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Ministry of Justice Survey
30 April 2010 :: Business Review, Reading Chronicle

When was the last time you looked at the source of your clients?

How many came to you because your business sponsored a roundabout or ran an expensive marketing campaign?

A Ministry of Justice survey of 1000 consumers using legal services for private matters found that only five per cent responded to advertising or being contacted. 23% were referred by another organisation and another 23% heard about the firm because they, or another family member, had used it before. The biggest group was personal referral by family or friend, 29% overall but, in the case of divorce and family law, 41%.

Of course, this kind of research is based on a fairly modest sample which is probably highly self-selecting. It begs the question, “How did the referrer or family member find the firm in the first place?” Could it have been advertising?

The same MoJ survey found that 83% agreed with the statement ‘most people wouldn’t know how to tell a good provider of legal services from a bad one’. Now that really is helpful. Professionals are constantly told by marketing experts to focus on their “USP”, or unique selling point. Not an easy thing to do if there really is this level of client discernment.

“Ex-wife wins £215,000 payout - 29 years after separation” ran the national headline “even though they have no children together”.

I do worry that readers can get the wrong impression from such coverage. The fact is, whenever a court varies a spousal maintenance order, it can capitalise it. This is not a new power but perhaps not one widely known by the public. More to the point, capitalisation need not be a lump sum but could also be a pension sharing or property adjustment order.

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