Category Archives: Client Service

Plan Then Do

Jack Vinson, who writes about project management (among other things) shares something he often sees in his work:  a failure to separate planning from doing.

I see a familiar theme come up over and over again.  People have a difficult time separating the creation of an idea from starting to work on that idea.

Why does this matter?  It’s the classic vicious cycle for projects: Get an idea. Start doing something about it. Realize you are missing some pieces. Go retrieve the missing elements. Start going again. Get stuck again. Start again. Stop. Start. Stop. Start.  

And of course, while you are “stuck,” you don’t just sit there. You pick up one of those other great ideas and start marching along until it gets stuck. And again. And again.

Sound familiar, lawyers?  Next time a client dumps a hot, gotta-be-done-by-tomorrow matter on your desk, ask yourself if you’ll have time to plan your attack?  If not, you’ll likely get stuck in Jack’s start/stuck/stop/start-over cycle.

Give yourself time — if only a day — to separate the “plan” from the “do.”  They are not one in the same and when you treat them as such, you and your clients will likely suffer.

Written on 03/07/13 in Client Service
Leave a comment

You’re Always a Replacement for Something

A simple, yet profound question from Jason Fried at 37 Signals:

What are people going to stop doing once they start using your product?

What does your product replace? What are they switching from? How did they do the job before your product came along?

Habit, momentum, familiarity, anxiety of the unknown – these are incredibly hard bonds to break. When you try to sell someone something, you have to overcome those bonds. You have to break the grip of that gravity.

So, when you’re thinking about your product, think about what it replaces, not just what it offers. What are you asking people to leave behind when they move forward with you? How hard will that be for them? How can you help them overcome everything that’s tugging them in the opposite direction?

When you are selling services, stop focusing on the “benefits” you offer for a moment and think seriously about the changes you’re asking your clients to make in their day-to-day routines.  If they’re moving to you from another competing service provider, contemplate the difficult conversation they’ll have firing your predecessor.

By focusing on Jason’s question, you’ll have a far better understanding of your clients’ real “cost” of hiring you, and be better prepared to address those concerns as you ease their pains of change.

 

Written on 02/08/13 in Client Service
1 Comment Leave a comment

It Isn’t About the Bathrooms

Seth Godin on clean bathrooms:

It turns out that just about everything we do involves cleaning the bathrooms. Creating an environment where care and trust are expressed. If you take a lot of time to ask, “how will this pay off,” you’re probably asking the wrong question. When you are trusted because you care, it’s quite likely the revenue will take care of itself.

In your office (or in your correspondence, or your procedures, or your staff, or …), what can you do to show your clients you care?

Written on 01/15/13 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Pick Two

Some advice for clients that should be on every lawyer’s wall:

You can buy it from Mr. Cup here.

Written on 11/26/12 in Client Service, Money and Fees
2 Comments Leave a comment

Just sign here, at the top.

Should you ask your clients (or opponents) to attest to the truth of a document before they complete it?  New research suggests yes.

From the University of Toronto:

Tax collectors and insurance agencies trying to boost honest reporting could improve compliance simply by asking people to sign their forms at the beginning instead of at the end.

That’s because attesting to the truthfulness of the information before a form is filled out tends to activate people’s moral sense, making it harder for them to fudge their numbers after, says a new paper.

“Based on our previous research we knew that an honour code is useful, but we were wondering how much the location mattered,” says Nina Mazar, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Prof. Mazar co-wrote the paper with Lisa L. Shu of the Kellogg School of Management, Francesca Gino and Max H. Bazerman of Harvard Business School, and Dan Ariely of the Fuqua School of Business.

Their conclusions were supported in three separate experiments. The largest, involving more than 13,000 U.S. auto insurance policy forms with over 20,000 cars, showed customers who signed at the beginning on average revealed a 2,428 miles higher usage (3907 km) than those who signed at the end – more than a 10% difference. The researchers calculated that added up to a $48 or more differential in the two groups of customers’ annual insurance premium per car.

Previous research has shown that people can use various forms of self-deception to avoid facing up to their own dishonest behaviour. But if their self-awareness is triggered before they are presented with an opportunity to lie, they are less likely to do it. Asking people to sign an honour code afterwards comes “too late,” says the paper.

Maybe it is time to move our signature lines to the tops of contracts from the bottom.

Written on 10/03/12 in Client Service, Innovation
Leave a comment

The Age of “It Depends” is Ending

What would happen to your firm if potential customers could easily find out how much your services have cost previous clients?  Would it change their buying behavior?  How about your pricing strategy?

Check out Clear Health Costs, where patients share how much they paid doctors for various procedures.

Never going to happen to lawyers?  For some, it already has:

Written on 10/02/12 in Client Service, Money and Fees
1 Comment Leave a comment

What do your clients want? Ask mom!

Over at A List Apart, Steph Hay writes about how Being Real Builds Trust.  In her article, she shares an interesting way to get inside the heads of her users (customers):

I start by writing down my assumptions about what my users care about.

Then I ask, “Would my mom ever say these things out loud?”

If the answer is “no,” then my assumptions are probably a stretch. I need to try harder to get at the kernel of beautiful truth. I keep going until my assumptions all sound like something my mom would actually say out loud.

Instead of using some stodgy, cookie-cutter, marketing-speak language about how she offers “cutting-edge services designed to meet her clients’ diverse business goals,” she takes the things her clients want, and puts them in her mother’s words:

  • I don’t want to feel stupid
  • I want to hire people I trust
  • I want to have a say in the final product
  • I want to feel valued
  • I’m nervous about this decision
Next time you’re working on your marketing materials, consider using Steph’s “Mom Test.”  I think you’ll get a better sense of what your clients need when you start using the same words your mother would.
Written on 09/01/12 in Client Service, Marketing
Leave a comment

The General Practitioner’s Dilemma 2

When’s the last time you’ve had a client that’s hired you to do everything your website says you can do?

Check out the first General Practitioner’s Dilemma.  Thanks to Tom Fishburne for the great cartoon!

 

Written on 07/23/12 in Client Service
2 Comments Leave a comment

Move Your Butt to Serve Clients Better

Next time you’re contemplating ways to serve your clients better, do your thinking from their side of your desk.  You’ll get a whole different perspective (physically and mentally) by literally sitting where they do.

Written on 05/09/12 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Be More Pleasant Than Nice

Some great advice on getting and finding (design) clients in this piece from A List Apart.  One of the sections was particularly worth sharing:

Be Pleasant, Don’t Be Nice

We once received a call from a gentlemen who said, “[redacted] referred me to you. He said that you wouldn’t be shy about telling me I was wrong, you’d probably piss me off, and that I should listen to everything you said because it would work.”

I was delighted.

That said, you should aim to be pleasant to work with, as everyone would rather work with someone pleasant than with an asshole. But no one wants to work with someone who’s faking it. Doing good work often requires a few hard conversations.

There’s a difference between being enjoyable to work with and being “nice.” Being nice means worrying about keeping up the appearance of harmony at the expense of being straightforward and fully engaged. Sometimes you need to tell a client they’re making the wrong call. Part of client services is being able to do that without coming off as a dick. But being afraid to do it because you’re too invested in being “nice” is worse than being a dick.

No one is hiring you to be their friend. They’re hiring you to design solutions to problems. But if they can get the same solution from someone who’s pleasant and someone who’s a jerk, they’ll go with the former.

Check out the entire article.  It is an excerpt of the book Design is a Job by Mike Monteiro (his presentation F*uck you. Pay Me. is NSFW, but worth a listen).

Written on 04/30/12 in Client Service, Money and Fees
3 Comments Leave a comment

Six Minutes on Client Service Design

Here’s my presentation from last month’s LexThink.1 event on client service design:

and my slides from the presentation:



Let me know what you think!

Written on 04/26/12 in Client Service, Innovation, LexThink
1 Comment Leave a comment

Fire Jerky Clients

Bob Sutton, author of the The No Asshole Rule shares a simple diagram that lawyers could easily use with their clients.

Written on 04/24/12 in Client Service
1 Comment Leave a comment

De-Confuse Your Clients

Paul Mederos of 37 Signals asks a perceptive question:

What if every question you asked your customers was multiple choice? And every question had an “I’m confused” option. How often would your customers choose that option?

Giving your clients the time to understand what you’re telling them and an easy way to indicate their level of comfort with the information is a tremendous idea.

However, instead of asking them if they’re “confused”  –  which is a pretty loaded question that may make them feel dumb — give them time to process what you’ve told them and to “seek clarification” or “learn more” if they need to.  Alternatively, ask them to give you a number on a scale of 1-10 indicating how comfortable they are with what you’ve told them or asked them to do.  Anything under a 10 is your cue to start over or try explaining a different way.

And confusion doesn’t start and end with your client conversations, letters and emails.  It impacts your entire business:

Everything you do as a business includes multiple choices for your customers. It doesn’t matter if you give them the choices – they have the choices. Features, benefits, prices, promises, support, etc. They can love it, hate it, be indifferent, etc. But they can also be confused. And “I’m confused” is the worst option of all. If your customers are confused, you’re in deep trouble. “I give up, unhappily” is next.

While you’re at it, throw out the legalese and five dollar words.  They don’t make you smart.  They make you look a pompous ass.

Written on 04/20/12 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Be the Most of Something

Some interesting thinking on being the “most” from the Harvard Business Review (free registration required to read):

The most successful companies figure out how to become the most of something in their field — the most elegant, the most simple, the most exclusive, the most affordable, the most seamless global, the most intensely local. For decades, so many organizations and their leaders got comfortable with strategies and practices that kept them in the “middle of the road” — that’s, in theory, where the customers were, that’s what felt safe and secure. But today, with so much change, so much pressure, so many new ways to do just about everything, the middle of the road has become the road to nowhere.

Just to be clear, being the “most of something” doesn’t have to mean being the biggest or most dominant player in your field. It means being the most deeply committed to a one-of-a-kind strategy and a distinctive presence in a world in which most companies and their leaders are content with doing business more or less like everyone else. As Jim Hightower, the colorful Texas populist, is fond of saying, “There’s nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos.” To which we might add companies and their leaders struggling to stand out from the crowd, even as they play by the same old rules in a crowded marketplace.

What could your firm be the most of?

Written on 04/19/12 in Client Service, Innovation
1 Comment Leave a comment

Project Management 101

Scott Berkun, author of Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management (Theory in Practice) shares some great project management tips that are relevant to all professionals who have to get things done.  I especially love his thinking on priorities and saying “No” more often:

One side effect of having priorities is how often you have to say no. It’s one of the smallest words in the English language, yet many people have trouble saying it. The problem is that if you can’t say no, you can’t have priorities. The universe is a large place, but your priority 1 list should be very small. Therefore, most of what people in the world (or on your team) might think are great ideas will end up not matching the goals of the project. It doesn’t mean their ideas are bad; it just means their ideas won’t contribute to this particular project. So, a fundamental law of the PM universe is this: if you can’t say no, you can’t manage a project.

He also shares several ways to say No and suggests it is important to understand when and where each flavor of no is appropriate:

  • No, this doesn’t fit our priorities. 
  • No, only if we have time. 
  • No, only if you make <insert impossible thing here> happen. 
  • No. Next release. 
  • No. Never. Ever. Really.
I’m often amazed at how rarely lawyers work with their clients to set the key priorities for each matter they’re handling.  Having the priority-setting conversation at the beginning of each matter will make the management of that matter go much more smoothly — especially when the time comes for either the lawyer or the client to tell the other, “No.”
Written on 04/18/12 in Client Service
1 Comment Leave a comment

Easy Does It

If you’re looking improve your practice, start by making just one thing easier for your clients to use or understand.  It doesn’t matter where you start, but identify something your clients do, read or experience and answer this simple question:

How might I make this easier for my clients?

Written on 04/13/12 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Rethinking the Retainer Agreement

Over on SLAW, Mitch Kowalski suggests that lawyers rethink their retainer agreement from their client’s perspective.  He includes several suggested clauses (taken from one used by a large multi-national corporation) including this one:

Legal services are expensive, reflecting the skills of the professionals involved and the quality of the work delivered. We respect your knowledge and expertise, and we genuinely hope to be a profitable client of your Firm. At the same time, we must ensure that we receive good value for the money we spend on law firms. In our view, the best way to achieve both fair payment and good value is to manage every matter closely, emphasizing communication and shared responsibility. We look forward to working in partnership with the Firm’s lawyers. Together, we can provide excellent legal work that meets our needs and that adds value to us and your Firm.

To achieve this goal, it is essential you understand the issue behind our legal project and the financial impact of that issue. This means, for example, that we expect the Firm to avoid overstaffing a matter, premature or peripheral legal or factual research, and discovery requests or other projects that are “what we always do” instead of what is appropriate for the particular matter. We will evaluate outside counsel on effective control of costs, as well as on the quality and effectiveness of your advice and work product.

The entire post is worth a read and contains several great client-centered retainer clauses — specifically the ones on expenses.  How would your retainer agreement change if your clients wrote it?

Written on 04/12/12 in Client Service, Innovation, Money and Fees, Practice of Law
Leave a comment

Understand Your Clients by Becoming Them

If you’d like to improve your client service, start by understanding how your typical clients experience every interaction they have with you and your staff.

Here’s an easy exercise to get you started:

  1. On a whiteboard or large easel-sized post-it note, draw the image above, and divide it into quadrants.
  2. At the top of the drawing, list one part of your client experience.  A good one to start with is your waiting room.
  3. In each quadrant, take smaller post-it notes and ask everyone (your lawyers and staff) to answer each of the four questions as many times as they can.
  4. Be sure to answer each question from your clients’ perspective, beginning each post-it response with the word “I” (I wonder …, I see …, I hear …, etc.).
  5. Take each negative response (“I hear my lawyer complaining to someone about another client.”  ”I wonder if she complains about me?”  ”I will tell my friends not to trust her.”) and brainstorm at least 7 ways to address it.
  6. Spend at least one hour each week working to fix the negative things so your clients have less to complain about.
  7. Repeat monthly with a different part of your client experience like your website, your bills and even your retainer agreements.
Written on 04/06/12 in Client Service, Innovation, Law Firm Retreat
2 Comments Leave a comment

Client Service Design Slides from LexThink.1

Here are the slides from my presentation at last week’s LexThink.1 event.  We’ll have all the videos posted soon and I’ll be sharing more on Client Service Design in a few upcoming posts.

Written on 04/04/12 in Client Service, Innovation, LexThink
Leave a comment

What Clients Want

A fun Euler Diagram from a presentation I’m working on:

Written on 03/21/12 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Lessons from a Collaborative Bike Shop

The Inverted Bike Shop.

Fascinating video about a small bike shop in NYC.  So much here lawyers could learn from this small customer-service-focused bicycle shop.  Worth a watch!

From the founder:

You can’t hammer a nail over the internet. You can’t be a butcher over the internet. You can’t be a barber over the internet. And you can’t be a bike mechanic over the internet.

Written on 03/19/12 in Client Service, Innovation
2 Comments Leave a comment

Multiply Your Price by 10

How much, on average, do your best clients pay you in a year?  If you were to give them a flat rate for all the work you could do for them in the next twelve months, what would you charge?  Is it just a bit more than they spent last year?  Is it less?

Steve Shapiro, in this post aimed at professional speakers, suggests that your all-inclusive price is probably too low — way too low.  Steve suggests we think bigger, and gives an example:

Are you a plumber? Maybe your typical project generates around $2,000. You may be tempted to offer a lower-cost option, perhaps a do-it-yourself kit, for only $200, which is valuable.

But what if, instead of $2,000 being the high-water mark for your services, you created a $200,000 offering? This would certainly get your creative juices flowing. Maybe, instead of selling your services to individuals, you target condominium associations, selling them an all-inclusive deal for every unit. It would challenge you to think bigger than you have thought before.

How could you earn ten (or even a hundred) times more from each of your Ideal Average Clients over the next year?  What needs do they have that you’re not addressing?  What do they value that you could provide?  What would they pay extra for?  Speed?  Certainty?  Convenience?

Take 10 minutes and make a list of everything that comes to mind.  Even if you can’t actually multiply your fee by ten, you’re certain to uncover things you could do (and charge for) that your clients would value and gladly pay extra for.  I’d love to hear what you come up with.

Written on 03/08/12 in Client Service, Money and Fees
Leave a comment

I know, but …

Marty Baker writes about a phrase we all hear from our clients:

He believes the three simple words are a signal “that the person has either wrestled with this idea before or wants you to understand what they know or believe.”

When we hear others use the phrase, Marty suggests that instead of moving on with the conversation, we should follow up by asking the speaker to elaborate on what it is they “know.”  His example:

A few years ago, I consulted with a CEO who was having problems with one his executives.  In exit interviews, employees consistently mentioned this manager as one of their reasons for leaving. This executive was a world-class micro-manager.  When I asked the CEO about this executive and the results of the exit interviews, he said, “I know, but…”

So I said … tell me what you know.  One of the knows was the lynchpin.  The CEO and the executive were friends and the relationship was important to him.

Next time you hear a client respond to you with, “I know, but…,” press them to tell you just what it is they know.  By doing so, you may learn more from your client by uncovering something they’ve left unsaid.

Written on 03/05/12 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Ask Clients to “Remember the Future”

A favorite technique I used when mediating custody and divorce cases — and that I still use today in my consulting — is one where I ask my clients to “Remember the Future.”  Here’s a description of the exercise (as used in a product development context) from the Innovation Games website:

Hand each of your customers a few pieces of paper. Ask them to imagine that it’s some time in the future and that they’ve been using your product almost continuously between now and that future date (it could be a week, or a month, or a quarter – pick a time frame that is appropriate for your product). Now, ask them to go even further – an extra day, or week, or month. Ask your customer to write down, in as much detail as possible, exactly what your product will have done to make them happy (or successful or rich or safe or secure or smart –choose the set of adjectives that work best for your product).

