Among the most common complaints levelled at conveyancing firms, 40% of customers cite inadequate advice/background information along with the failure to follow instructions as being among the most frustrating causes for consternation. Other common complaints include schedule delays and hidden costs.
This illustrates that in terms of conveyancing, solicitors simply are not meeting the legitimate expectations of their customers, which is a cardinal sin in any business practice. It can quite clearly be attributed to a lack of understanding of their customers requirements, which in turn illustrates the need to listen harder and communicate better.
This is especially true when considering that these undesirable traits can sometimes result in the customer facing severe emotional and financial difficulties.
Take the case of Mrs X: Always very conscientious with regard to organising things in both her personal life(always paying bills on time) and her professional life (she is a manager of large retail outlet). Mrs X had completed all of the relevant forms needed to fulfil her conveyancing needs for the imminent sale of her old house, as well as having transferred the amount of money needed to complete the sale of her new home into her solicitors account.
All the solicitor then had to do was to perform the supposedly simple task of completing the purchase on behalf of MrsX to enable her to move in prior to Christmas – but no! What happened instead was that despite doing nothing wrong, Mrs X and her family had to spend Christmas in a hotel. To make matter seven worse, the conveyancing firms regulating body had frozen its accounts as result of bad practice, meaning that Mrs X had to wait a considerable amount of time before being reimbursed.
Although the case of Mrs X is particularly severe, both in terms of the financial burden it caused and in terms of the emotional toll it had on her and her family, it fully illustrates the absolute importance of meeting the customers expectations, which were by no mean sun reasonable to begin with.
To the credit of Saga Legal they have recognised the dire need for changes in the ways in which conveyancing practices are operated, and as such have initiated key amendments to their existing practices which will reimburse customers with a maximum of 50,000 if they are not happy with the service they have received.
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