Ghosting or Ghost Calling or Ghost Clients are all forms of checking on your service levels by contacting your firm as if a client, documenting the experience and then hopefully discussing and fixing the areas that need attention. A way of checking up on your service levels.
If your firm is new-age enough to wants repeat business and does not believe the world owes it to the firm to do business with them, then this Ghosting thing is something you should do every 6 months. We all relax when things are going well, but we should be checking up on our service levels all the time, also what we perceive as good service might actually be really shoddy from somebody else’s eyes.
I would use an unknown identity to do the Ghosting, even better somebody who is not scared of what your reaction might be when they tell you that your service stinks – get a student for a few days to do the analysis and report – you can then take it over and decide what you should do to fix it.
Obviously, the less people in the firm who know about this the better – you want a true reflection on what happens, not something that is staged for a special visit.
GhostCalling
Simple enough, call your law firm – but not just once or the same time of the day, during lunch time is just as important as any other time during the day – provided you are open during lunch times.
These are some points you should score:
• Answer before 3 rings
• Person speaks clearly
• Correct routing of your call
• Was the person polite.
GhostVisit your reception
Setup an appointment with yourself and get your ghost to visit your firm and ask for you. Try to make this during your busy times, so that the ghost sees the experience others are going through as well. Make the ghost wait a while, this will give them more time to access the environment.
Some ideas to use when scoring:
• Were you seen to quickly enough when walking in?
• Was the reception noisy?
• Enough seating for all?
• Was the reception tidy?
• Were you kept informed as to why it was taking so long?
• Reading material up to date?
Your GhostVisitor could be your Client
When originally meeting with your client, you could offer then a small discount for their critical feedback during and after the matter is concluded. There are pro and cons to having them follow a questionnaire – but I like the casual reporting, where they can tell you what they would improve on, as it may not be on the questionnaire and your questions steer them away from what they are wanting to tell you.
Once these have been documented, have a meeting with the people involved and work on the improvements. Then do the process again, maybe improving the questionnaire and see how your services have improved – then repeat again in 6 months.
Basically you are checking your customer service and by doing so you will attract more clients.
I have compiled a simple GhostCaller Checklist in MS Word format, so you can add your firm name, for you to use and share as you wish. Click here to locate and download it from our Tech4Law website.