In a professional services context, don’t ask your clients the outcome they desire.  Instead, ask them to imagine their life/business/family a year (or more) from now and then describe in detail what you’ve done to help them succeed.  It is a tremendously powerful exercise that prompts us to think differently about the future because it has already occurred:

This game is based on numerous studies in cognitive psychology that have examined how we think about the future. When we ask the question “What should our product do?” we are not given a frame of reference for comparison. When we ask the question “What will our product have done?”, we generate more fanciful, richly detailed, sensible, and longer descriptions, because it is easier to understand and describe a future event from the past tense over a possible future event, even if neither has occurred.

Give it a try next time you have an initial client meeting.  I remember that you found it very helpful.  ;-)

And check out the entire Innovation Games website.  There are lots of great exercises you can use to grow your business and serve your clients better.

Written on 03/02/12 in Client Service, Innovation, Law Firm Retreat
Leave a comment

On Pricing Strategically

This is a tremendous article on Pricing Strategy for Creatives (written by the Chief Innovation Officer of an accountancy firm) that is spot-on for everyone struggling with pricing their services (including lawyers).  Please read it.

Here are some excerpts on becoming strategic about pricing:

1. Price by the service, not by the hour. Though very normal for the creative professions, one of the most non-strategic things you can do is to charge by the hour. Why do you charge by the hour? You may have read about charging by the hour in a book, seen your previous firm do it, or heard a friend say that’s how you were supposed to do it. 

2. Slow down your sales process. Slow down how, when, and who you take on as clients. You need time to determine a client’s needs before you price their projects. You must know what outcomes they desire. Diving into a project with a minimalist contract that speaks to your hourly rate will not let you know when your client is truly ecstatic about your work. And the only reason to serve clients is to bring great value to them and make them extremely happy!

3. Inject value into your client’s experience with your service. You simply have to charge more. That is a totally strategic move, and one you can’t do unless you have the guts to do it. But you can’t charge more for crap. It’s a little known secret that you can charge not only for your creative work, but for the client experience around the work you deliver. In essence, you can price things that have nothing to do with design, but have everything to do with the experience your client encountered throughout the process of engaging with you on their project.

There’s more in the article about establishing a better client intake process and charging what you’re worth.  My favorite part, though, the author’s discussion on how to have the “value vs. price” conversation with your potential client:

For example, you can ask a client “what is the greatest outcome you can imagine from my work with your company?” Maybe they’ll say “I want your work to be so effective that we sell 15 to 20 percent more products compared to this same time last year.” Now you can attach your price to their outcomes. So you might say, “My base price is $50,000, but if you sell between 15 and 20 percent more products than this time last year, then I will receive a bonus payment of 5 percent on your additional sales.” This links what you get paid directly to outcomes. And the clients won’t mind paying if you helped them sell more stuff. Everybody’s happy!

A great read.

Written on 02/21/12 in Client Service, Money and Fees, Practice of Law
2 Comments Leave a comment

Don’t Propose, Evaluate!

Jonathan Wold writes in Smashing Magazine about his design firm’s experience when they stopped responding to Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and started writing (and charging for) “Project Evaluations” instead.

His firm defines “project evaluation” as:

a detailed plan for the work that is to be done on a project, and explains how we do it. We eliminate the guess work, and detail the project out at such a level that the document becomes a living part of the development process, being referred back to and acting as the guide towards the project’s successful completion.

And here’s their experience:

A few years back, we decided to try something new. A potential client approached us and rather than preparing another project proposal, we offered the client what we now call a “Project Evaluation.” We charged them a fixed price for which we promised to evaluate the project, in all of our areas of expertise, and give them our recommendations.

They agreed, paid the price, and we set out to deliver. We put a lot of effort into that evaluation. We were in new territory and we wanted to make sure that we delivered it well. So we finished the report and sent it to them. The client liked it, agreed with our recommendations, and started a contract with us to do the work.

That project became a game changer for us, starting an on-going relationship that opened doors into a new market. It was the process of the evaluation itself that brought the new market potential to our attention, and gave us the opportunity to develop this business model. It was a definite win, and one that a project proposal couldn’t have delivered.

The real benefit to his firm (and the client)?  The freedom to dream:

Occasionally, we spend more time on an evaluation than we had initially expected. But knowing how our time is valued has given us the freedom to explore options and make recommendations that we might not have made otherwise. In our experience, the extra time and energy that the context of a paid evaluation provides for a project has consistently brought added value to the project, and contributed to its ultimate success.

I can think of quite a few lawyers who’d benefit from this same approach.  How about you?  How would a paid-for evaluation improve your shot at landing a great client (while delivering them significant value in the process)?

Written on 02/20/12 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Create Profitable Detractors

Here’s a fascinating article in Forbes about Apple and its reliance upon Fred Reichheld’s Net Promoter Score (NPS).  The NPS is a ratio of people who promote your product (promoters) against those who don’t (detractors).  It is calculated based upon their answer to a single question:

How likely is it that you will recommend this product or service to a friend or colleague? 

There’s lots of good stuff in the article, but the thing that stood out to me was not that Apple used the NPS to measure customer satisfaction (after all, lots of companies do), but rather what action Apple took when it got a poor score:

At Apple, store managers call every detractor within 24 hours. Initially, they found there were some detractors they couldn’t reach. Subsequent studies showed that detractors that they did reach purchased substantially  more Apple products and services than the others. Further studies showed that every hour spent calling detractors was generating more than $1,000 in revenue or additional sales of $25 million in the first year, which was a good return on the investment. (p.156)

In traditional management, where customers are secondary, the expense of following up with customers would seem like the first kind of expense to cut in a crunch. With these numbers in hand, Apple’s managers realize that this is one of the last things that should be cut.

Most lawyers I know chalk up unhappy customers as a cost of doing business.  It isn’t that the lawyers don’t care, they just realize that often clients are facing a multitude of unpleasant circumstances when they seek out an attorney (divorce, DUI, injury, death in the family, etc.) and will direct some of that displeasure to their lawyer as well.

What I wonder is whether or not a lawyer who begins measuring their firm’s Net Promoter Score will see similar results as Apple has by following up with the detractors as quickly as Apple has.  If you’re doing this already, let me know.  I’d love to learn more about your experience.

Written on 02/13/12 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Great Tips on Writing Well

Some tremendous tips from advertising pioneer David Ogilvy (via Brainpickings):

The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well.

Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches.

Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well. Here are 10 hints:

  1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times.
  2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.
  3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
  4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification,attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.
  5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.
  6. Check your quotations.
  7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning — and then edit it.
  8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.
  9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.
  10. If you want ACTION, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.

David

Emphasis added.

Written on 02/10/12 in Client Service, Marketing
Leave a comment

Make Money Instead of Chasing It

There are some good tips in this article on taking charge of clients who want free work, but the best one is focused on collections:

There are many ways people try to recover money owed to them for services and products delivered. Don’t get yourself too involved in these tricks. Keep everything you do professional and don’t waste time chasing money. You are far better off making it. Leave the chasing to the experts, even if it costs you something in the process. Eventually you will be able to add this cost to the prices you charge.

Brilliant advice too many lawyers are guilty of not taking.

Written on 02/09/12 in Client Service, Money and Fees
Leave a comment

Communicate Your Quality Checkpoints

As a professional service provider, you’re concerned about the quality of the work you do for clients.  How do you communicate that focus on “quality” to your clients?

Perhaps you could take a lesson from Next Day Flyers, an internet-based printing business.  Next Day Flyers puts every order through “33 Quality Checkpoints.”

Because 33 checkpoints could be a bit overwhelming to comprehend, they describe it in an easy-to-understand diagram:

 

Could you come up with a similar Quality Assurance process?  If you already have quality-focused procedures in place, do you communicate them to your clients?  If not, perhaps you should!

 

Written on 02/08/12 in Client Service
Leave a comment

What’s Your Firm’s Happiness Report

37Signals, makers of online collaboration tools Basecamp, Highrise and Campfire, are relentless focused on delivering high quality customer service.  What fascinates me is how they “measure” customer satisfaction:

After every interaction with our support team, a customer is asked to rate the experience by clicking one of three ratings: “It was great” (happy face), “It was OK” (flat-line face), or “It wasn’t good” (frown face).Here’s what the choices look like on the ticket.

The best part of all this is that they’re completely transparent about the results.  On their website, they’ll show you the last 100 customer ratings:

This is pretty powerful stuff, simple and excuse-free.

What if you asked each of your clients (on every bill) to do the same thing?  What would your last 100 client service ratings look like, and would you be willing to show them to the world?

Written on 02/07/12 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Things Good Lawyers Believe

Bob Sutton, Stanford Professor, management consultant and author of Good Boss, Bad Boss and The No Asshole Rule shared his Twelve Things Good Bosses Believe on the Harvard Business Review.

I’ve replaced “people” with “clients” in a few of them, but otherwise left the list mostly untouched.  I think it is great set of principles for lawyers.

  1. I have a flawed and incomplete understanding of what it feels like to work with me.
  2. My success — and that of my clients — depends largely on being the master of obvious and mundane things, not on magical, obscure, or breakthrough ideas or methods.
  3. Having ambitious and well-defined goals is important, but it is useless to think about them much. My job is to focus on the small wins that enable my clients to make a little progress every day.
  4. One of the most important, and most difficult, parts of my job is to strike the delicate balance between being too assertive and not assertive enough.
  5. My job is to serve as a human shield, to protect my clients from external intrusions, distractions, and idiocy of every stripe — and to avoid imposing my own idiocy on them as well.
  6. I strive to be confident enough to convince clients that I am in charge, but humble enough to realize that I am often going to be wrong.
  7. I aim to fight as if I am right, and listen as if I am wrong — and to teach my clients to do the same thing.
  8. One of the best tests of my leadership — and my organization — is “what happens after people make a mistake?”
  9. Innovation is crucial to every team and organization. So my job is to encourage my people to generate and test all kinds of new ideas. But it is also my job to help them kill off all the bad ideas we generate, and most of the good ideas, too.
  10. Bad is stronger than good. It is more important to eliminate the negative than to accentuate the positive.
  11. How I do things is as important as what I do.
  12. Because I wield power over others, I am at great risk of acting like an insensitive jerk — and not realizing it.
Written on 02/04/12 in Client Service, Innovation
Leave a comment

Measuring Quality of Experience and Result

In my post earlier this week, I wrote about Measuring the Quality of Your Clients’ Experiences and not just the quality of their results.  Patrick Lamb suggested that lawyers also use the grid to predict their clients’ satisfaction, and I agree.

Here’s a .pdf of a Quality of Experience Survey I designed with pages for both the client as well as attorneys/staff to complete (separately, of course) — along with room for them to suggest improvements.  Let me know what you think.

For the Attorneys and Staff to Complete:

For the Clients to Complete:

Written on 01/20/12 in Client Service, Innovation
Leave a comment

The General Practitioner’s Dilemma

Remember, your clients don’t have general needs, they have specific ones.  They want you to be great at solving their problem, not good at solving everyone else’s.

And yes, you can actually buy this knife for just $999.00.

Written on 01/19/12 in Client Service, Practice of Law
1 Comment Leave a comment

The Race to the Gutter

Wise words about professionalism from Scott Greenfield:

The need to survive in practice is a powerful one.  It takes time to establish a reputation of competence and skill, and when you have hungry children and a school loan payment due, you don’t feel as if you have the time to wait.  And so you use whatever is at hand.  It’s easy to justify at the moment.  Until you realize that you are one of those lawyers, walking down the boulevard in hot pants hoping someone will stop and pick you up.

Go read his entire post.  Now.

Written on 01/18/12 in Client Service, Marketing
Leave a comment

Network to Help People, Not Meet People

Networking in a nutshell:

Written on 01/17/12 in Client Service
1 Comment Leave a comment

Focus on Quality of Experience

Lots of lawyers claim to be “results-focused.”  Clients want good results, after all, and marketing yourself as one “focused” on delivering them has got to be a lot better  (to clients, anyway) than being “timesheet-focused.”  However, I think  many lawyers who focus only on the result are hurting their clients (and their own practices).  Let me explain:

Most clients get just one “result” in their matter:  it could be a divorce, a home purchase, or a settlement check.  Until that moment — which can take months or years to achieve — they wait.  They get bills.  They attend hearings.  They read letters and go to meetings.  But they don’t know for certain what’s coming in their case until it finally arrives.

So what do clients focus on every day while awaiting their result?  They focus on the quality of their experience:  Does their lawyer return their calls?  Does he validate their parking or give them a hot cup of coffee while they wait in his waiting room?  Does he communicate everything he’s doing on their case and bill them fairly?

And because they don’t have any “results” to share with others, they share their experience instead:

Bill:  ”How’s your case coming?”

Wendy:  ”Not sure.  I’m still hoping to hit the jackpot, but my attorney is an ass and never calls me back.”

So what’s an attorney to do?  Start by focusing on something more than just the quality of your clients’ results.  Focus on their quality of their experience as well.

Here’s how:

1.  Looking at the chart above, realize that for every client, there are two distinct parts of their legal matter:

  • The Quality of their Result (QoR) speaks for itself, and is measured by how satisfied (or unsatisfied) the client is as their matter concludes.  It is the thing most lawyers claim to focus upon, but in certain instances (litigation, for example) is either pre-ordained or out of the control of both attorney and client.
  • The Quality of their Experience (QoE) is the measure of their satisfaction with everything else, including how they feel about their lawyer and the service she provides.

2.  Ask some of your former clients (or pull some old files and do this yourself) to map out on the grid above how they felt about your representation, making certain their “Experience” measure is for everything that came between hiring you and their result.

3.  Unless everything is in the upper right quadrant, get to work.

If you’re a lawyer who delivers a great experience — even with the occasional bad result — you’re likely to see more repeat and referral business from your former clients than some ”results-focused” lawyers who consistently get great results but make their clients miserable in the process.

 

 

 

 

Written on 01/16/12 in Best of the Blog, Client Service, Innovation
3 Comments Leave a comment

Are Your Clients Happier This Year?

An interesting post over at the 37Signals Blog shares their year-over-year customer satisfaction scores.  In short, they made their customers happier in 2011 than they did in 2010:

The great thing about keeping score is that you can track your progress. We started asking customers who contacted support what they thought about the interaction in 2010. We were thrilled to end that year with just seven out of a hundred being unhappy with the service (and 84% being happy, 9% being OK).

But I’m really proud to announce that we’ve dramatically raised our game in 2011. We’ve gotten the frown ratio down to just three out of a hundred (90% being happy, 7% being OK). That’s less than half of what it was just the year before!

 Are your clients more satisfied this year than they were the year before?  If you don’t know, why not?  Are you measuring anything regarding client happiness?  How about other client-focused statistics?  How long did your average divorce take this year?  Or how about your real estate closings?  Did you do them faster this year?  How about more efficiently?

If you’re not measuring things your clients would like you to be better at, how can you focus on improving?

I’ll have some more thoughts on how you can do this in an upcoming post.  In the meantime, I’d love your thoughts:  what do you measure that gives you real, actionable data you can use to improve your clients’ experience?

Written on 01/07/12 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Measure Your Meetings

How do clients like your meetings?

In this article on Five New Management Metrics You Need to Know, author james Slavet suggests businesses get better at measuring the effectiveness of their meetings:

In the last minute of a meeting, ask the participants to each rate from 1 to 10 how effective the meeting was, with one suggestion for making the meeting better. It can be on a scrap of paper, or a simple web form.

I think this is a tremendous idea, and is something all professionals should implement, both for internal meetings and for meetings with clients.  Improving upon your time with clients serves both of you well.

Written on 01/02/12 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Give Clients More Certainty

Clients crave predictability.  They find comfort in knowing what to expect — especially in stressful situations like the ones you handle for them everyday.

But how can you deliver more certainty to your clients?  After all, outcomes are impossible to predict and matters ebb and flow from beginning to end.  You keep your clients “in the know,” writing them when something’s going on, calling or meeting with them when there’s something to discuss and billing them (almost) every month.

If you want to understand how predictable you are to clients, begin by looking at each file as they do.

While a file may remain “active” to you, your clients may feel otherwise.  Their only cues to the activity on their case come from you, in the form of correspondence, calls, meetings or bills .  When they’re not receiving regular, predictable updates on what’s happening, they become uncomfortable and stressed.

Want to better understand how your clients perceive your handling of their matter?  Using the diagram below as a guide, take a few active files and a blank calendar, and map out  for each the days you write the client, call them, meet them or bill them.  What do you see?

If you asked your clients to name the next thing they expect from you (and when they’ll get it) would they have a answer?

If your client interactions look as unpredictable and scattered as the ones below, that’s probably how your clients are feeling about the work you’re doing for them.  By giving them a measure of certainty about the things you can control, you’ll have much calmer clients, who are much happier with the work you do.

 

Written on 12/29/11 in Best of the Blog, Client Service
Leave a comment

Words from the Wise

If you’d like some regular inspiration from founders (past and present) of some of the world’s most innovative companies, check out Startup Quote.  Each day, you’ll get a short bit of wisdom on entrepreneurship, design, innovation and management, presented in a picture like the one above.  Well worth a regular read or a follow on Twitter.

Written on 12/28/11 in Client Service, Innovation
Leave a comment

Perform a File Autopsy

Remember the television show Quincy?  Jack Klugman played a Los Angeles medical examiner, and in every episode, his autopsy would reveal that the decedent (who’d seemingly died of “natural” causes) was a victim of foul play.  Using the clues he’d gained from his examinations, Quincy would convince the police a homicide had occurred, and then manage to singlehandedly finger the killer.  In a pre-CSI world, it was pretty compelling stuff.

