An empirical investigation into customers perception of UK legal services and operations

Reid, Iain ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2581-1283, Bamford, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1050-1357 and O'Neil, Rob (2023) An empirical investigation into customers perception of UK legal services and operations. In: The 83rd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, 04 August 2023 - 08 August 2023, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

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Abstract

Designing a service operation that aligns business systems and customer perception, experience and outcomes is an essential part of the customer value proposition for business. This paper examines this aspect within legal services by exploring the paradox between the perception of operational service quality and the legal judgements reached. The paper collates responses from 8,192 law sector customers, and proposes that legal services need to be reconfigured. Findings indicate that clients perceived poor operationl value, but that this is perhaps due to their own lack of knowledge of the legal process. Through the development of a clear evidence base and a defined business model this research informs how an improved legal services could be operationalised. This would improve service quality from the customers perspective via efficiency gains through greater operational transparency and more effective communication from legal services.