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| Focusing
on Client Service Lawyers tend to forget that law is a service industry.
Clients have a myriad of choices for their legal representation. By
focusing on client service, lawyers can better retain current clients,
gain more referrals, and minimize the risk of ethics complaints.
Why don’t clients complain?
In the legal industry, the percentage who complain
may be even less than in other fields. Clients are often intimidated
by their lawyers, and, as a result, they wouldn’t think of complaining.
People don’t often express their discontent. Think about the times
you have been out to a restaurant and received lousy food or service.
How often have you complained to the manager? Most of the time, you
don’t bother — you just never return. Can you conclude that the
clients who are “nice” to you are, indeed, satisfied? When you practice
in a state where everybody is purported to be “nice,” don’t be lulled
into thinking that clients are as satisfied as you think. Lawyers also assume that
timely bill payment reflects client satisfaction. That’s hardly an
accurate assessment. Most of us likely pay our cell phone bills on
time, and yet we could probably write a book about ways that cell
phone companies could improve their service. Finally, many attorneys
believe that clients who continue to do business with them must be
satisfied. Why else would they keep coming back? Reasonable
assumption? Yes, but wrong in many instances. Consider the
cell phone company example again. Reasons we don’t switch range from
laziness, to lack of time to research other companies, to assuming
competitors are no different. While service may not be good, it isn’t awful. One of two things could make us switch: either
an instance of horrendous service or learning that a competitor is
offering a significantly better deal.
The customer who is looking for an excuse to stop doing business
eventually may find it. Your clients are no different. Many are waiting
either for something noticeably better down the street or for you
to make a colossal mistake. Importance
of Client Service Two hundred attorneys from
the largest 1000 law firms were recently asked, “If you could offer
someone advice on how to be a successful lawyer five years from now,
which areas would you recommend they improve?” Forty-three percent
responded that focusing on client service was most critical to success.
Client service was the area most frequently identified for improvement,
and was mentioned more than twice as often as the next two most popular
responses, specializing in one’s practice area and networking.4 Client service is the most
critical component in maintaining client satisfaction for several
compelling reasons: it sharpens your competitive edge, keeps your
focus on controlling what you can control, and helps you avoid common
ethics complaints. Achieving
the Competitive Edge Nordstrom and Southwest
Airlines both have great reputations for customer service. But can
you name a law firm with a great reputation for client service?
Didn’t think so. Law firms certainly
have reputations, but they are usually built on such things as their
expertise or aggressiveness — not how well they serve their clients.
Lawyers tend to overestimate
the importance of their expertise and competence as their competitive
edge. This is especially true in the corporate world. The reality
is that the majority of law firms representing corporate America do
very good work. If my own experience as an in-house corporate
attorney is any guide, those who hire outside counsel rarely, if ever,
worry about the competency of the attorneys they retain, and their
confidence is usually well-placed.
However, the type of service outside counsel will provide is
a recurrent concern. Will they be responsive? Keep me informed? Keep the matter moving along? Bill the company reasonably?
Treat me like I wanted to be treated? As one who routinely hired outside
counsel, I rarely had complete confidence in these matters. If I did
have complete confidence in a firm, they would continue to receive
my business. For any lawyer seeking
to develop new business, a critical challenge is to distinguish oneself
from the competition. What better way to do that than by emphasizing
how you serve your clients? Lawyers who are technical experts are
a dime a dozen; lawyers who provide extraordinary client service are
few and far between. Controlling
What You Can While the workings of the
law may remain a mystery to clients, they can
judge lawyers based on three things: results, outputs and service.
“Results” means simply
“Did we win?” or “Did the deal close?” But how much control do lawyers
have over these matters? Very little. While
advocacy skills can certainly make a difference in litigation, most
cases are won or lost based on the facts and the law — factors over
which lawyers have little control. Even the best corporate lawyer
may not be able to close a transaction if a party’s unreasonable demand
blows up a deal. “Outputs” are the work produced
by lawyers. Examples include briefs or contracts. Few clients carefully review a lawyer’s briefs.
And even if they do, it’s highly unlikely that they know the difference
between a good brief and bad one. As for contracts, even fewer clients
wax ecstatic over the wording of an indemnification clause. The fact
of the matter is most clients, even sophisticated in-house counsel,
either don’t have the time or the expertise to intelligently evaluate
your work product. “Service” is another matter.
Lawyers have abundant control over whether they return a phone call
within a reasonable amount of time, and clients can readily evaluate
whether the lawyer was responsive.
Lawyering involves many things that
are beyond an attorney’s control, as well the exercise of skills that
clients cannot evaluate. Why not take full advantage of the one thing
you can control and clients fully understand? Avoiding
Ethics Complaints In Minnesota, a significant
percentage of ethics complaints relate to service issues.5 Within
the Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct, four rules govern most
of the service-related aspects of the lawyer-client relationship.
The first is Rule 1.2 — Scope of Representation. Here the common complaint
is “Why didn’t you do what I asked you to do? The second rule is Rule
1.3 — Diligence. Here, clients complain “Why is this taking so long?”
The third rule is Rule 1.4 — Communication. Clients want to know “What
is going on?” Finally, there’s Rule 1.5 — Fees. The complaint here
is “Why did this cost so much?” Establishing an excellent
working relationship with clients goes a long way toward avoiding
these types of complaints. In this respect, lawyers are no different
from other service providers. The
reason their clients stay with them, despite the possibility that
someone else could do a better job and for less money, is because
of the relationship. If you
like them, trust them, and believe that they care about you and will
do their best for you, you are unlikely to
look for an alternative. These
are the precise reasons why clients keep coming back to their lawyer.