So why all this talk about an obscure 70′s crime-drama?  Because if you’re really interested in identifying the work you love to do and learning how to serve your clients better, you may want to spend some time each week playing Quincy.  Instead of investigating foul play, however, you should closely examine those things you’ve given up for dead in your office:  your closed files.

Perform a File Autopsy.  Here’s how:

1.  Grab at least five old files that have been closed for at least a year.  Though you can choose files randomly, it works better if you’ve take some you liked and others you’d rather never touch again.

2.  For each file, complete the LexThink File Autopsy (pdf) form.  Be brutally honest with yourself as you answer questions, which include:

About the file:

  • In hindsight, should I have taken this file?
  • Were there any “red flags” I should have noticed?
  • What lessons did I learn from handling this file?
About the work:
  • Did I like the work?
  • Was I good at it?  How could I have been better?
  • If I didn’t like the work, how could I do less of it?
About the client:
  • Does this client have any other legal work I could be doing?
  • How would this client describe me to their peers?
  • How could I have served this client better?

About the money:

  • Was this a profitable matter for me to handle?
  • Did the client feel my fees were fair?
  • How could I have priced this matter differently?

3.  Every week, grab a few more files and repeat the exercise.  If you have staff, ask for their input as well.

4.  If you’re seeing common themes (either positive or negative) throughout the files, make sure to note them as well.

5.  Once you’ve performed 20-50 “autopsies,” you’ll have a better sense of the kinds of work you like to do, clients you enjoy serving and alternative ways to price your services.  Perhaps most importantly, you’ll understand the kinds of work you don’t want to do and learn to avoid taking matters and clients better passed on to your competition.

Written on 12/07/11 in Client Service, Innovation, Manifesto, Money and Fees, Practice of Law
1 Comment Leave a comment

Remember Your Love/Hate Relationships

Building your perfect practice begins with identifying and getting to know the clients you want to serve.

Here’s a quick exercise to get you started:

1.  Grab a legal pad and identify the first seven or so great clients (past and present) that come to mind, along with the reason(s) you liked to serve them.  Be specific, and try to come up with at least three reasons for each client.

2.  Do the same thing for your terrible clients, and as you answer the “because…” question, think about how many you should have seen coming.

3.  Once you’ve completed the exercise, ask the people who regularly work with you to do the same.  You can even ask your spouse or partner .

We’ll talk more tomorrow about what you can learn from your answers, and I’ll give you several questions to ask about each client (good and bad) who made the lists.

Written on 12/06/11 in Client Service, Manifesto
Leave a comment

Serve Yourself First

Serve yourself first. 

Lots of lawyers I know are great at what they do.  They are liked by clients, respected by peers and active in their communities.

They also hate practicing law.

When asked why, they’ll blame the long hours, the financial strain of running a small business or the emotional drain of serving clients in crisis — all while complaining about the crappy economy, their antagonistic opponents, or (gasp!) the internet.  “The profession has become a business,” they’ll say.  “I just want to serve my clients.”

And that’s the problem.  They’ve stopped wanting to serve themselves.  They’ve stopped dreaming about their future business because they’re too busy working in their present one.  They’ve confused the purpose of their profession (to serve clients)  with the purpose of their practice (to provide for themselves and their families), and have ended up miserable in the process.

So how can lawyers return to work that ignites their curiosity and stimulates their creativity?  How can they break out of the cycle where unfulfilling work begets more of the same — until it not only becomes the only work they do, but the only work they can get?

It begins with selfishness.  Not the two-year-old kind, but the kind of selfishness where it is OK to ask, “What kind of work do I love to do?” at the same time as “What kind of work do my clients need me to do?”  Answering the latter without addressing the former hurts both lawyer and client, as the unhappy lawyer rarely gives clients their best work.

So be selfish.  Serve yourself first.  Know the work you love to do and find go some more of it.  List the things you hate doing and find a way to stop doing them.  Identify the clients you can’t stand and fire them.  Take time to imagine a practice you’d love, and begin to build it.

In my essay Monday, we’ll get started.

 

Written on 12/02/11 in Client Service, Manifesto
Leave a comment

Resolve to Rethink Client Service

This year, instead of sharing a resolution each day of December (like I have before), I’m going to try something new and share a piece of a new “manifesto” I’m writing.  I’ll have a new installment up every day.  I hope you’ll enjoy them and let me know what you think.

 

Written on 12/01/11 in Client Service, Innovation, Manifesto, Resolutions
Leave a comment

Becoming a Trusted Advisor

The best part of writing this blog has been the amazing people I’ve gotten to meet along the way.  Two of those amazing people are Charles Green (Blog/Twitter) and Andrea Howe (Blog/Twitter), who’ve just co-authored the sequel to one of the best books for professional service providers of all times, The Trusted Advisor.

In their new book, The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook: A Comprehensive Toolkit for Leading with Trust, they provide actionable tools, exercises and resources that will teach lawyers to consistently earn trust from their clients.  I highly recommend it.

When Andrea asked if I’d be interested in doing a Q &A with her and Charlie on Trust, I jumped at the chance.  Here it is:

Q:  You’ve both written and spoken about Trust for years.  In this down economy, where clients seem more focused on price, does Trust matter more or less than before?

This is a great question, Matt, and there is a clear answer: trust matters more in down times. It’s in bad times that more people are tempted to behave in untrustworthy ways—to cut corners, to cut price, to over-promise, to jump for the bird in the hand rather than wait for the delayed gratification of long-term relationships.

In down times, people are tempted to react more from fear.  That means short-termism, zero-sum game behavior, and a tendency to isolate rather than collaborate. 

In such times, the people who stay with the high road are even more distinguished by comparison.  Someone who plays for the long run, who stays focused on client needs, and who sticks to relationships and to principles, really stands out. 

Another way to put that is: the times when it’s hardest to stay trustworthy are the times when you can gain the biggest competitive advantage from being trustworthy. 

Q:  Speaking of price, you both know that I’m not a fan of the billable hour, which often pits the clients best interests against their lawyers’.  Can you discuss ways lawyers can leverage Trust to embrace more collaborative pricing models, where risks and rewards are shared between client and lawyer?

Absolutely. We’re firm believers in leading from the four trust principles: transparency, collaboration, long-term focus, and other-orientation—all of which, when practiced, serve both parties’ best interests.  Of those principles, one of the most important when it comes to pricing and fees is transparency.

Consider an alternative to what are often veiled or vague (and usually postponed) conversations about pricing: a frank, honest, sincere discussion that emphasizes candor. The lawyer in the scenario could say words to the effect of, “Let’s see if we can both agree on some basic principles when it comes to our working relationship.  We’ll both be more successful if we agree to be in this together, for the long haul, with pretty much no secrets between us. That includes being jointly committed to a billing approach that maximizes the benefit to both of us. I am not interested in making a nickel if it comes solely at your expense and I hope you’d be equally disinterested in saving a nickel at my expense. Let’s work together to define fee levels and practices that are utterly fair to both of us and help our respective financial health over the long term.” 

A conversation like that not only sets the stage for trust, but for the kind of collaboration and creativity that makes room for lots of pricing alternatives beyond the traditional billable hour.

Q:  In the book, you suggest several ways professionals can handle their difficult clients (I believe you call them “jerks” in the book).  If I’m a lawyer with a difficult client, what should I do?  Isn’t it just easier to fire them?

Ha ha, well that’s certainly the temptation!  The thing about our clients who are “jerks” is, it seems to be catching.  Notice you’ve got one jerk for a client, and pretty soon others start popping up. Next thing you know you’re firing half your clients!

One thing we point out is that the “jerk” of a client probably has a spouse, a child, a dog, a friend—at least someone in her life— who thinks she’s pretty great. The problem statement, “My client is a jerk,” is problematic in-and-of-itself: it’s highly subjective, it’s unverifiable, and the object of the statements—your client—is not likely to agree.

What we see as bad behavior usually (usually) comes from decent people who are stressed out, anxious, or fearful. (Which is why we put the word “jerk” in quotations in the book.)

If your client behaves in ways that seem unproductive, ineffective, uncooperative, or untrustworthy, it is easy to dismiss her as a “jerk.” Freedom from difficult clients lies in taking responsibility for fixing the relationship. Lead with curiosity instead to look at what may be behind the behavioral issue—for her and for you. Have a conversation. Find out what’s going on. Name it and claim it.

And what about the real, true evil clients? Yes, there are a few.  Those are the ones you refer to your competitors.

Q:  When should law firms start teaching Trust?  Is this new associate 101 stuff, or only relevant once lawyers begin to build significant relationships with clients?  Or is this something that should be covered in law schools — once schools start embracing practical skills education?

It’s never too early to start—trust is a life skill, after all. And like a martial art, it takes a lifetime to practice. There is nothing about being trustworthy or working effective relationships that is or should be restricted to higher levels in a firm.  Everyone has chances to operate from the basic principles, and to demonstrate the virtues of trustworthiness: telling the truth, behaving dependably, keeping confidences, and being mindful of the needs of others. And even though what it takes to be trustworthy is actually remarkably simple, it often isn’t easy—for anyone.

That said, it’s the senior partners in the firm who are the most effective teachers, for good or ill. Whatever they do is what junior people will mirror. We’d suggest a firm should be wary of teaching Trust 101 to the junior folks when the senior people aren’t willing to walk the talk.

Q:  A lot of readers of this blog are solo and small firm practitioners to whom the economy has not been kind.  What specific advice do you have for someone with a general practice who feels compelled to take nearly every client who walks in the door?

First, stop hoping your revenues will recover, and firmly address your practice areas, pricing, and means of finding clients. This recession is not going away anytime soon, and there are secular problems in the supply of lawyers on top of it.

Once you’ve done that, take the clients you know you can do good work for and help the others find another lawyer. For the ones you keep, do really good work. Resist the temptation to resent them, or to treat them as a short-term means to an end. Give them your best. Going back to your first question, it’s in times like these that people’s true character is revealed. Every downturn has an upturn, and those who do right by others will be remembered for who they are in the upturn.  

Q:  You both have been making the rounds promoting this book.  What questions were you expecting and haven’t yet been asked?  How would you answer them?

Charlie Green:  Here’s a question we haven’t yet been asked: Why don’t people trust lawyers?  And is it a bum rap? My answer is no, unfortunately, it’s not a bum rap; people distrust lawyers more than most other professions. There are many reasons for this, including:  

  • In most professions, there is a such thing as “the truth,” whereas in law, there is only evidence.  
  • The nature of the law, at least in the US, is adversarial—it’s all about winning, and the other side losing.  Not a great attitude to take into divorce, contract disputes, or agreements drafting. 
  • The law is taught relentlessly as meritocratic—he who knows the most first wins.  Unfortunately, in life, that attitude pegs you as a know-it-all wiseass. 

The good news is, it is possible—very possible—for lawyers to treat their clients as true partners. And when they do, they stand clearly apart from the pack.

Andrea Howe:  We haven’t been asked what one chapter would we advise people to read, if they could only read one chapter—which is a tough question because the book strives to provide a wealth of practical guidance for a whole slew of situations. But if I had to zero in on just one chapter, my pick would be Chapter 2: Fundamental Attitudes. It’s a short one—only six pages—and yet it’s pivotal because being trustworthy means getting right the underlying attitudes, mindsets, outlooks, and ways of thinking. To jump ahead to skills, tips, and tricks, is to work the hard way. Get the attitudes right, and the rest will naturally follow.

Thanks to Andrea and Charlie for taking some time to answer my questions.  If you’d like to pick up the book, it is available here.

Written on 11/28/11 in Books, Client Service, Innovation
1 Comment Leave a comment

What Aggravates Your Clients?

Here’s a simple question to ask your clients sometime:

When working with us, what aggravates you the most?

It is an easy question to answer and should elicit honest responses, though you’re likely to get some surprising answers — including things that are easy to fix, and others that may require big changes to your firm’s documents, policies, website or staff.

 

Written on 11/08/11 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Thank Your Clients This Year

You have just enough time to send out Thanksgiving cards to your clients this year.  Why Thanksgiving cards instead of other holiday cards?  Here are a few reasons from this 2008 post:

  1. Thanksgiving is a holiday about giving thanks.  Thanksgiving is the perfect opportunity to offer your clients a genuine “Thank you for being our client” greeting from the entire firm.  The holiday itself reinforces the message to your clients.  A win-win.
  2. Thanksgiving cards are uncommon.  How many Thanksgiving cards did you get last year?  That’s what I thought.  Your clients don’t get them either.  That’s why yours will stand out.  It is also why yours will be talked about.
  3. Thanksgiving cards have a long shelf life.  Literally.  What do people do with holiday cards?  They display them.  If you send a Thanksgiving card, it will be likely be the first one up on the mantle, and will probably stay there, alone at first, until Christmas card season is done.
  4. Thanksgiving isn’t Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanza.  Hate the minefield of picking the right not-too-religious “Happy Holiday” card?  Avoid it all together with a Thanksgiving card.
  5. At Thanksgiving, there’s still time for your clients to do end-of-year work. This is perhaps the least-recognized, yet best reason to send Thanksgiving cards:  they’ll generate more end-of-year business for you.  When you send a Christmas card, it is already too late for most clients to get more legal work done before the new year.  By the time the holiday rush is over, they’ve forgotten what they wanted you to do, and wait probably wait another year.  A Thanksgiving card can give them that subtle prompt when there’s at least a month left before the rest of the holiday’s hit, allowing you to close the year on a high note.

 

Written on 10/27/11 in Best of the Blog, Client Service
1 Comment Leave a comment

Experience Matters

Most of the time your clients get one result — and it comes at the end of their time with you.  Until then, they’re focused on how you treat them before the result occurs.

What experience are your clients having right now — even those certain to get a great result at the end of their matter?  Are they confused?  Are they waiting for a call?  Are they trying to understand (and maybe even afford) your last bill?  Are they worried about an upcoming deposition or hearing?

Don’t lose sight of giving your clients a great result, but never stop asking yourself what you can do to make the experience they’re having right now better?  Serving clients well doesn’t begin at the end of their case.

 

Written on 10/13/11 in Client Service, LexThink
1 Comment Leave a comment

Rethinking Your Firm’s Bills

If your clients designed your bills, what would they look like?  Would they be easier to understand?  Contain useful case status information?  How about upcoming dates or milestones?  Would your bills include information about the people who worked on the case that month?  How about a report card seeking monthly feedback about how you’re serving your clients?

 

I decided to take a crack at designing a new kind of legal bill.

The bill begins with a “Case Update” that includes a brief summary of the month’s work, upcoming dates and milestones, as well as things the lawyers are waiting on from others — including the client.

There’s a page with pictures, names and contact information for all the lawyers and staff who’ve worked on the client’s matter that month:

There’s also, of course, a list of the work done that month, along with the price owed:

Finally, there’s a survey form attached at the end, with a list of client commitments and a place for the client to give the firm a grade:

The entire version is here.  Let me know what you think.

 

 

Written on 10/12/11 in Best of the Blog, Client Service, LexThink, Money and Fees, Practice of Law, Uncategorized
7 Comments Leave a comment

Wanting Creativity is Easier than Doing Creativity

From the Freakonomics Blog comes news of a Cornell study titled, “The Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire But Reject Creative Ideas.”  Here’s an abstract of the study:

People often reject creative ideas even when espousing creativity as a desired goal. To explain this paradox, we propose that people can hold a bias against creativity that is not necessarily overt, and which is activated when people experience a motivation to reduce uncertainty. In two studies, we measure and manipulate uncertainty using different methods including: discrete uncertainty feelings, and an uncertainty reduction prime. The results of both studies demonstrated a negative bias toward creativity (relative to practicality) when participants experienced uncertainty. Furthermore, the bias against creativity interfered with participants’ ability to recognize a creative idea. These results reveal a concealed barrier that creative actors may face as they attempt to gain acceptance for their novel ideas.

The authors of the study propose that we should worry less about generating creative ideas and more about helping institutions to recognize and accept creativity.  For many working in law firms — especially the marketing and business development folks — this will ring true.

In my work, I’ve found it isn’t enough to give people “creative” ideas.  Too often, a great idea is met with a “We can’t do that here,” or “That will never work,” instead of a “Let’s try it!”  It is far better to help people be creative as they develop relevant, innovative ideas on their own, and then giving them a framework and timeline for implementing them.

What’s been your firm’s experience with creative ideas?   Do you see the same bias that the researchers discuss?

Written on 09/14/11 in Client Service, Innovation, Law Firm Retreat
1 Comment Leave a comment

Meet Your Future Connected Clients

 

A peek at your future clients, from OnlineSchools.org:

 

 

 

Written on 09/14/11 in Client Service, Technology
Leave a comment

Create a Menu for Your Practice

Do you know all the kinds of things your firm does?  Perhaps you should take a page (literally) from the restaurant industry and create a “menu” of your services.  Though you may not decide to use it with clients, merely deciding what goes on the menu — and what gets left off — makes you think a bit differently about your practice and the kinds of matters you regularly should say “yes” to.

And if you’re looking for some menu inspiration, I highly recommend the blog Art of the Menu.  It has dozens of creative menus from around the country, and is sure to give you some ideas if you decide to make your “menu” a regular part of your practice.

I just created a  Menu for LexThink (.pdf) that I’m going to print up on heavy card-stock like an actual restaurant menu .  It is still in early draft stage, so I’d love to know what you think.

Written on 09/13/11 in Best of the Blog, Client Service, Marketing, Money and Fees
3 Comments Leave a comment

Hello, Law Office …

This may fall into the “completely obvious” category, but when’s the last time you or your staff have thought about telephone etiquette?

