[OLD - Removed per HelpSpot request #12674] Client Service for Law Firms : Client Satisfaction, Surveys. Repeat Business Drivers & Criteria

I just returned from a week up in Whistler, British Columbia.  It has become my family's favorite vacation spot. The scenery is beautiful, and there's tons to do for the outdoors enthusiast.  Soon to be the site for the 2010 Winter Olympics, it's known for it's outstanding skiing.  In the summer, though, it's the holy grail for the downhill mountain biking enthusiast.  More power to them, I guess.  I happen to like my body in one piece, thank you.

The picture to the left is us standing in front of the breathtaking Nairn Falls (a short 20-mile trip--one way--from the Whistler Village).

I live in Puyallup, Washington.  It's a small town that doesn't get much tourism (apparently traffic gridlock and our local daffodil princess have fallen short of expectations).  Local businesses rely on repeat business if they want to stay in business.

Whistler, on the other hand, is a different story.  Merchants there could almost certainly prey on tourists, and hardly feel the bite at all.  There's a steady enough stream of tourists that with some decent marketing they could keep the cash registers buzzing with ease.  Flying in the face of that logic, though, what really amazes me is the outstanding level of customer service that the vast majority of merchants provide. And largely from a 20-something year-old set of employees, no less.

My best guess: the vast majority of those working in Whistler are there because they truly want to be there. They came to Whistler to live the dream, and they're doing it.

You draw out the implications for customer service.

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I'm going to piggy-back off Tom Kane's post about internal marketing. Albeit somewhat tangentially. Some people forget that one of the easiest places to get new business is sitting on the other side of your drywall. They'll hop on an airplane to chase a prospect, but won't walk 10 feet next door to communicate with a co-worker who might have a client that needs their services. And I can't tell you how many times I've heard lawyers sending the work to someone outside the firm when they have someone in their own firm who could handle the matter. Which brings me to the point of my post.

Your own co-workers are potential clients. Even if they aren't going to buy your services directly, they could (and should) send those clients to you. Provided you give them every reason to believe they'll be taken good care of.

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One of the greatest sporting events of all time was the Ali-Foreman fight that became known as The Rumble in The Jungle. What some may not know is the story behind it. Foreman is widely remembered as one of the hardest hitting boxers in history. As the fight unfolded, Foreman unleashed that brute force on Ali, with very little resistance.

Through the seventh round this continued. Foreman fans looked like the world was theirs on a platter. Ali fans had nothing to cheer about. David vs. Goliath without the surprise ending. Even Ali's trainer, Angelo Dundee, didn't know what was happening. But unbeknownst to all but Ali, a plan was unfolding. He figured that if he could absorb the shock of Foreman's blows early, he could eventually wear him down.

And he did. Early in the eighth round Ali sprang from the ropes when Foreman's energy had been spent. With three beautifully-timed blows, Ali put Foreman out, and the fight was over.

Don't be surprised if launching a client service initiative leaves you feeling like an early-round Muhammed Ali. It probably will hurt a little; maybe a lot. Hang on, take the blows, and execute your plan. If you're willing to pay the price I suspect you, too, can achieve a shockingly positive outcome.

By the way, I don't recommend you Ali-wannabe's taunt your clients!!

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Dan Hull has a good question about whether you need to like your clients or not to do a good job? His answer is yes, you need to like them (at least for his firm). Okay. I'm not so confident, but I do respect his opinion. Moving on, here's what caught my eye:

"....When we perform well, the client appreciates us and signals that appreciation. So then we like the client even more, and want to do an even better job or keep doing the good job we are doing so we can derive more real pleasure from the engagement, and obtain more work.

...We have never, ever had good long-term relationships with any organization client (1) which did not genuinely appreciate what we were doing for it or (2) which had disturbing corporate personalities (i.e., mean-spirited Rambo cultures, groups with employees given to blame-storming, or companies with disorganized, internally-uncommunicative or just plain lazy staffs.)"

I'm not taking issue with him on this statement. In the context of client service, however, we should at least ask the following questions: 

Could it be the reason they don't genuinely appreciate us is we haven't earned it?

With the mean-spirited employees is it a matter of nature or nurture? (In other words, did we create the monster?)

I've been married long enough to know that if my wife is mad at me there's typically a reason for it. And "she's just plain psycho" isn't the right answer.

Sometimes we really do need to fire a client. Sometimes they are just plain nasty. But before we place the blame there, we should first honestly ask ourselves if we caused the problem.

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Trust is the backbone of any good relationship, be it with your spouse, friend, employer, doctor, or, yes, your law firm. You simply cannot deliver good client service without trust. Without trust you have an adversarial relationship. You have a problem.