Managing
Clients’ Expectations What’s the secret to establishing
great relationships with clients? Manage, and at times, exceed their
expectations. Whenever involved in a matter, clients have certain
expectations regarding the situation. Successful lawyers ascertain
those expectations, communicate and negotiate which expectations are
realistic and which are not. Then they proceed to satisfy, or better
yet, exceed those expectations. They also check in with the clients
throughout the course of the representation to make sure their expectations
are being satisfied. Client expectations are fluid and the lawyer
must carefully perceive the movements. Most clients won’t complain
when something disappoints them, but they won’t easily forget either. Clients’ expectations can
be broken down into four key areas, each of which the lawyer must
manage in order to keep the client satisfied:
Ultimately, the lawyer
will be judged in all of these areas. By the time the matter is concluded,
the client will walk away with a “feeling” that the entire experience
was either satisfactory or not, based on how well their expectations
were handled. Quality Quality consists of two
components. The first is process,
which covers how easy it is to do business with the lawyer. Process-type
items that may be important to clients include: How convenient is
parking? Is there something to read in the reception area? Are bills
easy to understand? Does the lawyer who needs to review client documents
make an extra effort to assist the client in gathering them up? In
short, are the lawyer’s processes as user-friendly as possible? The second component of
quality is the outcome.
One of the most challenging aspects of being a lawyer is communicating
to clients what you think the result will be.
Most lawyers overestimate the importance of the outcome as
a factor in determining client satisfaction. While clients are obviously
concerned about outcomes, client satisfaction is determined far more
by how well the attorney manages the client’s expectation of the outcome,
rather than the outcome itself. Attorneys tend to fall
into one of two camps: cheerleaders or Chicken Littles.
The cheerleaders tell a client what they want to hear. In many instances,
they end up with a very disappointed client when the bad result comes
in. Chicken Littles tell their clients every conceivable reason why the
matter may not turn out to the client’s satisfaction. Attorneys do
this because they believe that the client, if adequately forewarned,
won’t blame them for a bad result. The problem with this approach
is that no one wants to hire a lawyer to tell them all of the ways
the matter can go wrong. Clients want lawyers with a can-do attitude.
The best lawyers combine the roles of cheerleaders and Chicken Littles.
They consistently convey a positive and supportive outlook, temper
it with realistic expectations, and know how to deliver unfavorable
news. It is an art and a science that few do well. Timeliness Anyone who calls someone
and leaves a telephone message, including a lawyer’s client, has an
expectation of when the call will be returned.
Do you know what your client’s expectation is? Have you thought
to ask? If you don’t ask, how can you successfully manage their expectation? People’s expectations regarding others’ response
to email are similar. No matter
how busy we are, under most circumstances, with the technology available
today, there is no excuse for failing to get back to a client on the
same day a call or email is received.
When necessary, a voicemail or email in the evening, acknowledging
receipt of the message and letting the client know when they can expect
a response, will suffice. It’s a common courtesy that all clients
deserve. Price
and Billing A recent survey by Corporate Legal Times indicated, unsurprisingly,
that billing issues are the number one source of friction with corporate
clients. But a startling statistic from that same survey indicated
that 35 percent of the general counsels believed that law firms padded
their bills.6 In others words, over a third
thought that major corporate law firms were literally stealing from
them. That’s a pretty sad commentary about our profession. There is obviously a serious
communication gap between lawyers and clients regarding fees. Many
lawyers feel uncomfortable discussing fees and either simply state
their hourly rate or that they work on a contingency fee basis. Rarely
do lawyers explain to clients the value of the service being provided.
Clients will have far fewer complaints about high fees if they have
a better understanding of what their lawyer is trying to accomplish
and why certain tasks are necessary. An up-to-date budget, provided to the client
on a regular basis, can promote better understanding. Few things upset clients more with respect to
fees than a monthly bill that has unanticipated fees on it. That can be avoided with proper communication. If something takes longer than anticipated,
the client should be informed at the time the work is being done,
not when the bill is sent out weeks later. Here again, managing the
expectation is key. Personal
Interaction Finally, there are the
interpersonal skills of the lawyer.
Treating the client as they want to be treated — courteously,
respectfully, reliably, and with due appreciation for their business
— is so important it can’t be overstated.
The client may find a mistake here unforgivable and take their
business elsewhere. The client who overlooks
inconvenient parking, forgives a loss in litigation that was foreseen
and forewarned, brushes off late return of a phone call, and takes
a higher-than-anticipated bill in stride is unlikely to respond well
to a personal slight. The attorney
who is rude, doesn’t listen, or isn’t reliable will lose many clients.
Why? Because clients take those things personally. Conclusion In sum, successful lawyers
integrate excellent client service as a component of their practices,
gaining a competitive edge and significantly reducing the possibility
of an ethics complaint. Those
who may think, “I don’t have time for all this stuff;
I only have time to practice law,” should consider the truth, that
all of this “stuff” is part
of the practice of law. Notes 2 Corporate Legal Times, July 2005, p. 37. 3 Petra
Marquart, The Power of Service: Keeping Customers for Life.
Ouray, CO: Ponderosa Press, 1998, p. 8. 4 Survey
reported by Robert Half Legal, January 11, 2006 press release. 5 The Minnesota
Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board codes each complaint it
receives into one of over 50 categories covering a wide variety of
subject areas. Complaints coded in service-related areas (e.g.,
Communication, Diligence, Fees) comprise over 25 percent of the total
complaints received by the Board from October 2004 - October 2005.
Since many complaints include multiple allegations, but are only coded
for only one allegation, the Board estimates the total percentage
of complaints with a service-related issue to be almost half. 6 Corporate Legal Times, August 2005, ROY S. GINSBURG is an attorney coach and CLE provider, consulting in areas of business
development and professional growth.
He has experience at both large and small law firms, in corporate
legal departments, and as a solo practitioner.
www.royginsburg.com |