Here are four phone etiquette rules you and your staff should keep in mind before answering the telephone:

  1. Use formal greetings. When answering calls always use a formal greeting. It is considered best practice to use sir or ma’am to address customers if names are unknown.
  2. Speak clearly. Take the time to speak clearly and in a positive, professional tone. Doing so will put the caller at ease and diffuse an upset customer.
  3. Listen & learn. Train your representatives to listen carefully to customers. Always allow customers time to finish his/her thoughts without interruption and ask questions that clarify information. Be sure to confirm understanding with the caller before moving forward.
  4. No food or beverages. This may seem like common sense, -but stress the importance of this one. Representatives must refrain from consuming food or drink while taking a call. Customers do not want to hear gulping and chewing.
I’d also add:  never answer the phone when you don’t have time to answer the phone.  Picking up your cell phone — only to tell the caller you don’t have time to speak with them (or that you thought they were someone else) is rude.  Let their call go to voicemail and call them back when they can get your undivided attention.

 

Written on 09/08/11 in Client Service
1 Comment Leave a comment

Time to Change Your Clients

I ran across a juicy bit of wisdom today in an article helping sales managers to identify the best time to fire their salespeople for underperformance:

“If you can’t change your people, change your people.”

Needless to say, the same is true for your clients. If you have a client who continually refuses to take your advice, show up on time, complete the tasks they’ve been assigned or (gasp) pay you, you’ve clearly not been able to change them.

So change them. Replace them with a better client.

They don’t deserve your best work — and probably aren’t getting it anyway.

Written on 09/08/11 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Do Your Clients Know You Care?

Here’s a great article, titled “Taking a Customer from Like to Love”, that shares a nearly-unbelieveable stat from a Rockefeller Corporation study:  nearly 70% of customers leave a company because they believe the company doesn’t care about them.

Ask yourself, “How do my customers know I care about their business?”  Just because you care about your customers doesn’t mean they know you do.

Pick up the phone and call a few customers every week and tell them  you were thinking about them and value their business.  Ask them to give you one way to improve your service, and then commit to doing it.

 

Written on 08/30/11 in Client Service
Leave a comment

The iPad Office

Mashable shares some creative ways small businesses are using the iPad.  Here’s what an owner of a yoga studio says about using the iPad as a customer-intake device:

First order of business? Ditching the front counter and bar code scanner you see at a lot of yoga studios and gyms. “When people walk in the door, we hand them the iPad, and they sit on the couch — it’s a lot more casual, and we can bring them tea or water,” Foster says. Instead of standing awkwardly at the counter and filling out waivers and liability forms on a clipboard, the iPad makes people feel comfortable and also makes data entry a breeze for goodyoga. The studio uses a Google form, so the staff doesn’t have to worry about decoding a patron’s chicken scratch and the team saves times since the client info goes into the database automatically.

Written on 08/15/11 in Client Service, Innovation, Technology
Leave a comment

Who’s Your “Ideal Average” Client

Whenever I work with attorneys and ask them to picture their “ideal” client, I always get a few chuckles from my audience as they collectively imagine a client that can’t possibly exist:  the one who walks into their lawyers office with a huge retainer, a bottomless checkbook, uncomplicated work  an unlimited amount of time to get it done.  Because, for most lawyers, their “ideal” client doesn’t exist even in their own imaginations, I’ve begun to ask them to picture a different animal:  their Ideal Average Client.

The Ideal Average Client is described thusly:

a person (or business) who exists in the real world you could realistically build a practice around.  Put another way, if you built a fantastic practice doing the things you love to do (and that you’ve gotten really good at doing), your Ideal Average Client would be the person you’d no longer be surprised walked through your door.

I’ll share an exercise here soon, based in part on my Haiku Elevator Pitch exercise, that will help you to identify and understand your Ideal Average Client.

Until then, think about who (or what) is your Ideal Average Client, and what are you doing to build your practice to attract and serve them?

Written on 08/11/11 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Involve Your Clients Before Impacting Them

Before you make a big decision that would impact your clients, try this simple client-relationship tip from Thrilling Your “Front-Row” Fans:

Pick up the phone and get their opinion on a decision that would impact them.

Simple, cheap and easy.  Next time you’re thinking about making a change in your business, reach out to a handful of your best clients and see what they think about it.  Explain the challenge you’re trying to solve and solicit any additional ideas they have.

By seeking their advice on major business decisions, you’ll show them how you value their insight and soften the blow of any changes that adversely affect them (like a fee  increase).   You might be surprised at how willing they are to help you make your business better.

Written on 07/27/11 in Client Service, Innovation
2 Comments Leave a comment

Commit to a Minimum Client Experience

Ryan Singer writes on the Signal vs. Noise blog about the importance of delivering a consistently great experience to customers, regardless of the complexity (or simplicity) of the thing you do for them.  Though he’s talking about software, his basic idea is an important one for all service providers to remember:

Features can be different sizes with more or less complexity, but quality of experience should be constant across all features. That constant quality of experience is what gives your customers trust. It demonstrates to them that whatever you build, you build well….

I want a base level of quality execution across all features. Whenever I commit to building or expanding a feature, I’m committing to a baseline of effort on the user experience. That way feature complexity — scope — is always the cost multiplier, not user experience. There aren’t debates about experience or how far to take it. The user experience simply has to be up to base standard in order to ship, no matter how trimmed down the feature is.

How is this relevant to lawyers?  Instead of letting the amount (or types) of work you can do guide your firm’s strategy, focus first on the minimum experience you commit to giving all your clients.  Then, take on only the additional work that you can competently handle without compromising your client’s minimum experience.

Written on 07/27/11 in Client Service, Innovation
Leave a comment

The Ritz-Carlton of Law Firms?

What would happen if a major law firm appointed a managing partner with no legal experience?  Couldn’t happen, you say?  At the Henry Ford Health System in Michigan, CEO Nancy Schlichting named an executive from The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company (and expert in service excellence) as the president of one of the health system’s hospitals.

Why hire someone outside of healthcare to run a major hospital?  How about to jettison any preconceived notions while creating a “Hospital of the Future” that differentiates itself from the competition by:

  • Has prototype rooms for planning and community input.
  • Incorporates green features in the architecture and construction.
  • Consists of all private patient rooms, including in the emergency department.
  • Emphasizes wellness and healthy living.
  • Combines traditional clinical care with complementary therapies.
  • Creates a unique brand and inspiring staff to think differently.
  • Includes family space in each patient room, including intensive care.
  • Implements a new kind of food culture in health care.
  • Putts a focus on the special concerns of the elderly.
And the results?  Judge for yourself on the hospital’s website – a patient-focused portal that every major law firm should replicate.
I’d love to see a law firm take such an innovative approach.  Perhaps if there aren’t any former Ritz executives in the marketplace, the firm could at least send its management committee to one of the Ritz’s Executive Education Sessions.
Written on 07/19/11 in Client Service, Innovation
1 Comment Leave a comment

See, Think, Feel and Wonder About Client Feedback

Giving feedback is hard,  Whether you’re trying to give actionable one-on-one suggestions, or delivering an annual performance reviews, there’s a deceptively easy and powerful framework you can use to deliver meaningful, actionable feedback in a consistent way.

Based upon a conversation framework for children developed by Harvard’s Project Zero, See/Think/Feel/Wonder is an elegant, easy-to-remember way to give better feedback by completing just four basic sentences:

  1. I see ____________________ (Something about the object, person or behavior you can see with your eyes).
  2. I think ____________________ (What you think about what you see).
  3. I feel ____________________ (An emotion you experience because of what you see or think).
  4. I wonder ____________________ (Something you’re curious about or a question you have).

By prompting people to begin their feedback with an objective observation (I See), followed by critical analysis (I Think), an emotional response (I Feel) and a follow up question (I Wonder), it untangles the distinct components of criticism, and makes it more likely that the person receiving the feedback will understand it and respond appropriately.

Here’s an example on ways an attorney could use the framework to give feedback to a tardy client:

  1. I see that you’ve arrived late again for our court hearing.
  2. I think that you’re not taking this matter very seriously.
  3. I feel like you’re disrespecting me and the judge.
  4. I wonder if you’d like to continue with this lawsuit.

Here’s another way a client could use the framework to share their reactions to their latest bill:

  1. I see that you’ve charged me for three stamps this month.
  2. I think that you can afford to pay for stamps out of the thousands of dollars of legal fees I’ve paid you.
  3. I feel disrespected because you are nickel-and-dime me every month.
  4. I wonder if I should find another attorney.

When practiced and used regularly, See, Think, Feel, Wonder can change the culture of an organization and provide more actionable ways to drive individual and organizational improvement.

Here’s a Worksheet (pdf) that you can use in your organization to practice See, Think, Feel, Wonder everyday.

 

Written on 07/05/11 in Client Service, Innovation
1 Comment Leave a comment

Improve Your Firm’s Website with the 50/100/150 Rule

This Smashing Magazine article by Brad Shorr identifies five fatal copywriting erros that can ruin your firm’s website.  His first cardinal sin?  Making your firm’s site all about the firm:

Problem is, the rest of the world isn’t interested in your story. Customers don’t have time to admire your greatness. They’re too busy searching for ways to make life better for themselves. A high-level Web page answers one question of the reader above all: What’s in it for me? To illustrate, we’ll stick with products, although this applies to other types of pages as well.  It’s not about you. A well-written category-level product page talks a bit about features, a little more about benefits and a great deal more about the experience.

The author suggests you create a “Word Budget” that limits the number of words you can use to describe the features, benefits and experience your product or service offers.  Given 200 words on your firm’s home page, here’s how you should “budget” them:

  • 50 words on the features
  • 100 words on the benefits
  • 150 words on the experience

Here’s why:

  1. Setting a “word budget” forces discipline. Not only that, it relieves the anxiety over having to determine how to approach each individual product page, thus eliminating one of the biggest causes of delay in Web development projects.
  2. Focusing on the experience forces you to think about the target audience of the page in question. The experience I described speaks to an operations person. If my audience is made up of C-level executives or purchasing agents, then I would need to describe a completely different experience. If I’m writing for all three audiences, I may have to rethink my word budget. In any event, having an audience in mind prevents a Web page from devolving into that cursed, watered-down, “everything for everyone” messaging that says absolutely nothing.
  3. The purpose of a high-level page is to get people interested in the product. Once they’re interested, they may crave more information about features and benefits. Perfect. Tell the long version of your story on a detail-heavy product sub-page. Companies need not neglect features and benefits; they just need to suppress the urge to hit visitors over the head with them the minute they walk through the door.

Here’s how:

 

  • Before you start writing, collect feedback from customers and prospects. Ask them why they buy from you, why they don’t, and how doing business with you has affected them.
  • Start with an outline. Associate every feature with a benefit and every benefit with an experience.
  • Have a customer read a draft and then explain to you why they would want to buy the product. If the customer “gets it,” you’re a star.
  • Do the same thing with a person who knows nothing about your product and industry. If that person gets it, you’re a rock star.

The entire article is worth a read, and after you check it out, head on over to your firm’s website.  My guess is that it makes at least three of the five mistakes Brad identifies.

And if you don’t have the ability to make meaningful changes to your firm’s website, at least start with your bio, and use Brad’s 50/100/150 rule to make it better.

Written on 07/04/11 in Client Service, Marketing, Technology
1 Comment Leave a comment

Apologies Necessary

I’ve written before about the value of an apology and how an authentic “I’m sorry,” can strengthen the attorney-client relationship after a mistake or slip up.  However, if a phone call or face-to-face meeting is too hard, consider sending one of these instead:

(from Hugh MacLeod’s new series of “Business Greeting Cards“)

Written on 06/28/11 in Client Service, Marketing
1 Comment Leave a comment

Ask Your Clients Better Questions

In A Manager’s Primer on Asking Better Questions, Marty Baker at Creativity Central shares several dozen open-ended questions designed for various situations like Anticipation, Assessment and Clarification that serve as a valuable reminder that “yes” or “no” questions don’t always get you the information you need.

Here’s the suggested questions on “Exploration” from the post:

Exploration

May we explore that some more?

Can we take a closer look at that?

What other angles can you think of that?

What are some more possibilities?

What’s another way of looking at it?

While many seem quite obvious, making a conscious effort to ask your clients questions differently may just prompt them to give better answers.

Written on 06/26/11 in Best of the Blog, Client Service, Practice of Law
2 Comments Leave a comment

Explain the “Why” to Your Clients

Smashing Magazine has published a tremendous guide to designing an easy to understand e-commerce checkout process for web sites.  If you take credit cards on your site, it is a must-read.

However, even if you don't charge people on the web, you should check out the article anyway, because it explains something about collecting sensitive information from people that we all need to understand: it isn't just the "what," but the "why" that matters:

Even unambiguous fields, such as “Email address,” are great opportunities to explain what you’ll use the data for. “Email address” may be a sufficient description, but most people would want to know how you’ll use their email address. Why do you need it?

In your client intake forms, do you explain why you need all the information you are asking for?  Perhaps you should.

Written on 04/13/11 in Best of the Blog, Client Service, Technology
Leave a comment

Respect Your Clients

I think it is fair to say that this goes for clients, too.

Respect for Audience
From This is Indexed.

Written on 04/13/11 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Watch Your Time Like Your Clients Do

Next time you’re chit-chatting with a client over the phone, head on over to Lawyer Clock and watch how fast your “burning” your client’s cash — they certainly are.

Lawyer Clock


Written on 04/13/11 in Client Service, Money and Fees
1 Comment Leave a comment

Don’t Complain

A great Venn diagram from Indexed:  

Written on 03/04/11 in Client Service, Innovation
1 Comment Leave a comment

Hug Your Clients

Hug1003a1

 

via: Hugh MacLoud

Written on 12/22/10 in Client Service
Leave a comment

What’s in Your Manifesto?

I really liked this, from Holstee:

Holstee_Manifesto

Written on 11/10/10 in Client Service, Innovation
1 Comment Leave a comment

Stop Negotiating Via Email

PsyBlog recently highlighted Ten Studies About the Dark Side of Email.  One highlights why you should never negotiate (with clients on fees or opponents on settlement terms) via email:

Email negotiations often feel difficult, especially with people we don't know well. When Naquin et al. (2008) compared them with face-to-face negotiations, they found that people were less co-operative over email and even felt more justified in being less co-operative.

Part of the reason negotiations are difficult is that people tend to be more negative on email. For example, Kurtzberg et al. (2005) found that when people evaluated each other in performance appraisals using both pen-and-paper and email, they were consistently more negative about their colleagues when using email.

Yet another reason why, when the stakes are high, face-to-face wins the race.

Written on 10/26/10 in Client Service
2 Comments Leave a comment

Cognitive Dissonance and the Low-Cost Lawyer

This interesting Wired Magazine piece, titled Why We Love Our Dentists, explores the unique relationship between price paid and perceived value.  According to a recent study, two dentists will reach the same conclusion when looking at an identical x-ray only about half the time.  Yet despite the fact that dentists are so frequently wrong (they can't both be right, can they?), people love their dentists more than any of their other medical providers.

The reason, according to the article, is due to cognitive dissonance, "the human tendency to react to conflicting evidence by doubling-down on our initial belief."  The study's author Dan Ariely attributes our irrational love of dentists to the pain they inflict:

 

I think all of this pain actually causes cognitive dissonance and cause higher loyalty to your dentist. Because who wants to go through this pain and say, I’m not sure if I did it for the right reason. I’m not sure this is the right guy. You basically want to convince yourself that you’re doing it for the right reason.

The article has a few more examples of irrational behavior influenced by perceived value.  Consider this study:

[R]esearchers supplied people with Sobe Adrenaline Rush, an “energy” drink that was supposed to make them feel more alert and energetic. (The drink contained a potent brew of sugar and caffeine which, the bottle promised, would impart “superior functionality”). Some participants paid full price for the drinks, while others were offered a discount. The participants were then asked to solve a series of word puzzles. [T]the people who paid discounted prices consistently solved about thirty percent fewer puzzles than the people who paid full price for the drinks. The subjects were convinced that the stuff on sale was much less potent, even though all the drinks were identical.

What does this mean for lawyers?  Know that your clients hold deep-set beliefs that the value of your advice is tied (even if subconsciously) to the price they pay for it.  In other words, if you're the lawyer offering the lowest prices on your services, understand that your clients believe your advice is less valuable than the same advice offered by your higher-priced peers.

An unanswered question: do lawyers offering that low-cost advice believe they're less competent than their higher-priced peers? Just as their clients expect to get what they pay for, do lawyers expect to deliver what they charge for?  What do you think?

 

Written on 10/22/10 in Client Service, Money and Fees
1 Comment Leave a comment

Legal Rebels Video

Here’s my six-minute / twenty-slide presentation on Building the Service-Centered Firm I delivered as part of the ABA Journal’s Legal Rebels project.

Written on 10/21/10 in Client Service, Practice of Law
2 Comments Leave a comment

Communicating Value and Price

I’ve been a big fan of Merlin Mann for several years now.  As I was checking out his website yesterday, I found his pricing page cheekily titled: Do You Charge Money to Do Things? Here’s how Merlin describes his pricing scheme:

For most all of my speaking, consulting, and advisory work, yes: I do charge a fee, plus expenses. And, candidly, I charge kind of a lot….  I learned a long time ago to only work for or with people with whom you have mutual admiration and respect—and who already think you’re valuable and great at what you do. In my experience, the folks who expect you to make a case for your own value make for terrible clients. They may be good negotiators and nice people, but working for them is a gut-wrenching travesty. And I don’t do travesties.

With all that said, I do a fair amount of (private, unpublicized, non-ribbon-based) work with non-profits and other deserving groups. And, no, I normally do not charge for this work. So, If you’re working for a good cause or represent an organization that’s trying to do something you know I care a lot about, please ask me. No promises, but I’ll do what I can with what I have.

So, yep. “Expensive” or “Free.” It’s a fee schedule that works.

I think it would work well on a firm website, and provides an important reminder every lawyer should have on their desk: “The folks who expect you to make a case for your own value make for terrible clients.”

