drives action

Why a sustainable, ongoing feedback programme matters

For Graham, the distinction between an ad hoc survey and a genuine feedback programme is fundamental. The reality he encounters at many firms is: “People go, ‘Oh yeah, we did a survey – it was a couple of years ago.’ And then when you look, you find out it was actually five or six years ago.”

The deeper problem with that gap is not just a lack of data, it is what the absence of data obscures. When firms return to repeat the exercise years later, they often discover their client list looks entirely different. The failure to run a continuous programme and the failure to retain clients become two sides of the same coin. As Graham puts it: “If we did this well last time, why do we have completely different clients? Why haven’t we retained them?”

The case for continuity is simply that client needs and expectations are not static. “The world’s changing. Clients’ needs and expectations are changing. So you need to constantly be asking.” Graham is quick to distinguish this from survey fatigue, asking clients once a year how they are getting on, when they may be spending thousands of pounds with the firm, is not excessive. It is the baseline of being genuinely client-focused. The alternative – relying on second-hand intelligence passed through professionals – is no substitute for hearing directly from the client.

A sustainable programme is not about volume, it’s about intention. It enables firms to anticipate change, catch problems before they escalate, and avoid the knee-jerk reaction of only reaching out to clients once something has already gone wrong. “Wouldn’t it be better to find out in advance – to know these things before you’re worried about them leaving?”

The three main reasons client feedback programmes fail

Graham is direct about the root causes of failure. The first and most decisive factor is the absence of a financial link. Research in law firms is often seen as a nice-to-have – something sitting in the marketing team rather than forming an essential part of business strategy. “You’ve got to get attention, and I think the way to do that is to show the financial link.”

If a firm can calculate the value of a client – either through actual figures or a modelled estimate – it can begin to quantify what it costs to lose one. Where feedback is tracked consistently, it becomes possible to predict churn risk and demonstrate that preventing a client from leaving has a real monetary value. “If you prevent a client from leaving because you’ve recognised there’s something wrong and you’ve fixed that problem, how much revenue have you protected?”

The second failure point is leadership buy-in. It is not sufficient for one person – often in marketing – to carry the programme alone. A genuinely client-focused firm needs senior leaders to model and champion that orientation. “It’s got to be that it’s understood across the business that we are genuinely client-focused.

The third cause is underestimating the practical effort involved. Teams frequently find that gathering client data is more manual than anticipated. Addressing these foundations before launching a programme is a must to ensure it’s easy to do, else momentum will end.

How to turn findings into clear, accountable recommendations

The volume of insight a well-run programme generates can feel overwhelming, but Graham is clear that the starting point is not analysis for its own sake. “Most of the time we’re looking at gap management: finding out what was the expectation and what did we deliver.”

Quick wins matter early. Even where a problem cannot be resolved immediately, acknowledging it keeps clients engaged. “Can we go back, thank people for taking the time, acknowledge what they raised, and set out some steps – not necessarily solving the problem 100%, but showing the person’s been listened to and that there is a route to improvement?”

Beyond individual fixes lies pattern recognition. When the same issue surfaces across multiple clients, it signals something systemic. Graham cites a firm that identified project management as the dominant driver of dissatisfaction and committed to it fully – training, process changes, simple technology tools – rather than spreading effort across ten things at once. Scores improved, but it took two years of sustained focus. “If you try and fix too many things all at once, it doesn’t work because people internally don’t know what it is they’re trying to improve.”

Accountability is what makes improvement real. “It’s deciding who’s going to do what and by when.” Firms that do this well establish an oversight committee routing actions to the right teams – IT, finance, account management – and ensuring the loop is genuinely closed with clients.

How to communicate insights to the board in a way that drives action

The most sophisticated feedback programme will struggle to make an impact if its findings do not reach and resonate with senior leadership. Graham’s approach combines rational and emotional persuasion – recognising that data alone rarely moves people, but stories without data lack credibility. “You need the stories, you need the anecdotes that go around it – and that comes a lot from those interviews.”

Numbers provide the framework: performance scores, response rates, benchmarks against peer firms, and – most powerfully – revenue and retention figures. But a statistic that eight out of ten clients have a specific concern rarely creates urgency on its own. Paired with a named client story, told in terms the board already understands, the same finding becomes something they cannot dismiss. “The people in the board know that client, maybe know the individual – and that just really brings it home and gives it shape and feeling in a way the numbers don’t.”

The firms that Graham observes doing this best have embedded client insight into standard management information. The board pack always includes the client perspective – quotes, scores, and market context alongside the financial data – and leadership expect it to be there. “The firms that are doing well: it’s just part of the management information they receive and they expect it to be there.” That expectation is itself a signal of culture.

From insight to impact: building a client-centred firm

Client feedback, done well, is one of the most powerful tools available to an SME law firm – not only for retaining existing clients, but for understanding the market, identifying growth opportunities, and making strategic decisions grounded in reality rather than assumption. Graham’s central argument is that the firms which treat feedback as an ongoing programme, rather than a periodic exercise, are the ones best placed to anticipate change and act on it.

Across every stage of the journey – from choosing the right research method, to coaching colleagues through difficult feedback, to presenting findings at board level – the common thread is a genuine commitment to listening. Not listening in order to defend or explain, but listening in order to understand. That kind of curiosity, as Graham frames it, is not a technique. It is a culture. And culture, once established, compounds.

Watch the full interview with Graham Archbold now to discover more advice and guidance on building a client feedback programme that drives real growth. You’ll also hear Graham’s exclusive insights on preparing your team for negative feedback, the questions that unlock the richest client insight, and practical tips for prioritising change when the recommendations start to pile up.