Badgering clients if you ask them for written feedback on many matters completed

The legal department of the Financial Times recently introduced a practice that, taken at face value, I would question: “the introduction of questionnaires for internal clients to fill out upon completion of a job.” (Corp. Counsel, April 2011 at 26)

I question that effort because it imposes too much on clients – lots of matters, time and paperwork. It also calls for decisions of when a matter (job) has fully finished. Some matters have several clients who take part, such as a marketing campaign, not to mention questionnaires are inherently rigid.

A periodic random sampling done verbally, with a guideline of questions to ask, serves far better to assay client satisfaction.