Written on 10/19/10 in Best of the Blog, Client Service, Money and Fees
2 Comments Leave a comment

Are Your Conference Calls Like This?

Funny, but true:

 

Written on 09/23/10 in Client Service, Technology
1 Comment Leave a comment

Your Clients Don’t Care Where You Went to Law School

After my Law Firm Website Venn Diagram got such great feedback, I thought I’d do another highlighting one of my big pet peeves: lawyer bios.  Here you go:

Lawyer Bio Venn Diagram

Written on 08/25/10 in Best of the Blog, Client Service, Technology
11 Comments Leave a comment

Use Words that Suck Less

Unsuckit
As someone who splits my professional time working with both lawyers and with corporate America, I hear just as much business jargon as I do legalese. 

Though I've not found a "de-legalese-r" site on the web, I have found Unsuck-it, a website that takes business-speak and makes it, well, less sucky.

Some examples: 

Incentivize: In order to meet our phase 1 deliverable, we must incentivize the workforce with monetary rewards.

  Unsucked: Encourage or persuade.

Low-Hanging Fruit: Our budget’s tight on this one, so we need to go for the low-hanging fruit first.

  Unsucked: Easy goal.

Synergy: We are actualizing synergy amongst team members directly related to the project.

  Unsucked: Working together.

You can search for terms, and even generate an email to the offender who used the word.  Now, we just need the legal version!

Written on 08/24/10 in Client Service, Technology
1 Comment Leave a comment

What are your Relationship Rituals?

Keith Ferrazzi shares a few simple “Relationship Rituals” that should be on every professional’s weekly checklist:

1.    First thing every day after you turn on your computer, ping one friend and one acquaintance.

2.    Every weekend, invite someone else into an activity that you normally do alone (walks, gym sessions, gardening, shopping trips).

3.    Pick a day for a weekly check-in with a colleague/associate/friend, during which you share a success, a challenge, and make a commitment for the upcoming week.

4.    Every Friday, send a broadcast – status update, blog post, Tweet, etc.

5.    Host a monthly dinner or happy hour.

What are the things you do every week to maintain your client relationships?

 

Written on 08/23/10 in Best of the Blog, Client Service, Marketing
Leave a comment

Do your customers trust your apology?

In this NYT article, author Daniel Pink challenges businesses to speak like real people.  The whole article is worth your time, but what grabbed me was this simple quote from the head of the t-shirt site Threadless:

The best way to figure out if you're running a good company is to figure out if your customers trust your apology.


I think this is right on, and a great measure for every business.  Do your customers trust you when you apologize to them for making a mistake?  You do apologize, don't you?

Written on 08/19/10 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Building the Service Centered Firm

Here’s my new presentation, “Building the Service-Centered Firm” that I just gave as the keynote at the Minnesota Solo/Small Firm Conference in Duluth the first week of August.

Building the Service Centered Firm
View more of my presentations.
Written on 08/18/10 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Say it again?

A quick client interview tip from the always helpful Rules of Thumb website:

If someone you’re interviewing makes the same point more than twice, it’s the most important thing to him, and a crucial clue to his personality.

Worth keeping in mind!

Written on 07/19/10 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Should you tell prospects why they shouldn’t hire you?

Jessica Hische, a tremendous print designer and illustrator has a section on her website titled “Why you should not hire me to design your website.“  Some excerpts:

I might seem like a jack of all trades because I do print design, type design, lettering, and illustration, but really I’m a specialist. I specialize in drawing type and illustration. This is what I’m best at and is probably why you found my website in the first place. I find it strange that I get so many requests for web design—I went to school for graphic design, yes, but each subfield of graphic design has its own set of problems, limitations, and guidelines.

Just as you wouldn’t expect any random person that owns Adobe illustrator to be able to draw a decorative initial from scratch, you can’t expect any print designer to be able to really and truly design for web. Web design is not print design, it is so much more complex. With book design, a person that encounters your book knows how to view it. They look at the cover, they open the cover, and page by page they work their way to the end. With web design, it’s (for the most part) not linear. You have to understand how people are going to use the site (and how people use the web changes all the time).

Anyway, to conclude a fairly long rant: Hire people that are best at what they do. It’s not that I (or other print designers) CAN’T do web design, its that you should want to hire someone that will do it best—someone that knows the ins and outs of the web and can then hire people like me to do what they do best: draw ornaments, logos, illustrations etc that will make the site sing.

I’m quite certain many lawyers and firms would benefit from a similar “disclaimer” telling potential clients why not to hire them.  Communicating what you do — and most importantly, what you don’t (and won’t) do — goes a long way towards getting you the clients you want and dissuading the ones you don’t from picking up the phone.

Written on 07/19/10 in Client Service, Marketing
Leave a comment

How Much Should Legal Fees Be?

Lawyers, do you think clients would use a service that describes itself as follows:

We are an independent, unbiased resource designed to deliver legal fee and price transparency and the expert information legal clients need. Our team of expert lawyers has helped us comb through a mountain of flat fee and billable time data to ensure you have the information you need when it’s time to hire a lawyer.

Well, that service doesn’t exist for legal clients just yet (as far as I know), but it does for people with car trouble.  It is called RepairPal, and it gives people pricing advice (including printed estimates) for various auto service repairs.  Here’s how it works:

RepairPal takes the mystery out of car repairs with a simple tool that will tell you the average price you should be paying for a repair in your zip code.  You just pop in a few details about your repair and car, and it will do the rest.  It breaks down the estimated repair cost in a few ways, showing you the range to expect depending on whether you go through a dealer or independent repair shop, the cost of labor and parts, plus the parts usually needed and how much they cost.  The result?  You can feel better about making an informed repair decision, and you don’t have to scramble to get your friend the “car expert” on the phone to ask a dozen questions.

Imagine a world where your clients’ expectations of the cost of your services is driven less by the facts of their case and more by an “estimate” they got from the internet.  A brave new world is coming.  Are you ready for it?

Written on 07/14/10 in Client Service, Innovation, Money and Fees
2 Comments Leave a comment

Measure Time the Way Your Clients Do

Just a quick thought: Are you measuring time the way your clients do? 

Are you keeping track of the days (not minutes or hours) between when you first promised something and when it was finally delivered?  Are you measuring the time between your last client update and the next one?  Do you know how long — in calendar time, not billable time — that the average __________ takes? 

You should, because even though your clients see every moment you spend working for them on their bill, I bet they wish you’d pay the same attention to their calendar as you do to your stopwatch.

Written on 07/08/10 in Client Service, Money and Fees
Leave a comment

A/B Test Your Alternative Fees

All too often, firms view alternative pricing as an “all or nothing” proposition.  They fear a wholesale move away from the billable hour could drive their firm to financial ruin if they get the “pricing thing” wrong.  However, instead of rolling the dice with a firm-wide implementation of an unproven and untested pricing methodology, firms should take a lesson from the web design industry and do A/B testing.

What is A/B testing?  In The Ultimate Guide to A/B Testing, Smashing Magazine defines it this way:

At its core, A/B testing is exactly what it sounds like: you have two versions of an element (A and B) and a metric that defines success. To determine which version is better, you subject both versions to experimentation simultaneously. In the end, you measure which version was more successful and select that version for real-world use.

This is similar to the experiments you did in Science 101. Remember the experiment in which you tested various substances to see which supports plant growth and which suppresses it. At different intervals, you measured the growth of plants as they were subjected to different conditions, and in the end you tallied the increase in height of the different plants.

A/B testing on the Web is similar. You have two designs of a website: A and B. Typically, A is the existing design (called the control), and B is the new design. You split your website traffic between these two versions and measure their performance using metrics that you care about (conversion rate, sales, bounce rate, etc.). In the end, you select the version that performs best.

If you’re thinking of moving from the billable hour to alternative fees, don’t do it all at once.  Instead, identify two similar matters or clients (we’ll call them A and B).  Keep serving (and charging) “A” the way you always have.  However, with “B,’” change your pricing structure.  Give “B” a flat fee for the work you’re billing “A” for by the hour. 

Pay close attention to the metrics that matter to you and to your clients.  Measure time to complete tasks (not in minutes, but in days).  Keep track of the people and resources used.  Watch what folks are doing (and how they do it) instead of just asking them at the end of week or month how much time they spent.  Most importantly, measure both client and attorney satisfaction with the work and results.

If you do enough A/B testing across your client portfolio, you might find that alternative fees aren’t as scary or hard to implement that you thought they would be, but that they make your clients and attorneys happier and make your firm more money.

Written on 07/08/10 in Client Service, Money and Fees
Leave a comment

Do Your Clients “Like” Your Bills?

What if your clients could “Like” something just as they do on Facebook?  Would they “Like” the things you send to them?  If not, what could you do to make them dislike those things less?

Stamp from Nation Design Studio.

Written on 07/01/10 in Client Service, Innovation
Leave a comment

Tell Your Clients What’s True

Seth Godin is fed up with the traditional business plan, suggesting they’re “often misused to obfuscate, bore and show an ability to comply with expectations.”  Instead, he’d like to see the modern business plan divided into five sections:

  • Truth
  • Assertions
  • Alternatives
  • People
  • Money

It seems to me that this breakdown would also be a great way to subdivide the traditional client status update (or case analysis) letter.  Instead of burying tons of information in multiple paragraphs, break down the letter into the five sections Seth suggests.  Your clients will better comprehend the information your giving them, and you’ll have an easy-to-use template for all your client correspondence.

Written on 06/01/10 in Client Service, Practice of Law
2 Comments Leave a comment

Happier Clients Make Fewer Choices

IMG_0040

Have you ever tried shopping for toothpaste at Target or Wal-Mart?  Once you decide on your brand of toothpaste (I've always been a Crest man), you're still faced with a dizzying array of choices.  And, if you're like me, you spend far too much time deciding upon a product and often feel dissatisfied with your ultimate choice.

Turns out we are not alone.  In her new book The Art of Choosing, business school professor Sheena Iyengar presents research that proves people's decision making skills  worsen when presented with a plethora of choices.  In other words, people decide better (and spend more) when given fewer choices.

In this Wall Street Journal article, Professors Iyengar's famous "jam experiment" is detailed:

In a Palo Alto, Calif., supermarket known for its exceptionally vast range of products, she set up two different booths offering shoppers the chance to sample various unusual preserves. One booth offered 24 different options; the other only six. You would think that, with more choices in the first booth, more shoppers who stopped there would find a flavor they liked and go on to buy a jar. But the opposite happened: People tried more samples and bought a lot more jam at the booth with six varieties.

The people who stopped at the 24-jam booth didn't say: "Please take away most of these options so I can more easily make a decision." They simply felt overwhelmed and less willing to make any choice at all. The same feeling can arise in people who are offered an array of detailed investment options or in college students who must choose four or five classes from among the hundreds listed in the course catalog. In these situations, perhaps some strategy for choice, established in advance, could help discipline the decision-making process by focusing it on a manageable set of options.

So, next time you have a client conversation, remember that you may be better off discussing a few options instead of many.  Instead of giving your clients lots of choices, curate the list down to a solid few.  You'll end up with happier, less-confused clients who will thoughtfully consider their options, instead of being overwhelmed  by them.

Written on 04/19/10 in Client Service, Innovation
4 Comments Leave a comment

Should You Touch Your Clients More?

 There’s some very interesting research on the power of touch in business situations.  In this Harvard Business Review post, author Peter Bregman, shares this experiment that found that a brief, light touch affects people’s decision making:

In one experiment, as a woman showed subjects to their seats in the lab, she lightly and briefly touched some of them on the back of their shoulder. Then researchers asked the subjects whether they would prefer a certain amount of money or whether they’d prefer to gamble for the chance to win more money, receiving nothing if they lost. The people who were touched were 50 percent more likely to take the gamble. 50 percent!

And it’s not just any touch. A handshake didn’t achieve the same result. A handshake isn’t comforting, but a touch on the shoulder or back is.

Another study, profiled in the New York Times, found that touch can result in:

almost immediate changes in how people think and behave …. Students who received a supportive touch on the back or arm from a teacher were nearly twice as likely to volunteer in class as those who did not, studies have found. A sympathetic touch from a doctor leaves people with the impression that the visit lasted twice as long, compared with estimates from people who were untouched.

Obviously, good taste and propriety should rule the day when it comes to touch, but perhaps next time, instead of expecting that pat on the back from your client, you should give one instead.

Written on 04/16/10 in Client Service, Innovation, Practice of Law
Leave a comment

Revive Zombie Clients and Other Great Tips

There’s some great, simple advice from the Freelance Folder in Seven Tips to Keep Your Clients Coming Back for More.  The tips:

  1. Offer packages for recurring work.
  2. Give your best clients special treatment.
  3. Revive “zombie clients.”
  4. Mark important dates.
  5. Foster a feeling of belonging in an exclusive club.
  6. Create promos throughout the year.
  7. Ask for referrals.

Go read the entire article.  It is worth your five minutes.

Written on 01/25/10 in Client Service, Marketing
Leave a comment

Audit for Obsolescence

Jordan Furlong suggests lawyers and firms conduct an Obsolescence Audit, aimed at identifying aspects of your business that won’t survive the next ten years.  Here’s his checklist of things to look for:

1.  Any offering that’s the same no matter who buys it.
2.  Any offering essentially the same as your competitors’.
3.  Any offering not optimally designed for client value.
4.  Any offering that really, truly doesn’t require a lawyer.

Read the entire post for Jordan’s elaboration on each point.  A fantastic idea!

Written on 01/05/10 in Client Service, Innovation, Money and Fees
Leave a comment

Resolve to Let Clients Set Your Price

IMG_4828

I’ve been using my “You Decide” fill-in-the-blank invoice, for over a year now.  In that time, I’ve found time and time again that my clients pay me more than I would have charged them.  And, in situations where clients demand a fixed price, I’m quoting them much higher prices (coupled with a money-back guarantee) than I would have before my invoice experiment.

Even though I’ve been doing flat-fee work for almost a decade, I used to (even subconsciously) focus on the time it took me to do something.  Now, everything I do is focused on delivering the biggest “bang” for my clients, knowing that the “bucks” will come.  I don’t track phone calls, preparation time or limit meetings, and I don’t charge for materials, travel, meals or other expenses.  In short, I trust that my clients will take care of me if I take care of them — and they always do.

In 2010, I’d encourage you to resolve to let your clients set your price — at least once.  Ask a trusted client to list all the services they’d like you to provide for them.  Suggest unlimited phone calls, regular meetings, document reviews, etc.  Provide all these services to them for a month’s time.  Then, ask them what they’re willing to pay for all the work you’ve done.

You may find your clients value your services more than you do.

Written on 01/05/10 in Best of the Blog, Client Service, Money and Fees, Resolutions
3 Comments Leave a comment

Resolve to Support the Causes Your Clients Do

IMGP3575

If you’ve got a big client, odds are they’ve got a pet project.  Whether it is for a community organization, charity, civic group or volunteer event, supporting the causes your clients do can deepen your relationship with them while benefiting those in need.

That’s why, in 2010 you need to Resolve to Take Care of Clients’ Pet Projects.  For every client, find out what kinds of charitable groups or causes they support (and why).  Armed with this knowledge, here are a few things you can do:

  • Get on the group’s mailing list, so you’ll always know how you can help.
  • Donate money or goods to the cause’s auction in your client’s name.
  • Instead of spending your time entertaining your clients, spend that time volunteering with them in support of their cause.  You’ll get the same one-on-one time with the client, but will be helping out those in need.  As a extra bonus, you’ll probably also get an introduction to several of your client’s peers.
  • Find out what is the most pressing legal issue facing the cause (or its members), and offer to give a seminar to help them understand it better.
  • Donate a percentage of that client’s fees to their cause as your holiday gift the client.

Your clients will not only appreciate your interest in their cause, but you might gain an interest in theirs.  When that happens, everybody wins.

Written on 01/02/10 in Best of the Blog, Client Service, Marketing, Resolutions
Leave a comment

Resolve to Land a Big Fish

IMG_2381

Almost every lawyer has a “big fish” they’d like to land. Whether that fish is an individual client, a corporation, an insurance company or even a great referral source, your big fish isn’t going to catch itself.

And what better place to find advice on catching “big fish” than on a website called TakeMeFishing?  Some fishing wisdom to keep in mind when you’re Resolving to Land a Big Fish:

Fishing techniques:

The cool thing about fishing is that there are hundreds of species of fish to catch.  What’s even cooler is that there are multiple ways to catch a particular kind of fish.

When to fish:

You’ll soon learn that when it’s a bad day for fishing in one location, it could be a good day in another, and the locations may not be far apart.

Finding fish:

You don’t have to travel far or spend a lot of money to find a body of water with fish you can catch.

Landing bigger fish:

Don’t be anxious.  Even if you get the fish close to the boat, that doesn’t mean it’s done fighting.

Setting the hook:

It takes a lot of experience to know when to set the hook.  It also takes a lot of patience.

Some fish will nibble on your bait or lure, causing your line to tick or wiggle.  And some fish will try to swallow the entire bait, hook and rig all at once with one big hit.

Different fish strike differently.  And the same fish will go after your bait differently depending on the time of day or time of year.

Caring for your catch:

Fish spoil quickly if you don’t handle them properly from the moment you land them.

So as you plan on landing one big fish in 2010, make certain you’re prepared: know who they are, where they hang out, what you’ll use to attract them and what you’ll do with them once they’re caught.

Know the answers to each of these questions before you “go fishing” for big fish, or all you will end up catching are small ones you’d rather throw back.

Written on 01/02/10 in Best of the Blog, Client Service, Practice of Law, Resolutions
Leave a comment

Resolve to Count Cards

IMGP9025

As 2009 draws to a close, we all find ourselves with lots of stuff on our "to do" lists for the next year.  Whether your thinking about finding time to meet your deadlines, accomplish your goals or even follow your resolutions, there never seems to be enough time to do it all.