It came to mind for me in a conversation I was recently having with a new client of LexBlog's, legal search recruiter Courtney Sapire (whom I would rank extremely high on the I-trust-her scale). Thanks Courtney. In my conversations with her I've always come away with a sense that she's extremely trustworthy. I'd recommend her in a heartbeat if somebody asked me who to call.

Would your clients do the same for you? It's the highest compliment. They're telling you indirectly they trust you enough to put their reputation on the line, like I'm doing for Courtney!  That's huge.

If I could think of only one question to ask as a good indicator of your client service posture, the question "Do you truly trust us?" would be given serious consideration. It answers a lot of other questions in the process.

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I just got stung by a wasp. Hey, that hurts!  I love what this website tells you to do: "They should be brushed off the victim's skin promptly with deliberate movements, then quietly and immediately leave the area."  Very funny. Immediately leave the area--sure; but quietly? I hardly tiptoed out of there, I can tell you that. And we won't talk about the "quiet" verbal expression I might've uttered.

I was in the process of removing a massive shrub of grass (pampass grass?), probably a circumference of 15 feet (& 10' high). Huge. I was happily plodding away, which took the better part of a Saturday. The warning signs were there all afternoon; I knew there was a nest in there, and I'd seen them buzzing around. I took minimal precautions (my wasp spray was posted on the fence like some sort of scarecrow--apparently wasps can't read!).

I think some lawyers treat client service with the same sort of "scarecrow" mentality. They happily grind away working on client files. The warning signs remain, with even the latest research showing little to no improvement in perceptions. Yet they work away without any regard for the warning signs. Somebody's going to get stung.

The problem here is this pain won't go away with some baking soda and an advil.

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It dawned on me that most of my blog concerns client service for large law firms. What about the majority of most firms out there that practice some type of law that does not deal with other lawyers? What about those that deal with the general public in crisis situations?

I'm fairly certain that the same general (but simplified) principles I've written about before apply, with modifications. Here are my thoughts. Feedback is welcomed.

1. Responsiveness--If I'm charged with a crime or going through a divorce, silence from my attorney is not golden; it is a source of panic. Call me back promptly.

2. Communication--This is where the old adage about writing at the 8th grade level is true. Do not assume I know what a deposition is, or community property, or even community service. Make sure things are spelled out in really simple language.

3. Price--The general public is petrified of what lawyers cost. Not sure why. Give honest appraisals of what it will cost up front.

4. Urgency--Deep in my heart I know that you don't really care that I've just lost my job, my wife, and my driver's license (unless, of course, it means I'll have trouble paying my bill). I'm actually okay with that. But please at least understand my sense of urgency and try to accomodate it.

5. Knowledge about my situation--So long as you know my goals for the situation, working towards a positive resolution becomes doable. Don't hesitate to pry a little and ask. I can always plead the fifth (at which point I'll need a constitutional lawyer, won't I?--see #3 above).

I suspect if you accel in these areas you'll do very well with your clients and they'll happily send you referrals. And I know that if you ask what they need you'll do even better!!

Have a great weekend, everybody.

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Patrick J. Lamb does a nice job of summarizing the newest research from Inside Counsel on corporate counsel's latest round of answers as to how law firms are doing. There's more than his post indicates but it hits the items of interest to most of us.

I'll summarize from a law firm client's perspective: not great.

Here's the clip I find most interesting.

Only 19% of outside lawyers give their outside firms an "A" for overall performance (down from 21% last year and 22% in 2005). Over 60% of the law firms give themselves an "A".

Can you say "disparity'?  And why the dropping numbers with all the focus on client service? My guess is that it has something to do with rising expectations. But then, I picked my Washington Huskies to go all the way last year in the NCAA tourney. (A tourney they didn't even get invited to).

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I just received an e-mail from a co-worker of mine. In the process of trying to move he contracted with a national truck rental company. I'll refrain from stating the name of the company (hint: their name means a list of all planned expenses and revenues).  Here are his comments:

"We were notified less than a day before our scheduled pick-up that our truck wasn't available at the arranged location, no one could bring it to another location, and we'd need to drive 45 minutes to pick it up. An hour and a half was wasted with calls to their beyond-useless customer service.

Today...it wouldn't start. Contacting their "24-hour Roadside Assistance," two hours later I was met with a guy from a shady local towing company with nothing more than a set of jumper cables. That did not cut it. The entire move is now a day behind schedule. Customer service doesn't seem to care."

Mistakes will happen. View them as your chance to shine. If you make a mistake but bend over backwards trying to correct it, I'll forever adore you.

I'm just curious, Ches (although desparately trying not to visualize this): If the shady tow truck guy showed up with nothing more than a set of jumper cables, what did he hook them up to, and didn't it hurt?

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