Legal services, which form part of professional services, could not be an exception to the rule. However, unlike other disciplines (especially in the medical field), the relevant literature on the legal sector is rather sparse. The purpose of this study is to identify the relevant factors and criteria that lawyers' clients consider important, as the general view is that quality in legal services is linked to case outcomes.
Introduction
The importance of service quality and customer satisfaction in general
The importance of the above two concepts is intensified considering the leading role of the service sector in the global economy. In most countries, the service sector's contribution to the economy is significant, generating over 50% of GDP in most cases. Greece is no exception to the rule; although the percentage has been declining over the past ten years, in 2020 the service sector accounts for 68.1% of GDP and employs 73% of the workforce.
The importance of service quality and customer satisfaction in the legal services
This appears to be necessary not only because of the competitive environment in which lawyers (including Greeks) work, but also because of the existing low public standing for the profession. Bar leaders eventually changed their stance on the nature of the problem, blaming lawyers for the public's low standing, although this view has been criticized as simplistic. Additionally, in an extensive research conducted by a private consulting company and published in a 2006 edition of the American Bar Association E-Report (cited by Cunningham, 2013), it was revealed that 7 out of 10 clients do not recommend their primary right. firm.
The purpose of the study
Instead, half of those surveyed (specifically 53%) were asked, "what's the one thing your outside counsel does that just drives you crazy?" gave responses that may fall under the category of "poor communication" (eg, failure to keep client informed, lack of client focus, making decisions without client's authorization or awareness, lack of clear, direct advice), while other responses included ineffective service delivery (21%), billing practices (15%) and “other” (12%)]. Finally, the theoretical analysis concludes with an examination of the factors that influence service quality and customer satisfaction in legal services. The last part of the study presents the method and results of the study carried out in relation to the aforementioned theoretical analysis.
Literature Review
Services
- Professional Services
- Legal Services
The phenomenon of service quality is used in the context of customer expectations and perceptions of the service provided. The lawyer must not overlook the technical aspects of the services and deal exclusively with the client. Regarding the first pair of statements, most respondents agree that the premises/environment of the law office should be visually appealing.
The conceps of service quality
- Service quality definition
- Service quality dimensions
The concept of customer satisfaction
- Customer satisfaction definition
Westbrook and Reilly (1983), based on Locke's general definition of the concept of satisfaction (described as "the emotional state resulting from an evaluation of one's experiences in relation to an object, action or condition") , defined consumer satisfaction as "an emotional response to the experiences provided by, or associated with, particular products or services purchased, retail outlets, or even molar behavioral patterns such as shopping and buyer behavior, as well as the overall market. Tse and Wilton (1988) describes customer satisfaction as "a process of consumer's reaction to the evaluation of the perceived discrepancy between previous expectations and the actual performance of the product as observed after its consumption". Kotler (2000) defined it as "' a person's feelings of pleasure or disappointment arising from comparing a product's perceived performance (or outcome) in relation to his or her expectations".
He has also defined customer satisfaction as "the level of a person's emotional state resulting from comparing a product's perceived performance or outcome against his/her own expectations". It is an assessment that a product or service function or the product or service itself has provided (or provides) a comfortable level of consumption-related fulfillment, including levels of under- or over-fulfillment. The same author has also defined satisfaction "as a summation of the psychological state that occurs when the feelings about disconfirmed expectations are coupled with the consumer's previous feelings about the consumption experience" (1981).
The majority of studies related to the consumer satisfaction concept are based on the disconfirmation of expectations paradigm which is based on Oliver's Expectation Disconfirmation Theory. This paradigm states that evaluation on behalf of the consumer involves comparing actual performance to some standard. In this context, there are three possible outcomes: a) Confirmation, when a product or service meets standards and performs as expected, resulting in neutral feelings; b) positive disconfirmation, when the product or service is considered better than standard, so performs better than expected and leads to satisfaction c) negative disconfirmation, when the product or service is considered worse than standard, so performs worse than expected and leads to dissatisfaction.
The confirmation paradigm includes four components (Churchill, 1982): a) expectations that are related to expected (pre-consumption) performance, in other words they refer to characteristics that a consumer expects will be associated with a service (nevertheless it is noted that expectations may vary among consumers); b) performance, that is, the customer's perception of service, which serves as the standard of comparison by which rejection is ultimately identified, c) rejection, which occurs if there are discrepancies between the consumer's prior expectations and actual performance, and d) satisfaction, which refers to the extent to which a consumer is satisfied with a service or product after its use or purchase.
The relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction
Another fundamental distinction is that service quality involves a global, overall judgment or attitude associated with the superiority or excellence of the service, while customer satisfaction is tied to a specific transaction and is the result of experiencing a service encounter and comparing that encounter with what was there. expected. In this respect, as Cronin and Taylor (1994) support, “service quality is a long-term attitude, while consumer satisfaction is a temporary judgment made on the basis of a specific service experience”. It is the incidents of satisfaction that converge in the quality of service, or as Oliver (1981) puts it: “satisfaction quickly decays into one's overall attitude to purchasing power”.
1988) stated that "incidents of satisfaction over time result in perceptions of service quality", corroborating Oliver's aforementioned argument that "satisfaction soon fades into one's overall attitude towards purchasing products". Also, it can be observed that both concepts have some things in common, however, satisfaction is considered a broader concept, while service quality focuses on service dimensions. Thus, customer satisfaction is essentially a combination of cognitive elements (which is a comparison between expectations and performance) and affective-emotional elements (related to feelings of satisfaction), while service quality is related to the overall evaluation of the delivery system. of the service of a provider.
Consequently, service quality is linked to the delivery of services, while satisfaction is customers' experience with services. However, what is most important is that service quality has a direct impact on customer satisfaction. Several studies have confirmed that service quality is a precursor to and a component of satisfaction (Kang 2006).
The latter forms an important part of the overall service quality concept which in turn is a component of customer satisfaction.
Application to the legal services sector
- The selection of a lawyer
- The evaluation of quality and the role of outcome
- The factors/criteria affecting service quality and customer satisfaction in legal
Usually, the client does not have the necessary knowledge to evaluate the lawyer's technical skills and competence and therefore the quality of the service provided. This difficulty is compounded by the fact that the outcome of a certain legal service often depends on many factors unrelated to the quality of the service rendered. Or it could be that the client feels that the lawyer has not understood the true nature of the problem and is not getting the help they actually need.
In my opinion, the price of the service itself is not a factor in perceived quality. However, a common mistake that lawyers make is to assume that the client is aware of the efforts the former are making. As mentioned above, one of the causes of the dissatisfaction is the lawyer's inability to listen.
We must also note that poor communication does not necessarily stem from carelessness or lack of available time on the part of the lawyer. The client expects the lawyer to be friendly and interested in their concerns and failure to meet these expectations is likely to create dissatisfaction, regardless of the lawyer's effectiveness from a technical point of view. It is the lawyer's duty not only to understand all aspects of the case and act accordingly, but also to explain it to the client in a simple and concise manner, essentially through layman's law to "translate" its "language".
Clear communication will, for example, also be related to clarity about the invoicing system or informing the customer about the status of the file.
Sample
The SERVQUAL items
The second part of the question was associated with the assessment of the services, in other words of what the specific lawyer each respondent hired provided. The first part therefore reflected the client's expectations while the latter referred to the client's perceptions of legal services rendered. The respondents received information about the subject and what each part of the statement represents (expectations-perceptions), as well as the way in which the questionnaire should be completed by them.
The questionnaire was first formulated in English and then it was translated into Greek so that it could be understood by the respondents. Nevertheless, the items selected cover all five core dimensions of the SERVQUAL model and, in the author's view, are the most important in estimating the factors associated with customer satisfaction in the industry in question. At the top of the questionnaire it is stated that "the first 17 questions consist of two sub-question statements.
The five-point Likert scale was chosen because it would be more understandable to respondents and reduce their “frustration level,” which is more common on the seven-point scale. In the first question, respondents were asked about the nature of their case, whether it involved litigation (judicial nature) or only legal advice (advisory nature). More specifically, the second question asked respondents to indicate whether their case had a good outcome and the third question asked whether they would choose their lawyer again if they needed legal services in the future.
The obvious purpose of the last few questions was to identify whether or not the outcome of the case is indeed a factor affecting client satisfaction in the legal services industry.
Data Analysis ˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌˌ36
As expected, the participants strongly agree (with no variation in the answers) that the lawyer must behave professionally. The participants strongly agree that the lawyer must deliver the service within the promised time frame. There is general agreement that the lawyer must understand the specific needs of the client (with a slight variation in the answers).
Respondents also agree that a lawyer should constantly keep the client informed about their case. Another statement for which there was strong agreement was that a lawyer should have good communication skills. Participants generally agree that the lawyer must provide the client with clear and accurate information.
Finally, the respondents agree that the client should easily contact/make an agreement with the lawyer.