As you begin 2010, Resolve to Count Cards, using this this incredibly powerful exercise I first ran across in 2006.  From an article in the now-defunct Worthwhile Magazine (by creativity guru Eric Maisel) comes this gem:

Get seven decks of cards with similar backs. Lay out all seven decks on your living room rug, backs showing. This is a year of days (give or take). Let the magnitude of a year sink in. Experience this wonderful availability of time. (This is a powerful exercise.)

Carefully count the number of days between two widely-separated holidays, for instance New Year's Day and the Fourth of July. Envision starting a large project on that first holiday (today!) and completing it by the second.

It also works great with clients!  Give it a try.

Written on 12/31/09 in Best of the Blog, Client Service, Innovation, Resolutions
Leave a comment

Resolve to Apologize Better

IMGP9009

Everyone makes mistakes.  Even lawyers.  That's why, in 2010, you should Resolve to Apologize Better.  

Why apologize?  Apologies increase client loyalty and reduce malpractice exposure.  But how do you apologize better?  Practice! 

Here's a great guide from Psychology Today (about apologizing to women) that sets out the six mandatory elements a good apology:

1. Acknowledge the Wrongful Act

2. Acknowledge that You Have [Caused Harm].

3. Express Your Remorse

4. State Your Intention Not to Repeat

5. Offer to Make Amends

6. Seek Forgiveness

Read the entire article for examples of language you should and shouldn't use, and practice apologizing.  You may find a well-timed apologize helps you as much as it helps your relationship with your client.

Written on 12/30/09 in Best of the Blog, Client Service, Resolutions
1 Comment Leave a comment

Resolve to Keep Your Promises

IMGP8103

Most of us don't break our promises on purpose.  But as anyone with a seven-year old can attest ("But daddy, you promised!"), promises are in the mind of the beholder. Too often, we fail to realize someone else believed our vague pronouncement committed us to a concrete course of action. 

Since keeping your promises begins with knowing whether you've made one or not, in 2010 resolve to know (and keep) your promises better.  Never end a client conversation without asking them these two questions:

  1. What have I agreed to do, and when do you expect me to do it?
  2. What have I have promised (or predicted) will happen, and when do you expect it to?

Hearing their answers to these questions will help you know if they are hearing what you think you're saying.  Most importantly, you'll stop making (unintentional) promises you can't keep.  Now, if it would only work with seven-year old little girls….

Written on 12/26/09 in Client Service, Resolutions
Leave a comment

Resolve To Fix Your Technology Less

IMGP7100

This resolution is for nearly every solo and small firm lawyer out there (including those with computer science degrees): Resolve to Fix Your Technology Less.

How many times has a quick technology fix turned into a day of un-billable time?  Trust me on this one, no matter how much (or little) work you have, your time is better spent building your business and serving your clients than it is crawling around on the floor underneath your desk repairing your computers or troubleshooting your network.

Need help remembering this resolution?  Try this simple trick:

Everywhere in your office where you have technology (on the copier, on the network switch or router, and on every computer) tape a label that has the following information on it:

  1. Your hourly rate
  2. The hourly rate of your tech-support person
  3. Their phone number

Now every time you’re tempted to “fix” something yourself, call in the experts instead.  You’ll find that you (and your technology) will be happier and more productive when you spend your time doing your job instead of doing someone else’s.

Written on 12/26/09 in Best of the Blog, Client Service, Resolutions, Technology
1 Comment Leave a comment

Resolve to De-Confuse Clients

IMG_4743

What confuses your clients?  What are the things that your clients never seem to really understand?  Is it the directions to your office, your retainer agreement or their monthly bill?

No matter how much you deserve it, undivided attention from clients is a rarity today.  Whether it is because of their email pinging, cell phones ringing or children screaming, you’re getting less attention from clients now then ever before — and a distracted client is far more likely to be a confused one.

That’s why, in 2010, you should resolve to make every communication you have with clients (both in person and via mail/email) less confusing.

Start by asking every client in every meeting if there is something you could have made clearer and easier to understand, and pay attention to the things you explain over and over again.  Next, pick one of those things each month to “de-confuse” for your clients.

Whether you use photographs more, rewrite your retainer agreement so a sixth-grader can understand it or complete a “Frequently Asked Questions” handout, by the end of 2010, you’ll find your less-confused clients are easier to serve and more satisfied with you.

Written on 12/26/09 in Best of the Blog, Client Service, Resolutions
1 Comment Leave a comment

Resolve to See Yourself as Others Do

IMG_0771

How do your customers see you?  When they arrive for a meeting, what do they experience?  What do they see?  How do they feel? 

Do you work in a deadline-driven practice area, yet always show up late for appointments?  Is your office strewn with other clients' files?  Are there piles of unread letters in you in-box?  Do your secretaries and staff regularly discuss confidential matters on the phone that people in your waiting room can hear?

Do you have magazines that your clients want to read?  Do you have complementary wi-fi for them to use while they wait for you?  Do you offer them more to drink than just coffee?

Don't think your clients pay attention to these things?  You're wrong.  And they're not just comparing their experience to the ones they've had with other lawyers — they're comparing it to the experiences they've had with everyone. 

So, in 2010, Resolve to See Yourself as Others Do.  Start by asking a friend your staff doesn't know to sit in your waiting room for an hour while you're "busy."  Ask them to pay attention to what they see, hear, smell and feel, while recording the things they'd improve.  Once you've gotten their list of things to fix — and there will be things on the list you've never noticed — work with your staff to fix them.

Written on 12/26/09 in Client Service, Resolutions
Leave a comment

Resolve to Juggle Less

IMGP5512

This is one for the general practitioners out there: Resolve to Juggle Less. Remember, your clients don't have "general" problems, they have specific ones — and if you're the lawyer who will do "anything for anyone" they are far less likely to hire you do that "one thing" for them. 

So, how do you know if you're doing too many things?  Here's an exercise that just might help:

  1. Take a pad of Post-It notes, and on each one, write a type of matter you handle.  Err on the side of inclusiveness (write "Divorce," "Child Custody," "Legal Separations," etc. on separate notes instead of just "Family Law"). 
  2. Put all the Post-Its up on a wall.
  3. Ask your staff to add the kinds of things you do to the wall as well.
  4. Group the post-its in logical categories.
  5. Step back and look at the wall.

If there are more than 3 groups of Post-Its in front of you, you're probably doing too many different things.

In 2010, work hard to focus on the one or two categories that are most profitable, most challenging and most fun.  You'll have a much easier time finding clients, and a much better time serving them.

Written on 12/24/09 in Client Service, Practice of Law, Resolutions
Leave a comment

Resolve to Ask Current Clients More

IMGP3286

If you’re a lawyer who only surveys your clients once the engagement’s over, you’re leaving a lot of information on the table — information that will not only help you serve future clients, but your current ones as well.

That’s why, in 2010, you should Resolve To Ask Current Clients More.  Institute a regular, ongoing client survey process that reaches out to your current clients at least quarterly.

But what kinds of questions should you ask?  I’ve put together the LexThink Model Client Survey (pdf) that contains four short questions for your current clients.

The questions are:

1. On a scale of 1 – 10 (with 10 being best), how well are you being served by this firm, our lawyers and staff.

How could we earn a higher score from you?

2. On a scale of 1 – 10 (with 10 being most likely), how likely you are to recommend us to your peers?

When you describe us to your peers (if you do), what are some of the words you use?

3. What one change could we make to our firm to earn more business from you?

4. What is your most pressing challenge (business, legal or otherwise) you’d like to overcome in the upcoming year?

LexThink Model Client Survey

Written on 12/23/09 in Best of the Blog, Client Service, Resolutions
1 Comment Leave a comment

Resolve to Do One Big Thing

IMGP7197

If you asked your clients identify the biggest change you've made in your business in 2009, what would their answer be?  Would they be able to name anything (besides your rate) that you've done differently in the past 12 months? Would you?

For 2010, I challenge you to resolve to make a change in your business your clients can't help noticing.  Not sure what to change?  Ask them. 

Send each client a letter the first week of 2010 that says:

Dear client,

As the New Year arrives, we are grateful for the opportunity to continue to serve you.  For 2010, we're resolving to serve you better.  That's why we're asking all our clients the following question:

If you could make one change in our business, what would it be?

Nothing's off the table.  If you think we need to charge differently, stay open longer, use different technology, or even answer the phone faster, let us know.  We're committed to making our business better for your business.

We'll collect the answers, and post them in our office for everyone to see.  On January 31, we'll choose (at least) one to implement in 2010.  Of course, we'll keep you up to date on our progress, and may ask you for some help in getting everything "just right."

Thanks again for being our client — and for helping us to become the law firm you deserve!

Once all the responses are in, consider hosting a "Resolution Party" to sort through and prioritize the responses with your clients.  And don't forget to ask them for their resolutions for their own businesses — you may just find a few things you can help them with, too.

Written on 12/22/09 in Client Service, Resolutions
1 Comment Leave a comment

Resolve to Let Your Clients Grade You

Report card

Once you've asked your clients what they expect from you, let them grade you on it.  Here's how:

  1. Make a list of 3-5 non-negotiable "Client Commitments" that you and your firm promise to keep in every matter with every client.
  2. Share those Commitments on your website and in every engagement agreement.
  3. With every bill (or at least quarterly), send your clients an old-fashioned "Report Card" that asks them to give you a grade on each of your Client Commitments.
  4. Follow up with the client each time you get a B or below to find out about specific ways you can improve.  
  5. At least yearly, schedule a "parent-teacher" conference to review your performance with the client.
  6. Consider refunding part of your fees every time a client gives you a C or D — and think seriously about giving a client's entire fee back (and helping them find another lawyer) when they've "failed" you, because you've probably failed them
Written on 12/22/09 in Client Service, Resolutions
Leave a comment

Resolve to Measure What Your Clients Treasure

IMG_3568

I doubt that if you asked your clients what they buy from you that they'd answer, "Time."  Yet because (many of) you sell time to them, it is often the only thing that you measure with any rigor.

In 2010, Resolve to Measure What Your Clients Treasure.  Start by asking every client this question:

"How will you measure your satisfaction with us as we serve you?" 

Don't settle for an answer that depends completely on the end result.  Instead, press for answers like "By always keeping me up to date," and "Returning my phone calls promptly."

Once you've identified at least two things most of your clients want from you, begin to measure how well you're doing them.  Your clients already are.

Written on 12/09/09 in Client Service, Resolutions
2 Comments Leave a comment

Resolve to Know Your Best Clients Better

IMG_2705
Now that you've identified your worst clients, fired them, and stopped taking more like them, you can now focus your time and energy on building your practice doing the kinds of things you like to do for clients that you enjoy serving.

And the first step to take is to get to know your best clients better.  Identify your seven favorite clients, past or present.  Take them to lunch or dinner in person (or over the phone) and get to know them. 

Make your time together about them. Tell them they're one of your favorite all-time clients and you wanted to catch up.  Learn about their plans for the new year and the challenges they're facing.  Talk about their family and hobbies.  Find out about the charities they care about and the professional organizations they belong to. 

But don't stop there.  The more you know about your clients, the better you'll be able to serve them.  A great list of things to could/should know about your clients is the "Mackay 66" (pdf download here).

And at the end of each conversation, don't forget to ask:

How do I find more clients like you?

Written on 12/09/09 in Client Service, Marketing, Resolutions
Leave a comment

Client Worthiness Index

Client Intake Worthiness Scale

In my last Resolution (on trusting your gut), I mentioned the new LexThink Client Worthiness Index (CWI).  I only included a link to the pdf version of it in that post.  Here’s a pic of what it looks like, if you’re interested.

Written on 12/07/09 in Client Service
1 Comment Leave a comment

Resolve to Trust Your Gut

IMGP5118

Every time you interview a potential client, you have a "gut" feeling on whether they will be a good client or a bad one.  Unfortunately, too many lawyers ignore our gut, and end up paying for it in the end.

Today's resolution is to Trust Your Gut.  Don't ignore those uneasy feelings you (or your staff) have about potential clients.  Instead, pay attention to them, and trust yourself to differentiate good clients from bad.

To help you trust your gut better, I've created a LexThink Client Worthiness Index Worksheet (links to .pdf) for you to use every time you interview a potential client.  Fill in the blanks (and ask your staff to help) after your meeting, and you'll come up with a "Client Worthiness" number between 1-100.  Do your best to take clients scoring 75 or better, and you'll weed out the bad ones before it is too late.

Written on 12/07/09 in Client Service, Resolutions
Leave a comment

Resolve to Fire Better

IMGP5572 

In yesterday's resolution I encouraged you to understand what makes your bad clients bad, and avoid taking any more like them.  But what do you do with the terrible clients that are already on your books?  Fire them!

Sounds easy, but the reason so many lawyers continue to serve clients they shouldn't is that it is uncomfortable/awkward/difficult/etc. to let those bad clients go — especially early in the relationship when we know the client is a difficult one, but promise ourselves they'll improve.  Sound familiar?

So today's resolution is an easy one:  Resolve to Fire Better.  Start by reviewing the ethics rules in your jurisdiction regarding termination of the attorney-client relationship, and then:

  1. Add a "Client Expectations" section to your retainer agreement that sets out the kinds of things you expect from your clients and the things they're prohibited from doing (like belittling your staff, constantly canceling appointments, etc.).
  2. Draft three form letters (first warning, stern reminder, and "You're Fired!") that you can pull out on a moment's notice and use with minimal modification when clients deserve one.
  3. Write a script of the what you'll say when you tell the client they're fired.
  4. Practice your script!  Difficult conversations become less so when you're accustomed to having them.

Once you've cleaned out your waiting room, you'll be able to start focusing on the clients you love to serve, and on building your practice to serve them better.  More on that in tomorrow's resolution.

(Thanks to Julie A. Fleming, who's comment on yesterday's post contained some great advice on firing clients.)

Written on 12/03/09 in Client Service, Resolutions
Leave a comment

Resolve to Understand Your Worst Clients

IMGP4825
Admit it, you have clients you hate.  Whether they're not paying you, always coming up with excuses for not following your advice, or belittling your staff, your worst clients don't deserve your best work and probably aren't getting it anyway.  Their work is the last you do, and their calls are the last you return.  You wake up worried about their file, but then find a myriad of excuses to avoid touching it all day.  Your worst clients sap your energy and take the fun out of practicing law.

So, in 2010, I challenge you to resolve to understand your worst clients better.  This isn't about liking them, but about avoiding more like them.  Here's how:

1.  Identify your 10 worst clients (past and present).

2.  List at least three things they all share in common — things like the warning signals you ignored when they hired you, the kind of problems they asked you to solve, or even the type of lawyer on the other side of the case.

3.  Title the list: "Types of Clients and Cases I'll Never Take Again."

4.  Review the list before every potential client interview, and think twice before taking on another "worst" client.

Once you've resolved to understand the kinds of clients you hate to serve, you can start building your practice around serving the clients you love.

Written on 12/02/09 in Client Service, Resolutions
1 Comment Leave a comment

Resolutions are Back!

In the first few years of this blog, every December, I'd share one "resolution" each day of the month (here are the ones from 2004, 2005 and 2006).  The purpose of the posts was to give my readers a handful of things they could implement in the coming year to make their practices better.  I skipped 2007, and did a single Ten Resolutions for Lawyers post last year.

Since one of my resolutions for 2010 is to write more, I figured this was a good time to get the series running again.  Between today and the end of the year, look for 31 "Resolutions" focused on identifying your best clients and serving them better.  Some you've seen before on this blog, and some are new.  I hope you enjoy them all.

Written on 12/01/09 in Client Service, Resolutions
Leave a comment

Does Your Firm Know Customer Math?

Jackie Huba has a great Q and A with Jeanne Bliss, the author of “I Love You More Than My Dog”: Five Decisions That Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad.“  There’s a lot of meat in the interview (and probably in the book as well), but the real nugget is this reminder to pay more attention to serving existing customers than to pursuing new ones:

Q:  Do companies need to be customer-driven to grow?

A: Companies forget that customers keep them in business.  Customers who love companies grow them.  To understand this, think of customer math — a rigorous way to track incoming customers by volume and value and then reconcile that number with the lost customers in that same period, comparing incoming and outgoing customer volume and value.  The ‘aha moment’ comes when the math reveals that company marketing dollars are spent replacing customers lost rather than growing the business with the addition of new customers.  In essence, many companies are running in place. I believe in elevating customers as the asset of the business.  That means creating a competency for rigor around a) identifying and getting rid of those things driving customers away; and then b) getting really great at specific things that create a distinct memory and impression about a company and its people.  We forget the fact that it’s the creation of those memories that we make on purpose or accidentally through our operations decisions or policy choices that connect or repel us from customers.

More on this in a few weeks…

Written on 10/28/09 in Client Service
1 Comment Leave a comment

Keep Your Clients Healthy

John Jantsch, of Duct Tape Marketing, tweeted this “killer retail traffic strategy” that could work for law firms:

hook up with RN and offer flu shots in your store or business.

Could you offer a free flu-shot to your clients?  Especially if combined with a legal check-up, too?

Written on 10/28/09 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Ask Your Clients What Surprised Them

Paul Graham collects some sage advice from the founders of startups he’s helped fund.  Preparing for a talk, he sent emails to all the founders and asked them “what surprised them about starting a startup?” According to Paul, asking what surprised them amounted to “asking what I got wrong, because if I’d explained things well enough, nothing should have surprised them.”

This is a very powerful question that should be on every lawyers post-matter client survey:

What surprised you the most?

Like Paul, you’re asking your clients in a polite way about the things you got wrong (or that they think you did because you didn’t communicate well).  And I’m quite certain you’ll get powerful, surprising and sometimes harshly critical responses — which are just the types of feedback you can use to eliminate surprises in the future for you and for your clients.

