In response to my post about creating a client inner circle to recognize and reward your best clients and thus motivate them to remain loyal and refer others, I received an email from a lawyer who loves the idea but has questions.

His first question is about identifying clients, by name, when that may violate a client confidence, embarrass them, or otherwise look indelicate. The short answer is to get their permission before you reveal anyone’s name. If you don’t get it, or don’t want to ask, identify them by first name only, first name and last initial, or by a pseudonym.

Or don’t use any names. Describe them with a detail or two that won’t identify them specifically. For example, you could say which city they live in, or their occupation.

The client will know they were chosen, you’ll know, but your newsletter subscribers and other clients will only know that you had three new inductees this week.

The second question is about how to avoid letting your other clients see themselves as “second class” or think you might ignore them in favor of your inner circle clients.

One way is to handle this is to promulgate a written policy that lays out “the rules”. For example, with respect to returning phone calls, your policy might say, “Emergency calls always move to the front of the line; Inner Circle clients [or whatever you name your “club”] are handled next, in the order in which calls were received; all other calls will be returned after that, but in no case, later than 48 hours.”

Another way to handle this is to say nothing specific about how return calls and the like are handled. Figure out other ways to “reward” inner circle clients.

The third question was about the ethics of providing anything of value to clients. “Some people take the position that a dinner, or an event, or round of golf, or whatever, is something of value. Giving them away is fine. Giving them away because someone sent you a referral is not,” he said.

I’m not an expert, and of course each jurisdiction has different rules, but here’s my take on this. If you don’t promise a reward in advance, and/or, the reward is of nominal value (whatever that means), you’re probably okay. But you might not be, so find out what your rules say and follow them.

If the rules aren’t clear about what is and isn’t permitted, if things fall into a gray area, I would take the chance. But that’s me. I like to draw lines and argue. You may not.

If you like the idea of an inner circle but you’re concerned about some of these issues, here’s a suggestion. Start your inner circle but don’t tell anyone about it. That is, when a client qualifies, notify them privately. Only those who are in the club will know, your other clients won’t feel left out, and nobody will know anyone’s name.

Yep, a secret society of your best clients who get their calls returned on a priority basis and are otherwise made to feel special. Of course they’ll also get your secret decoder ring, because that’s still a thing.

Yesterday’s post was about seeking feedback from your clients, so you can discover problems that need fixing and also bring in some testimonials. A lawyer thought this was a hunky-dory idea and wanted to know if I had any sample forms he could use.

I don’t, but I sent him a few ideas he could use to design his own form. I thought I would share those with you.

Now, have you ever taken online surveys that seem to go on endlessly and ask questions nobody who thinks for a living can answer?

Yeah, don’t do that.

Make your survey as simple as possible.

There may be occasions when you want to ask yes/no or multiple choice questions, but for an all-purpose survey, I suggest you avoid the laundry list of options and ask a few open-ended questions.

Tailor it for your practice area and market, but here’s what you want to know:

1. What am I doing well?
2. What could I improve?
3. Do you have any suggestions (additional services, changes, etc)?
4. Would you recommend us to your friends? Why?
5. Additional comments:

Leave two or three blank lines after each question, so they know they’re supposed to write something.

Precede this with a sentence or two explaining that their feedback is important to you and you would appreciate their help in filling out this brief survey. Tell them what to do after they’ve filled it out, i.e., how to get it to you. Make this easy to do.

After the questions, say thank you, and mention how their responses help you do a better job for all of your clients.

And that’s about all you need.

Most won’t fill it out. That’s okay. You want to hear from clients who think something is wrong, you want to know if anyone has suggestions, and you want to hear from the clients who love you.

If you want to increase response, you might hold a monthly drawing. Everyone who fills out the form is entered and has a chance to win a $20 gift card.

Contact everyone who response and thank them again. Tell them again that you appreciate their taking the time to answer. Address their concerns, consider their suggestions, and when they give you praise, ask permission to use their comments as a testimonial.

So, what do you think? Did you like this post? Did I miss something? Do you have any suggestions?

No gift card, but if you have something you want to tell me, I’d love to hear it.

Amazon delivered my new mechanical keyboard and mouse. Everything is good. I’m a happy camper.

I got an email from the company that fulfilled the order for the mouse. Did everything arrive in good shape? Any issues?

They provided me with a link where I could give feedback, report issues, and provide a review.

Did I click the link and tell them I was happy? Did I leave a review?

I did not.

Sorry, busy here. I’ve got a blog post to write.

The thing is, when everything is okay, your clients won’t tell you, either. Even when you ask them to and make it easy, like this email.

If something is wrong, on the other hand, you’re going to hear about it, right? You’ll get an earful from the client and a bad review on Yelp.

Not necessarily.

Unless things are really bad, most dissatisfied clients quietly go away, never to hire you again. They don’t complain, they just leave.

But you want them to complain. If they are dissatisfied with your work, if they think you offended them, you want to know about it, so you can fix the problem and make amends.

You need to ask for their feedback, not once, but continually.

Through email, online surveys, and especially when you speak to them.

Encourage them to be open with you about everything. Let them know you won’t be hurt if they aren’t happy about something, you’ll be glad they told you so you can do something about it.

Tell them that they are doing you (and all of your other clients) a favor by being honest with you, because they are.

Ask your clients for feedback, and ask often. Put a link in every email. Give them a form every time they come into the office. Bring up the subject when you have them on the phone.

Let your clients be your “quality assurance” department. You’ll find out about problems so you can fix them, and. . . you’ll also get more testimonials.