LSSO Executive Profile: Steven Keith

LSSO Executive Profile Q&A
Steven Keith

You've spent more than 20 years in client experience. What first drew you to this work, and what keeps you energized about it today?

Early in my career, I witnessed a major nine-figure client defection that could have been prevented if anyone had been truly listening. The firm was blindsided because it measured success by billable hours and matter wins, rather than client sentiment. That disconnect fascinated me – how could competent professionals be so out of touch with the human beings behind the invoices?

What energizes me today is that the opportunity is still massive. We've made progress, but most firms still treat CX as a "vitamin" rather than a “prescription.” Every time I help a firm realize that client experience directly drives profitability, retention, and growth, I'm reminded why this work matters. Every firm that “gets it,” so to speak, wins. That simple. 

What do legal industry professionals often misunderstand about client experience? Where is the biggest gap between how firms think they're doing and how clients actually feel?

The most significant misunderstanding is equating legal excellence with client satisfaction and client experience. There is so much behavioral science behind what should matter to firms. Partners often say, "We won the case/closed the deal – the client must be thrilled." But clients assume competence as a table stake; what differentiates firms is the package in which they deliver that expertise. That’s what makes clients want to stay and do more business.
 
The gap is enormous in communication. Firms think they're being responsive because they answer within 24 hours, while interviewed clients feel ignored because they get cryptic emails with no context, timeline, acknowledgement of their unique circumstances, empathy, or next steps. Clients want to feel addressed, informed, and in control, not just legally represented.

What are the key elements of a good CX program?

A successful CX program needs five core elements:
•    Leadership commitment – Not just sponsorship, but active participation
•    Client listening infrastructure – Beyond annual surveys to continuous feedback loops
•    Journey mapping – Understanding the client's actual experience from their perspective, not the firm's process chart
•    Metrics that matter – Connecting CX data to business outcomes like retention and growth
•    Cultural integration – Making client-centricity part of how work gets done, not an add-on

What internal obstacles do firms typically face when trying to establish a CX program?

The biggest obstacle is the "tyranny of the timesheet." When your entire business model rewards time spent, not value delivered, client experience reverts to a distraction from billable work. This forces outstanding firms to waste money on value recovery instead of value creation, which should be the central thrust of CX in law firms. Partners end up spending precious time justifying bills rather than designing services clients gladly pay premium prices for.

The second major obstacle is the partnership structure itself. Unlike corporations with clear hierarchies, law firms require consensus-building across autonomous partners. This creates a chicken-and-egg problem: partners won't support what they haven't seen work, but you can't show results without their support. This default puts well-intentioned firm leaders into a slow race to middle of the pack when it comes to differentiating their firms on the basis of client experience.

The third challenge is measurement myopia. Firms track everything except what matters to clients. They know utilization rates to the decimal point but can't tell you how long clients wait for responses or how many people a client must contact to get a simple answer.

The key to overcoming these obstacles is the right coalition focused on client experience. You need:

•    Managing partner (for authority and resource allocation)
•    CFO (to connect CX metrics to demonstrate financial outcomes)
•    Head of BD/Growth (for market insights and client intelligence)
•    A respected, charismatic practicing partner (who can credibly challenge the "we've always done it this way" mindset and translate CX value into language partners understand)
•    IT leadership (because most CX improvements require some technology enablement)

Critically, the groups often left out are associates and business services teams – the people who actually interact with clients daily and see the friction points that partners miss. Excluding them is like designing a restaurant without talking to the servers. These team members know where clients get frustrated, what questions they ask repeatedly, and where the firm makes things unnecessarily complex. Including their voice early creates advocates throughout the organization and surfaces quick wins that build momentum for larger changes.

Your background in data and analytics is impressive. What’s one common metric you think legal marketers and BD professionals should stop tracking, and one they should start?

I’ve spent a good amount of time discussing how total opens, visitors or impressions are just guiding principles and that large numbers are not necessarily best. When someone is getting started, I recommend focusing on setting up the engagement metrics – click through rates, micro-conversions, return visitors, registration to attendance rate – and then gathering these metrics for each touchpoint. From there, you can slice the overall data by practice, channel and tactic to determine where and how you may be targeting incorrectly. As you mature, building attribution models, especially more complex ones based on individual practice or services, will be more successful from these initial insights.

If a firm wants to evolve its client listening or feedback efforts, how can those tactics feed into a larger CX strategy? 

Start by asking different questions. Instead of "How did we do?" ask "What’s one thing we could we have done better, faster, more efficiently, or differently?" Ask,"What did we make harder than it needed to be for you?" and, “If you found yourself sitting next to our firm’s managing partner on a flight, what are a few things you’d share about your experience with our firm after a cocktail or two?”

Then close the loop – tell clients what you heard and what you're changing. This transforms surveys from data collection into relationship building. As clients see their input creating change, they engage more deeply, and you can expand from reactive feedback to proactive journey design.
 

CX Pilots just dropped a new journey mapping guide. Can you talk about the typical customer journey at a law firm?

The typical legal client journey has five key stages: Selection, Onboarding, Active Matter, Resolution, and Ongoing Relationship. The problem is that most firms only focus on the Active Matter phase.

The highest-impact moments are actually in Onboarding (where first impressions are minted and indelible expectations are set) and Resolution (where all lasting impressions form). Clients remember how you made them feel at the beginning and end far more than the technical work in the middle.

What is the importance of customer journey mapping as a driver of change and business outcomes in legal?

Journey mapping makes the invisible visible. Partners suddenly see that their "efficient" process requires clients to explain their situation six different times to different people. That's not just annoying – it's frustrating beyond words, expensive, and erodes the same trust firms hope clients use to rehire them.

The business impact is direct: firms that map and optimize journeys see 20-30% improvements in realization rates because clients understand and value the work being done. They also see dramatic increases in cross-selling because clients who have good experiences are far more receptive and willing to try new services.

You've worked across industries. What's something the legal field could learn from other sectors when it comes to CX?

Transparency. Healthcare has learned that patients who know their treatment plan experience reduced anxiety and improved outcomes. Retail learned that delivery tracking reduced support calls. Financial services learned that spending alerts built trust. The Big Four learned that structuring experiences around the real client journey (journey mapping) increased retention and client lifetime value.

Legal is still operating as if it were 1990, when information asymmetry was a feature, not a bug. Clients today expect real-time updates, clear timelines, plain-spoken language and predictable costs. Firms that embrace radical transparency over strategic opacity will win. I promise. 

What's one small shift a law firm could make today that would have an outsized impact on their client experience?

Ban the phrase "I'll circle back on that" without a specific date. What clients hear is “whatever you’re telling me right now is not important enough to crack my top 10 priorities, sorry.”

Make it firm policy: every commitment gets a deadline, even if it's "I'll have an answer by Friday morning." This tiny change forces clarity, sets expectations, and eliminates the anxiety clients feel when they don't know if something takes two days or two weeks. It costs nothing, takes no technology, and transforms how clients perceive your firm's accountability and reliability.

About Steven:
As founder of CX Pilots, Steven has dedicated himself to helping services-based companies understand that exceptional client experience isn't just good business philosophy – it's a measurable driver of growth and retention. Known for translating complex CX concepts into practical strategies that resonate with skeptical partners, Steven approaches every challenge with a blend of data-driven insights and real-world pragmatism. When not immersed in journey mapping or feedback systems, Steven can be found in Chapel Hill, NC, where he lives with his wife, Robin, and their newest family member – an energetic, jet-black Goldendoodle who's teaching him that even the best-laid plans can be joyfully disrupted.