Written on 10/27/09 in Client Service, Innovation
1 Comment Leave a comment

Motivational Interviewing for Lawyers

I’m helping facilitate a workshop later today titled “Working with Difficult Clients” for Legal Services of Eastern Missouri’s annual conference.  One of the exercises we’ll be doing teaches how lawyers can use Motivational Interviewing techniques to get better responses from distressed clients. 

Here’s a quick way example of Motivational Interviewing questions (be sure to ask them in this order):

How important would you say it is for you to ______________?

On a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is not at all important and 10 is extremely important, where would you say you are?

Why a 3 and not a 0?  OR: Why an 8 and not a 10?

Give this method of questioning a try next time you’re talking to a client.  It is a great way to understand what they think is important, and most importantly, why they feel that way.

Written on 10/22/09 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Advertise What Matters (to Clients)

If you’re wondering what to put on your website (or in that next yellow pages ad), take a cue from the Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford, Florida.  Instead of trumpeting just how great their doctors are, they’re using a nearby billboard to display a real-time statistic that lots of people care about: ER wait times.

From the Orlando Sentinel:

To find out how long the wait is in the emergency room at Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford, you can check its Web site, send a text, or, now, cruise past a billboard on Interstate 4.

The hospital this week started posting its ER wait times on the billboard, on the eastbound side near State Road 46. It’s part of a campaign to use technology to spread the word about decreasing the wait.

“Putting our wait times to see a physician in real time on a billboard is just one more step in educating the community about our service,” said Wendy Brandon, the hospital’s chief executive officer. The wait times to see a physician are updated every 30 minutes and reflect an average from the previous four hours.

What do your clients want to know about you?  Do they see the answer in your advertising?  They should.

Written on 09/21/09 in Client Service, Innovation, Marketing
1 Comment Leave a comment

Prepare Better for High-Stakes Meetings

Here’s a checklist from The Eloquent Woman that she uses to prepare herself for every presentation she gives.  As I was reading it, I realized that her list isn’t just for presenters.  Instead, it is the perfect preparation for nearly every client meeting, negotiation and court appearance. 

My favorite section are the questions about intent:

  1. Do I know what the audience wants from me?


  2. Is that what I’m going to give them? Do my goals match theirs? If not, why am I speaking to them? How will I reach them?


    3.

  3. What do I want to get out of this speaking experience?


    4.

  4. What do I need to learn from the audience? How will I find out?


    5.

  5. Do I intend to engage the audience? Do I just want them to listen? Do I intend to get them to act on something?

Before your next high-stakes meeting, answer each question, first replacing “Audience” with Client, Judge or even Opposing Counsel.  I suspect you’ll gain answers that make asking the questions worthwhile. 

Written on 09/02/09 in Client Service, Practice of Law
2 Comments Leave a comment

Test for Toxic Clients

Not sure whether to take that client?  Here’s a great test from Milton Glaser he uses to avoid toxic people:

[T]here is a test to determine whether someone is toxic or nourishing in your relationship with them. Here is the test: You have spent some time with this person, either you have a drink or go for dinner or you go to a ball game. It doesn’t matter very much but at the end of that time you observe whether you are more energised or less energised. Whether you are tired or whether you are exhilarated. If you are more tired then you have been poisoned. If you have more energy you have been nourished. The test is almost infallible and I suggest that you use it for the rest of your life.

Perhaps something to think about after every initial consultation?

(via Kareem Mayan’s Weblog)

Written on 09/01/09 in Client Service
3 Comments Leave a comment

Want cooperation? Think reciprocation.

If you struggle to get prospects to fill out a lengthy form before meeting with you, perhaps some new research will change your mind.

In a study summarized here in the Nuromarketing blog, rearchers compared the effectiveness of two strategies often employed by websites to collect personal data from visitors: requiring the visitor’s info before allowing them to access specific content (a reward strategy), or requesting it after they’ve already seen the content (a reciprocity strategy).  The result:

It turns out that a reciprocity strategy works better – give them the info they want, and then ask for their information. In the impressively titled Embedded Persuasive Strategies to Obtain Visitors’ Data: Comparing Reward and Reciprocity in an Amateur, Knowledge-Based Website, Gamberini et al found that twice as many visitors gave up their information if they were able to access the information first. It’s counterintuitive, perhaps, but even though these visitors were under no obligation to complete the form, they converted at double the rate of visitors seeing the “mandatory” form.

What does this mean?  Whenever you ask prospects to do something, work with reciprocity in mind.  Instead of demanding their cooperation before meeting you, ask for it after they do.  You’ll likely get more cooperation and better information from them, while starting the representation off on the right foot.

Written on 08/31/09 in Client Service, Innovation
Leave a comment

Ten Rules of Client Service Slides

I’d like to share the presentation of my Ten Rules of Client Service with you.  Here are the slides (posted using Slideshare).  I hope you like it.

Ten Rules Of Client Service
View more presentations from mhomann.
Written on 08/18/09 in Client Service, Ten Rules
Leave a comment

What Do Your Clients Think About You?

Here’s an exercise I’m working on for a Client Service Workbook that’s been an on-and-off project of mine for a while.

There will be several comic strip-like panels depicting scenes of a client interacting with you and your staff. Each will be on a worksheet you can give to yourself and your staff. Everyone will fill in the empty thought-bubbles with what they believe the “client” is thinking in situations like when:

They’re in the reception area waiting for their appointment:

They’re listening to you give them advice:

They just received their bill:

Once the thoughts are filled in, you compare and discuss the similarities and differences. To make the exercise even more valuable, ask your current and former clients to complete the same exercise.

Let me know what you think. I’m committed to finishing the Workbook by the end of the year, and will be testing similar exercises with my consulting and coaching clients ’til then.

Written on 07/10/09 in Client Service, Innovation
2 Comments Leave a comment

Meet Me in Missouri

I’m headed down to Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks this week for the Missouri Solo and Small Firm Conference to speak about marketing, innovation, technology and the web.  There will be over 900 lawyers there this year — which makes it the largest solo and small firm conference in the country.

If you’ll be there, be certain to say hello.  If you can’t make it, I’ll be covering as much as I can on Twitter and will be using the hashtag #mossfc

Written on 06/11/09 in Client Service, Marketing, Practice of Law
Leave a comment

Looking for Cool Ways to Connect with Clients? -(STOP)-

Telegramstop is a company that will send an old-time looking telegram to anyone in the world for under five bucks.  Could be a cool, retro way to connect with some clients or friends.

Written on 05/19/09 in Client Service, Innovation, Marketing, Technology
5 Comments Leave a comment

Ten Rules PDF Preview

As I gear up for several speaking engagements this summer, I'm putting together my slides and handouts this week.  While most of these will ultimately live at my LexThink site, I thought I'd share the first one with you here on the blog.

Here are my Ten Rules of Client Service (from my original post here) in a spiffy new pdf format that I hope will turn into an e-book of sorts.

I hope you enjoy the look, and find the pdf easy to share.  Let me know what you think.

Written on 04/28/09 in Client Service, Ten Rules
2 Comments Leave a comment

Get a Life — In Only Two Days

I’ve been spending some time talking to the organizers of the Get a Life Conference, after connecting at Techshow and on Twitter.  It looks like a great event, and I’m really working hard to figure out a way to make it — and perhaps do some cool LexThink-like unconference stuff with them if I do.

Lots of great speakers, including the incomparable Gerry Riskin, are on tap.  Expect lots of talk about practical ways to make your law practice a more profitable business.  From their site:

In this two-day workshop, you’ll learn how manage all the moving parts of a successful law practice and still have a life. But there’s one very important thing missing – you! One of the greatest challenges you have is making time for what’s personally important to you – your hobbies, friends and family.

It happens May 27th and 28th in Chicago.  Check it out, and if you’d like to go, here’s a link to a 25% discount (Enter INSIDER upon check-out).  I hope to see you there!

Written on 04/16/09 in Client Service, Innovation, Marketing, Money and Fees, Practice of Law
Leave a comment

Your Clients Multiply Your Mistakes

Another fun “Rule of Thumb” that sounds about right, even with no empirical proof:

Every time you mess up, your boss will remember it as three times that number. If the total number of actual mess-ups is greater than 3, your boss will remember it as “always.”

Works for clients, too!

Written on 03/18/09 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Client Collaboration and the IKEA Effect

One of my favorite lists of the year is Harvard Business Review’s Breakthrough Ideas for 2009.  As always, the entire list is worth a read, but the one that caught my eye is  one labeled The IKEA effect, which suggests that people are willing to pay more for things they had a hand in creating:

When people construct products themselves, from bookshelves to Build-a-Bears, they come to overvalue their (often poorly made) creations. We call this phenomenon the IKEA effect, in honor of the wildly successful Swedish manufacturer whose products typically arrive with some assembly required.

In one of our studies we asked people to fold origami and then to bid on their own creations along with other people’s. They were consistently willing to pay more for their own origami. In fact, they were so enamored of their amateurish creations that they valued them as highly as origami made by experts.

What does this mean for professional service providers?  Instead of defaulting to a “Let me handle that for you” position with clients, require them to actively participate in their case.  By collaborating with them, and allowing them to make meaningful contributions to the work you (both) do, they’ll likely value your services more and be happier with the end result.

Written on 03/18/09 in Client Service, Innovation
3 Comments Leave a comment

Ten Rules of Client Service

Quick, name your favorite customer service class from law school.  Can’t do it?  I’m not surprised.  Most lawyers don’t learn much about client service in school, and the only class that touches upon service at all is Legal Ethics — which is kind of like teaching someone to ride a bike by showing them lots of bicycle accidents.

By delivering great service, you can delight your customers, increase their satisfaction (and reduce malpractice exposure), cut your marketing budget and turn your clients into your best salespeople.  And because many of your peers believe something as simple as returning client calls is optional, the bar to delivering the best client service in your community is set pretty low. 

Here then, are 10 simple “rules” to help you remember that it is your customers who keep you in business, and when you work to delight (instead of frustrate) them, you’ll both be successful.

1.  Just because clients don’t expect great service from lawyers doesn’t excuse you from providing it.

2.  Don’t assume you’re great at service because your current clients don’t leave.  Many remain your clients because they fear their new lawyer will treat them just like you do.

3.  It costs less to delight a client than it does to frustrate them.  You pay to delight them once, but you pay for frustrating them forever.

4.  It is also far cheaper to compete on service than it is on price, because there will always be someone far cheaper.

5.  People tell others about service they receive, not competence they expect.  Ever heard someone brag about how clean their dry cleaners get their clothes? 

6.  The time clients care about isn’t yours, it’s theirs.  Build your practice to save them time and they’ll be less reluctant to pay you for yours.

7.  Though you might be measured against your peers in a courtroom, when it comes to service, you’re measured against everyone.  If your clients named the top ten places they get great service, would your business make the list?  It should.

8.  Eighty percent of your time should be spent on satisfying your clients’ expectations and twenty percent should be spent on exceeding them.

9.  You can’t measure how you’re doing when you only ask how you’ve done.  Improving client service begins with learning how to serve your current clients better.

10.  If your clients can go months without hearing from you, they can go forever without recommending you.  To lawyers, indifference and incompetence are two different things.  To clients, they are one in the same.

If you’d like to see some more posts like this one, check out: Ten Rules of Rainmaking,  Ten Tweets about Twitter,  Ten Resolutions for the New Year,  Ten Rules for Law Students, Ten Rules for the New Economy, Ten Rules for New Solos, Ten Rules of Legal Innovation,  Ten Rules of Legal Technology, Ten Rules of Hourly Billing and Ten New Rules of Legal Marketing. 

Also, if you’d like to see hundreds more ideas on creative ways to deliver great client service, check out all of the Client Service posts here on this blog.

Written on 03/16/09 in Best of the Blog, Client Service, Ten Rules
4 Comments Leave a comment

Replace “Fiance” with “Client”

Found this one over at Rules of Thumb.  Replace Fiance with Client and Married with Retained:

If your fiance does something that bothers you before you’re married, it will bother you ten times more after you’re married.

Written on 03/09/09 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Do Your Best Customers Know They Are?

This week I received a letter from Hotwire (which is, along with Tripit, my favorite travel site) that began:

“Welcome to Hotwire Express, a new service designed for our best customers.  Given the volume of business you do with Hotwire, you’ve earned this enhanced level of service and support, which includes…“

The letter continued to list a series of benefits I’ll now receive as an Express member including faster response times, dedicated travel specialists, and increased flexibility to change already-paid-for bookings.

I wasn’t expecting the letter, and didn’t know I was one of Hotwire’s “best” customers, though I’ve spent thousands of dollars with them.  I hadn’t even thought I needed the additional services Hotwire’s now giving me for free.  In short, it was the kind of pleasant surprise that made me feel good about my past use of their service and more likely to use them again. 

I also realized that this strategy lends itself well to other businesses.  What could you do to surprise (and better serve) your best customers? Take some lessons from Hotwire and:

1.  Identify your best customers.

2.  Tell them they are, in fact, your best customers and sincerely thank them.  They’ll be surprised and happy to know you’re grateful for their business. 

3.  Finally, give them additional services and benefits that they’ll appreciate without them having to ask for them.

What’s the worst that can happen?

Written on 02/21/09 in Client Service
3 Comments Leave a comment

Use Conferences to Build Your Practice in a Down Economy

If you have a niche practice, you should already be asking your clients what conferences and trade shows are “must attends” in their industry.  If you’re not already a regular attendee (or speaker) at these events, you should be — now more than ever.  Here’s three reasons why:

1.  You Can Increase Client Satisfaction:  One of the first things your clients will cut back on in a down economy is attending these events.  Go in their stead, and promise to report back to them on what you learned.  You can do so in a letter, newsletter, blog or even on Twitter (more on that in a second).  They’ll appreciate you being their eyes and ears at the event and will always remember how you cared enough about their business and industry to attend when they couldn’t.  As a bonus, they’ll likely introduce you before the event to their friends/colleagues/peers who’ll be there.

2.  You Can Meet Quality Potential Clients:  The attendees who will be there are potential clients (but ones who CAN afford to attend) who will be impressed by your commitment to your existing clients and your desire to increase your expertise in their industry.  You’ll also be one of the few lawyers in the room.

3.  You Can Become an Industry Expert:  Your clients aren’t the only ones interested in what’s happening at the event.  Instead of saving your updates for your clients, broadcast them (along with your expert analysis) to the world via your blog and Twitter — especially Twitter.  By doing so, you’ll not only reach other attendees at the event, but capture the attention of others in the industry watching the conference from home.  Depending on the technological sophistication of the attendees, you may be the ONLY source of real-time conference news to non-attendees.

In short, forget legal conferences (except for LexThink, of course) and go to client conferences instead.  You’ll get much more bang for your buck, impress existing clients, meet new ones and establish yourself as an industry expert.

Written on 02/10/09 in Client Service, Marketing
Leave a comment

Meet Your Future Clients

The other day, I suggested in my Ten New Rules of Legal Marketing that:

9.  Your future clients have been living their entire lives online and will expect the same from you.  If you’re invisible on the web, you won’t exist to them.

Now, I’ve stumbled across this article from Adweek titled Generation Watch Out that explains better than I ever could what I meant:

Today’s young talent represents not-able cultural shifts: They’re digital, message savvy, global and green. (Listen to the Flobots’ “Handlebars” and you’ll get the picture.) They mark fundamental changes from previous grads entering the industry. They’re more associative, culturally networked, nimble and intuitive. While they’re more cynical than cohorts past, they’re also more apt to call BS or volunteer for environmental or political causes. They are easy in their gay-or-straight, vegetarian-or-meat, tatted-or-not choices. F-bombs are tossed around like Frisbees. These kids run hard, adapt easily.…

It’s the shortcut generation. That toolbar up top is for old-timers; these guys learned to Cmd-Option-Shift-A in middle school because it was cool, not necessary. Desktops are institutional holdovers. Everyone has a set of on-the-go tools: camera, laptop, videocam, hard drive, cool bag to tote it all. They’re experts early on, manhandling Final Cut or Flash with intuitive authority. They’re Idea 2.0, the mashup generation and one with confluence, that place beyond convergence where the old sloughs off and the new quickly gets morphed into the cultural DNA.

All this makes them, at their best, unbelievably creative and productive. On the other hand, they also think they have all the answers. Morley Safer wrote recently of this generation’s entitlement issues: They’ve grown up with everyone as winners, with inspired birthday parties and planned events, with middle-class privilege and opportunities at every camp, academy and take-your-kid-to-work experience. They expect careers, not jobs. And they expect to have their names—very soon—in an annual or this mag. Hell, they know their blog on a good day might get more eyeballs than the trades.

Get to know them. Understand them.  Because love ‘em or hate ‘em, they’re not just your children, they’re your future clients, employees and partners.  Learn to serve them or they’ll serve themselves.

Written on 11/01/08 in Client Service, Innovation, Practice of Law
1 Comment Leave a comment

Want to avoid your clients?

OK, I’m not advocating this, but if you’ve got just a minute and don’t want to talk to that client who goes on and on and on …, try Slydial.  The free service promises to to connect you DIRECTLY to a person’s mobile voicemail.   They don’t answer, but get your message, and you can go back to being productive. 

Written on 10/31/08 in Client Service, Innovation, Technology
Leave a comment

Ten Rules About Hourly Billing

After the great response I got to yesterday’s Ten New Rules of Legal Marketing post, I’ve decided to share a few more “Rules” of Hourly Billing I’ve culled from my blog and my speeches.  Enjoy!

1.  Ask your clients what they buy from you.  If it isn’t time, stop selling it!

2.  Imagine a world where your clients know each month how much your bill will be so they could plan for it.  They do.

3.  If you don’t agree on fees at the beginning of a case, you’ll be begging for them at the end of it.

4.  Sophisticated clients who insist on hourly billing do so because they’re smarter than you are, not because they want you to be paid fairly.

