Rising Tide/YouGov Report
The Cost of Silence
UK law firms think they’re keeping clients happy. But the clients tell a different story.
New research across 1,373 consumers, business clients and law firm partners reveals the gap between the service firms believe they provide and the experience clients actually receive, and what it’s costing them in loyalty and referrals.
The Gap
Most law firms are confident they deliver a good client experience.
Most of their clients agree the legal work is sound. The problem sits in between: in how clients are kept informed, and whether they can see what’s happening while their matter runs.
Commissioned by Rising Tide AI and conducted by YouGov, this independent research asked clients and the firms serving them the same questions, so that what firms believe could be set directly against what clients actually experience. The findings are backed by separate data from the Legal Ombudsman and the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and they’re more consistent, and more commercially significant, than most firms would expect.
What the Research Found
Firms think clients chase them for updates 9.3% of the time.
THE REAL FIGURE IS
28.4%
and for business
clients, 37.8%.
Firms believe 86.8% of clients feel well informed.
ONLY
59.8%
of independent clients agree.
When clients leave, only 15% go over cost.
43.7%
Go over poor service and communication.
What's in the report?
The full report sets out, chapter by chapter:
1
The gap between what firms think and what clients experience, shown side by side, across the things that matter most.
2
What poor communication actually costs, including the hours firms lose to clients chasing them for updates.
3
Why clients really stay or leave and why it comes down to communication more often than price or outcome.
4
The different reasons individuals and businesses walk away and what both have in common.
5
How much firms already know about their own blind spots and why that knowledge rarely leads to change.
And because the findings are backed by the Legal Ombudsman and the SRA, not just our own research, they’re hard to argue with.
Conducted by YouGov
1,373 respondents
Nationally representative
Independent and
regulator-backed
regulator-backed
Read the Full Research
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How does your firm compare?
The average firm scores just 61 out of 100 on the things clients care about most.
Our free client experience scoring tool takes a few minutes and shows exactly where your firm stands on communication, visibility and billing transparency.
Built by Rising Tide AI, the team behind MatterFact the client portal that keeps a firm’s clients informed and able to follow their matter’s progress, without having to ask.