What do clients want when they hire you for your services? The Institute for the Advancement of American Legal Services (IAALS) in partnership with Avvo, seek to find that out. Answers to this question could help attorneys and companies alike, improve the industry for the better.
Thousands of connections between lawyers and consumers are made in Avvo’s legal marketplace every month. Through the free Q&A forum and publicly available information on 97% of practicing lawyers in the U.S., Avvo has one of the largest online databases on attorney and consumer behavior. The “Think Like a Client” study aims to specifically analyze more than 800,000 client reviews on Avvo attorney profiles to unearth sentiments around attorney/client relationships and what clients are saying.
“If we want to make the legal system better at meeting client needs, it seems obvious that we need to ask clients about their experiences. That’s relatively easy to do when you’re talking about corporate clients, but it gets trickier when you’re trying to tap into individual clients,” explained Alli Gerkman, who manages IAALS’ work related to the legal profession. “The data set that Avvo has developed by giving clients an opportunity to comment on their experiences with lawyers provides us a window into the minds of clients. IAALS’ “Think Like a Client” project will give voice to their stories, and ensure those stories support the development of improved legal services and a stronger legal system.”
The research phase of IAALS’ study is well underway with the findings to be released in a comprehensive report expected to go out in mid-2018.
Avvo is excited to be apart of this important initiative and look forward to sharing the results!
In the meantime, want to learn more about legal consumer behavior? Download Avvo’s study on the New Legal Consumer here.