How can you become an indispensable source of value to your clients? As far as I'm aware, it's no crime to offer such extraordinary legal service that clients become addicted to it. While it may be beneficial for some other industries, adding nicotine to the fee accounts or heroine to the agreements will do nothing to enhance your clients' dependence on you and your firm. Only one ingredient will do this, and it's not on any restricted list. It is, simply, legendary client service.
Why bother with this legendary client service rigmarole? Benefits abound! Ask yourself a few questions. If you were known by your clients and prospective clients for providing legendary service:
- Would you get more or fewer referrals from existing clients?
- Would clients be more or less likely to pay your bills?
- Would clients be more or less likely to complain about the amount of your fees, the quality of your service, the time frames involved, or the outcome?
- Would you be more or less likely to be sued for malpractice?
- Would your clients be more or less likely to appreciate you?
Well then, if the benefits are obvious, why is legendary service so rare? Our profession is fraught with barriers and obstacles that discourage and dissuade us from providing what we all know would be beneficial. Even though there are notable exceptions to every single one of the challenges described below, most of us as lawyers fall prey to a good number of them. Almost everything about the practice of law pre-empts legendary client service:
- Lawyers are trained in the law, not client relations (I'm sorry to say, that means too many of us behave like geeks and not enough like caring providers).
- The billable hour is so sacred that non-billable activities are denigrated.
- We starve the client relationship in favor of getting another hour billed.
- Lawyers believe clients are focused only on solutions. We therefore get to the challenge at hand without worrying about optics.
- Clients are really focused on effort, while we conceal most of ours.
- Lawyers bill in unimaginative, hours-based ways, so we frequently either under-bill or over-bill.
- Clients will happily pay fees commensurate with the value of services offered (which would allow us to "afford" some client relations time).
How do you choose to whom you should provide legendary service? My mother, may she rest in peace, always told me, "put your wife first" - sound matrimonial advice. If you want your marriage to last, you invest in your spouse and make him or her your sole focus. When it comes to clients, however, most of us are bigamists; we simply don't stop at one! But I am going to take a further risk and advocate discrimination in this area. (Don't worry, this sort of discrimination will not offend even the most politically correct.)
Some may assert: "Nonsense! One must put all clients first." Those who can execute this notion to perfection earn my unqualified admiration. For the rest of us mere mortals, we may need to narrow our focus.
I suggest that we prioritize a little. We have to decide who really to put first. This may be a partly dynamic exercise similar to a hospital emergency room. Deciding which patient to treat first is not a function of comparing that patient to the entire universe of patients, but simply to the other patients in the emergency room at that instant. In the practice of law, a client most resembles the emergency room patient when that client deigns to phone or e-mail or fax. When this occurs, we are required to do an on-the-spot assessment like our doctor friends. However, between such "emergencies," we might consider prioritizing our clients using this list. Feel free to shuffle the list - it's your judgment call, not mine - but I hope the criteria might be helpful.
- clients who have the capacity to give us future work
- clients who will enhance our reputation simply by being associated with them
- clients who have the kind of work that forces us to learn continuously
- clients who are in industries we enjoy serving (and know something about)
- clients who can afford to pay for the value we give them
- clients we like
We might exclude those who are the antithesis of these factors, including clients who feel it necessary to test the limits of ethics and propriety on every file. The clients who do not make it to your legendary service list should be treated well, but they may not deserve of you the time and effort that it takes to really make them "first" (like your spouse). Or, if you prefer to think of it another way: if they were children, which of them would you adopt?
How can we practically provide legendary service? Now that you've narrowed the field to those who you are going to "spoil," you need to commit to spending some non-billable time on doing just that. Here is a starter list of five ways to begin that process:
- Visit the client's place of business (even if an airplane is required).
- Ensure your team knows the names of the client's key individuals.
- Institute a rapid response procedure, including:
- someone on team responds within half a business day;
- the client gets pager/cell/emergency contact options;
- send regular status reports in the form preferred by the client; and
- listen to the client to determine such preferences.
- Learn about the client's industry:
- subscribe to and read the client's preferred business publication (just one);
- attend the client's preferred industry seminar (just one annually); and
- have the client in to teach you about his/her business.
- Talk fees and fee arrangements, and guarantee satisfaction.
Don't think too much and act too little! If this article has suggested a few ideas worth considering, it remains worthless unless and until you execute one of the ideas (just one) that appeals to you personally. Don't close the page on this article until you have thought of at least one thing you are going to do as a result of reading this. When you have done that, you have joined the ranks of winners, like Tiger Woods and Estee Lauder; they are famous not for what they have thought, but for what they have done.
Gerry Riskin, B. Com, LLB, is a former managing partner, a founder of Edge International, and an internationally recognized lawyer, author and management consultant. Contact Gerry at riskin@edge-international.com, or 202-957-6717.