Client satisfaction can diverge sharply from the quality of professional practice.

Evidence

Recent attention has also focused on utilizing surveys of client satisfaction to obtain information on workers’ performance. Resistance to such surveys arises out of professional skepticism that performance that pleases clients may not be related to high-quality practice. The popular teacher may not be the most effective instructor; a popular judge may not be the fairest judge. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1223

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader public-administration literature on output versus outcome measures and consumer-satisfaction proxies in service delivery. — connects to: The lawyer-client relationship is shifting from professional dominance toward collaboration — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 756