Asked and Answered Q. We recently completed an informal client survey and were surprised at some of the feedback. Our scores were lower than anticipated. Clients believe that our services took longer than expected and fees were also higher than expected. We work as diligently as  we can for our clients and I don't see how we can improve turnaround or reduce legal fees. Suggestions? A. Based upon client surveys that we do for law firms we find that one of the biggest problems is that the attorneys are doing a poor job of managing client expectations. The key is to under promise and over deliver. I suspect that upon the initial client meeting you are under estimating the timeline and low balling the fee range. Increase the promise - timeline and fee range and then shoot to deliver under that range. This will do wonders for improving the client relationship. By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Click here to learn more about John