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

Today we're going to present a puzzle for you. What, you may ask, does a puzzle have to do with client service? Well...nothing, actually, except that providing outstanding client service sometimes means thinking outside the box. Let's see how you fare!

Long ago a merchant had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a lender. The old & ugly lender fancied the merchant's beautiful daughter, so he proposed a bargain. He would forgo the merchant's debt if he could marry his daughter. Both the merchant and his daughter were horrified by the proposal. The cunning lender suggested they let providence decide the matter.

The lender would put a black and white pebble into an empty bag. The girl would then pick one pebble from the bag.  If she picked the black pebble, she would become the lender's wife and her father's debt would be forgiven. If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father's debt would still be forgiven. If she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.

They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the merchant's garden. As they talked, the lender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them in the bag. He then asked the girl to pick her pebble from the bag.

What would you have done if you were the girl? Here are some options (remember the consequences!):

1. Refuse to take a pebble.

2. Show there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the lender as a cheat.

3. Pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself to save her father.

4. Another option?

The girl put her hand into the bag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles (OOPS!).

"Oh, how clumsy of me," she said. "But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked."

Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one.

How did you do? Did you "save the day?" 

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From a piece of research done in 2005 by the folks over at LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell, which I think is still highly relevant, here are a couple of tidbits that should always be borne in mind.

In the initial hiring criteria for outside counsel, Lawyer Expertise ranks as extremely important by 78% of the respondents. Another 10% rank it as important. That's a total of 88% of the respondents ranking it highly, and by far the most important component. Client Service sits at 12% ranking it extremely important and 38% important. Easily second, but by a very large deficit.

Catch this, though:

In the criteria for allocating additional work, 56% rank Client Service as extremely important, with another 24% ranking it important. Lawyer Expertise? 43% rank it as extremely important and 25% as important.

Hmmm....What a shame to lose out on additional work when getting it was fully within your grasp!

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Hot off the presses, the newest issue of Inside Counsel just arrived in my mailbox. One of the articles is entitled "Top 10 Client Service Best Practices"  (subscription needed). Here they are in very summary fashion:

*Be accessible
*Respond promptly
*Learn the business
*Don't say 'no' (i.e. offer alternatives)
*Listen to feedback
*Empower your clients (teach & give them information)
*Reduce law firm costs
*Communicate clearly and directly
*Get to know your clients
*Have a customer service-friendly attitude

No surprise punches in this list. I've written previously about these points here.  They really are the stock answers. That's not a knock on Inside Counsel magazine. It's really a knock on us that we need to keep hearing it over and over again.

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Patrick J. Lamb has an interesting post on the whole alternative fees topic. One of my customers (nameless) once told me they tried doing that with their clients. With very little uptake.

And I thought it was supposed to be all the rage. I guess the devil we know is better than the demons we don't.

I appreciate Patrick's posts. And I'm guessing his analysis is right on target. What surprises me is that for budgeting certainty purposes I would think in-house counsel would rather spend slightly more with the fixed rate. Apparently not.

Not sure how this relates to client service, except to add that if your clients ask for it, you should at least offer it. Even if they don't do it, at least you showed your client-friendly face.

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What a great post about being seduced by success!! Thanks, Jim. To give you a teaser of what he writes, here you go:

"You may be so busy billing hours that you won't have time to read Robert Herbold's new book Seduced by Success. That's too bad, because it's probably a sign that you need to spend fewer hours billing and more hours planning for the future."

And he goes on to explain three primary destructive behaviors:

"The first destructive behavior is "lack of urgency...." Some law firms are aggressively increasing efforts to satsify current clients and find new ones. They are taking business away from the conservative firms that are acting as if the world has not changed since Nixon left office....

The other two destructive behaviors Herbold describes are are "a defensive attitude toward any kind of new thinking" and an "entitlement mentality." Do those sound familiar?"

By the way, he's referencing the new book by Robert J. Herbold, Seduced by Success. I highly recommend reading his post. I'm also going to pick up the book.

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