5.  When you bill by the hour, your once-in-a-lifetime flash of brilliant insight that saves your client millions of dollars has the same contribution to your bottom line as the six minutes you just spent opening the mail.

6.  Businesses succeed when their people work better.  Law firms succeed when their people work longer.  Your clients understand this — and resent you for it.

7.  Every time your clients jokingly ask you, “Are you going to charge me for this?” they aren’t joking — and they’ll check next month’s bill to be sure.

8.  The hardest thing to measure is talent.  The easiest thing to measure is time.  The two have absolutely no relationship to one another.  Your law firm measures talent, right?

9.  Would you shop at a store where the cost of your purchase isn’t set until after you’ve agreed to buy it? You ask your clients to.

10.  There are 1440 minutes each day.  How many did you make matter?  How many did you bill for?  Were they the same minutes?  Didn’t think so.

If you’d like to get more ideas like these in real time, follow me on Twitter.

Written on 10/28/08 in Client Service, Innovation, Money and Fees, Practice of Law, Resolutions, Ten Rules
9 Comments Leave a comment

Touch Your Audience with These Touchy-Feely Tips

Here’s a must-read post from Laura Bergells with six “touchy-feely” tips that will help when you rehearse your next presentation (you do practice, right?). 

If you ever give presentations to clients, to peers or to juries, you need to be thinking about these practice ideas.  My favorite:

Record your presentation without video. Then, listen to it without watching the slides. I like putting my audio on my portable mp3 player — and taking a walk. While listening to myself on the ellipse machine at the gym last week, I found an area of my presentation that dragged so dismally, I barely registered a heartbeat while chugging along at a high incline! I went back to the office for a rewrite and added more powerful visuals. Listening to “audio only” helps you spot pace and pitch problems — but it also helps you later recall the words and inflections that work well.

Written on 10/28/08 in Client Service, Innovation, Practice of Law
1 Comment Leave a comment

The Value of a Free Consultation is What You Charge For It

Again from Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive:  Don’t give away anything for "free" because the "the value of an item declines when it is offered as a gift." 

So, instead of offering in your Yellow Pages ad (you’re still doing those?) a "Free Consultation," try offering a "$250.00 case analysis at no cost to you."  Your clients will value your continuing services more highly, and they’ll feel like they’ve already gotten something of value from you to begin with — making them more likely to reciprocate and hire you to take their case.

Written on 09/30/08 in Client Service
1 Comment Leave a comment

Pack a house with nervous clients?

Your clients are worried about their financial futures more than ever.  If you do divorce, estate planning, real estate or corporate work, you should be preparing a seminar NOW on the impact of the current situation on your clients. 

Make it “invitation only” and give each client the ability to bring another person.  Make it two hours or less.  Have a handout with the “Top 7 Things You Need to Know Now” or something similar.  Give each attendee at least three copies.  Encourage them to share it with people like them.

Tell it like it is.  Don’t sell.  Your clients (and their hand-picked referrals) will appreciate the information, and look to you as their advisor in times of need.

Written on 09/30/08 in Client Service, Marketing
2 Comments Leave a comment

Looking for the Ugly in Potential Clients

Kevin Kelly writes another insightful essay on The Technium titled “Looking for Ugly.”  Using FAA reporting on aircraft maintenance as his main example, he suggests that when we don’t penalize minor infractions (the FAA encourages penalty-free reporting of minor safety errors), we reduce major ones.  Put another way, to avoid major catastrophe, it is important to encourage people to look for and report “the ugly:”

Looking for ugly is a great way to describe a precursor-based error detection system. You are not really searching for failure as much as signs failure will begin. These are less like errors and more like deviations. Offcenter in an unhealthy way. 

I think he’s right on.  When evaluating new clients, for example, keep track of those things that don’t “feel quite right.”  It could be something as simple as the fact that they rescheduled three times, showed up late for an appointment, or “forgot” their retainer check.  While many of those prospects will turn into great clients, the handful of them that don’t probably have a lot of those little things in common. 

The more you pay attention to those “little things” as they enter your head (as opposed to using your 20/20 hindsight once the relationship has gone sour) the more likely you’ll get better at choosing great clients — and avoiding the “ugly” ones.

Written on 09/30/08 in Client Service, Practice of Law
1 Comment Leave a comment

The Perfect Law Firm Retreat: Let Your Clients Set the Agenda

So you’re working on the agenda for your firm’s next retreat?  You’ve got the standard bases covered:

Message from the Chairperson?  Check.
Firm financials?  Check.
Important legal decisions?  Check.
Practice-group breakouts?  Check.
Rainmaking training?
Golf?  Check.

Client concerns?  Huh?

You’ve asked your clients what they’d like you to talk about, haven’t you?  You should.  And I’m not just talking about mastering their new billing requirements.  I’m suggesting you should poll your most important clients and ask them what they’d like you to cover at your next retreat. 

You might be surprised at what they’d like you to learn — and they’ll be surprised you cared enough to do so.

Written on 09/29/08 in Client Service, Law Firm Retreat, LexThink
Leave a comment

You’re really not that funny.

Trying to be funny in your client emails?  You are probably not succeeding. From Psychology Today:

[I]n a series of studies, participants were only able to accurately communicate sarcasm and humor in barely half—56 percent—of the emails they sent. What’s worse, most people had no idea that they weren’t making themselves understood….

The fact that we’re usually very good at making ourselves understood is also what trips us up in the email domain. “We’re all so adept at processing nonverbal cues that we do it without thought, in a happy-go-lucky way.” So much so, that we often don’t recognize ambiguous meanings, like in that dashed-off email that could be read two different ways.”

Tips?  Reread your emails, aloud if possible, and listen closely for ambiguity.  For important emails, compose them, take a break, and come back and re-read before you hit send.

Via Guy:

Written on 09/19/08 in Client Service
1 Comment Leave a comment

Reactivate Past Clients

John Jantsch gives us Seven Tips to Dig Out from a Recession.  The one you should focus on today:

Reactivate past customers – Where did I put that customer anyway, I know they are around here somewhere. Sad but true, sometimes we don’t bother to communicate with current customers unless they call with an order. By the time they have decided someone else appreciates their business more, it’s too late. Reach out to lapsed customers and make them an apology, promise to never ignore them again, and make them a smoking hot deal to come back.

Written on 09/19/08 in Client Service, Marketing
Leave a comment

Thanksgiving Cards: Another Reason

From my friend Jim Canterucci comes this comment to my post about Sending Thanksgiving Cards:

Matt, I couldn’t agree more. We’ve been sending T-giving cards for at least 15 years. We actually get thank you notes for the cards. It’s great to visit a large client office and see our cards displayed in many offices. We also get Christmas cards from people who likely wouldn’t send otherwise. This is just one more connection.

Written on 09/18/08 in Client Service
2 Comments Leave a comment

Do your clients know you’re thankful for their business?

It is roughly ten weeks until Thanksgiving.  Have you ordered your Thanksgiving cards yet?  Here’s five reasons why you should:

  1. Thanksgiving is a holiday about giving thanks.  Thanksgiving is the perfect opportunity to offer your clients a genuine “Thank you for being our client” greeting from the entire firm.  The holiday itself reinforces the message to your clients.  A win-win.
  2. Thanksgiving cards are uncommon.  How many Thanksgiving cards did you get last year?  That’s what I thought.  Your clients don’t get them either.  That’s why yours will stand out.  It is also why yours will be talked about.
  3. Thanksgiving cards have a long shelf life.  Literally.  What do people do with holiday cards?  They display them.  If you send a Thanksgiving card, it will be likely be the first one up on the mantle, and will probably stay there, alone at first, until Christmas card season is done.
  4. Thanksgiving isn’t Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanza.  Hate the minefield of picking the right not-too-religious “Happy Holiday” card?  Avoid it all together with a Thanksgiving card.
  5. At Thanksgiving, there’s still time for your clients to do end-of-year work.  This is perhaps the least-recognized, yet best reason to send Thanksgiving cards:  they’ll generate more end-of-year business for you.  When you send a Christmas card, it is already too late for most clients to get more legal work done before the new year.  By the time the holiday rush is over, they’ve forgotten what they wanted you to do, and wait probably wait another year.  A Thanksgiving card can give them that subtle prompt when there’s at least a month left before the rest of the holiday’s hit, allowing you to close the year on a high note.
Written on 09/15/08 in Client Service
2 Comments Leave a comment

If Lawyers Didn’t Exist

I know, the title of this post sounds like the beginning of another lawyer joke, but it comes from a very thought-provoking article from Indi Young on A List Apart titled Look at it Another Way.

Indi suggests several ways we can “step out of our problem-solving role.” This is important because:

Whether we’re improving what we make, how we make it, or how we share it, we normally take the perspective of the creator by default. We can’t help it. We’re drawn into decisions about all sorts of details. We love the minutia—solving problems, finding a way around a limitation. We don’t try to see past our own role in the process.

Instead of trying to improve our businesses (or our processes/outputs/etc.) from the inside, she suggests we drop our problem-solving role completely, forget about our business’ existing limitations and become the person we serve.

Pretend you and your organization do not exist, and study what this person does with all the resources available in her life. For example, what does a citizen need from her town government? She needs a way to get from her house to the grocery store, the library, the post office, her workplace, etc. These could be roads, bike paths, public transit, and sidewalks. She needs utilities like water and electricity to be delivered to her property. She needs assurance that her property will be defended from fire, protected from floods, and accessible during a disaster. She wants to feel safe from assault, whether by a human, an animal, pollution, noise, or disease. This list goes on.

Like governments, lawyers (though some might argue) exist to fulfill a need. Here’s a way to identify those needs: Think about your clients for a moment. But, as the article suggests, don’t think of them as a “user” of the thing you provide. Instead, “think about how and why they accomplish what they want to get done.”

So, who are your clients? What do they look like? Where do they live? What do they need? What do they want to get done?

Most importantly, what wakes them up at 2:00 am the morning before they call your office? Would they say it is because they wanted “estate planning” or because they want to make sure they can “take care of their family” when they die?

Put another way, if lawyers didn’t exist, what unmet need would your clients have? And if you were the only one to recognize that unmet need (in a world without lawyers, remember), would you invent your firm as it exists today?

Would your client?

Would Steve Jobs?

Written on 09/12/08 in Client Service, Innovation, Money and Fees, Technology
1 Comment Leave a comment

Start Clients Off Right With a “Starter Kit”

Mark Hollander shares a Patient Starter Kit from drug manufacturer Shire on his Group8020 blog (great company name, btw). The “Kit” consists of:

  • 16 page, full color booklet with basic information about the disease state
  • An interactive CD-ROM that plays on both Windows and Macs (the latter representing a smart marketing decision. In the US, Apple represents two thirds of all new computer sales)
  • An ATM-like card to be used at local pharmacies for a free 30-day trial of the product
  • Standard P.I. insert

According to Mark, “The process of converting the “concerned and curious” to new customers begins immediately. The right front page prominently displays a serialized card used for enrollment in the 30-Day trial.”

Some other really cool things in the kit (for an ADHD drug):

  • “Success Tracker” to chart and reinforce a child’s improvement in tasks that had previous proven difficult
  • Recognition Certificate for the child – we’re assuming it works on the principle of “accomplish so many things and your reward will be..”
  • Household Organizer Chart – for both child and parent, bringing a little structure back into home life

Put aside what you think about how drug companies market for a moment, and think about this instead:

What would a New Client Starter Kit look like for your firm?

Would it have basic information about the area of law concerning the client?

Would it contain links, scanned articles and documents (like questionnaires and forms) on a CD-ROM that would work on both Macs and Windows PC’s?

Would it contain photos of your office, including the outside of your building and the parking lot, as well as pictures (and bios) of all your staff?

Would it contain a FAQ?

Would it be cool?

If you’re looking for a project this month, perhaps building a New Client Starter Kit should make it onto your short list.

Written on 09/11/08 in Client Service, Innovation
Leave a comment

Criminal Defendants: What I Learned

Want to know what defendants really think about their experience with the judicial system? Add Courthouse Confessions to your reading list. It is a blog by Steven Hirsch, and he interviews people as they leave the courthouse. In many ways, it reads like a more real-life version of Esquire Magazine’s What I’ve Learned series.

Some gems:

Moral of the story is my friends, hang with people in your caliber. If your a person person hang with good people. That’s the moral of this story. I’m a good person. I consider myself a good person. On a scale of one to ten I consider myself an eight. Timothy Jones

I kinda felt better on the sofa than I did feel in jail. ‘Cause I don’t have like a violent history, I don’t have no crime, I don’t have no record, period. Honestly, I should’ve stayed at home, it would’ve been more comfortable. Jamali Brockett

I just got out on five hundred dollars bail and I’m stressed out and I’m mad but um this is life, so this is what it is. Come to find out the marijuana that was supposed to be sold was Lipton tea. Tyrone Carter

I’m here on assault charges which I obviously didn’t do. All the assaults that I actually have done, I’ve never been to court for. Daniel Sbarra

Let me say on the record, I’d like to apologize to the City Of New York for taking a pee. I’d like to apologize to the garbage man that took my pee away in a garbage truck. There’s a reason that garbage man gets paid more then the police. Mark Mark Mark

Never buy phones off the streets. You know, I gotta go to a store and do like everybody else does. I’m not really interested in phones, long as I can make a call, you know? Cori DeSilva

Actually I’m proud and happy that I hit the cops. They deserve it. I feel better. Now I feel better. Evan Munoz

Graffiti is a part of my life. I start when i was a kid. Its like a spirit, it’s my life. I’m a student in graffiti design. Writing on the wall is like I was here, I was in New York, I was in Paris, I was in Amsterdam. It’s like a dog make a pee on the wall. I’m animal. Esteban Gonzalez

So she actually gave me a second chance at getting community service. So when I signed up for community service and they gave me the dates to appear I got drunk again and lost the paper work. Ian Jernigan

As long as I don’t sell no more weed to uncover cop, I’m good money. Kevin Dorsey

In my opinion drugs, selling drugs in my opinion is not a crime, in my opinion…. I’m not doing a public service but in my opinion at the time I was doing more like an entrepreneurship, an opportunist, I saw a large market, decided to go for it, supplied their demand. Jonathan Sierra

I stole a bra. I did. ’cause I wanted it, and I didn’t have enough money…. Sure, I would [do it again.] I had so much fun coming here to court, I met beautiful people, and I saw that it’s not as bad as you think. They were all laughing, the whole time through, we were laughing, joking. Stay good, don’t do bad things, you know? Do good things, don’t steal. Janet Braha

I may look like sh*t right now, but when I dress up and do my hair, and everything, I look very elegant, very classy. But my dream is to keep studying politics and run for the presidency when I get older…. I’m not gonna say that I’m gonna win, but I can say that I’m gonna try my hardest, because I have a lot of great ideas on a lot of different things, and I think I can make a difference and make a change, a better change in the world…. I feel that I’m qualified for that. Judy Guadalupe Schiller Perez Aversa

Written on 09/08/08 in Client Service, Practice of Law
Leave a comment

Stop Painting a White Room White

I was talking with a friend the other day, and he was telling me how he felt that at work they kept doing the same things over and over again with similar, less-than-remarkable results. He said it was like “painting a white room white.” While the new coat of white paint was fresher and cleaner than the one it replaced, nobody really noticed the difference except the ones who did the painting.

I think the same is true about the incremental changes many of us make in our business. We notice them, and over-value their worth to others even though they’re not likely to realize we’ve made any changes at all.

Next time you contemplate a change in your business, ask yourself, “Will my clients (or co-workers) notice?” If the answer is no, perhaps you should concentrate your energies on changing something they will.

Written on 09/04/08 in Client Service, Innovation
1 Comment Leave a comment

Be Mediocre Less

Bob Lotich on the Church Marketing Sucks Blog writes a post outlining some of the reasons he’s Run From Churches. In my original reading, I was thinking it explained why some clients run from their lawyers, but a second (and third) look at it made me realize he’s outlined lots of the reasons why lawyers are running from their clients — and the law practice all together.

His first point is that, in many churches, everything was mediocre:

Mediocrity has been too prevalent in the church today. Be it marketing, music, teaching, evangelism or anything else, it should be excellent. Just a few hundred years ago the greatest music, paintings, literature, etc. were glorifying God. It offends me that the word “Christian” is used as an adjective that is synonymous with mediocre by some non-Christians. It should not be.

Think about the legal profession for a bit. How mediocre have we become? To paraphrase Bob, mediocrity has been too prevalent in the practice of law today. Be it marketing, teaching, client service or anything else lawyers do, it should be excellent. Just a few decades ago, lawyers were admired, honored and the practice of law was a noble calling. It offends me that the word “Lawyer” is now too often the punch line to jokes by non-lawyers. It should not be.

So here’s a challenge for you:

  1. Make a list of the truly “excellent” things your firm does.
  2. Now, compare that to a list of things you do like everyone else. That’s your “mediocre” list.

Which list is longer? Can you think of a way to focus less on mediocrity and more on excellence? If you pick just one item from your mediocre list each week (or month) and make it better, your clients will notice.

Written on 09/04/08 in Client Service, Innovation
Leave a comment

Take Your Customers to Work?

In the her Nature his Nurture blog, Sean Hazell suggests having a “Take your customer to work day.” Here’s how it’d work:

- Invite your customer into your workplace to shadow an employee; parties are encouraged to sign up and then paired.

- Open your office, back-shop, or factory doors for the day to give your customers a behind the scenes glimpse of your working environment.

- Your employees represent your brand for the day.

- Customers see for themselves what truly makes your company special.

Still trying to figure out just how this could work with lawyers (client confidentiality and all that), but would it be impossible to have a “take your clients to court day” once a month to give clients with upcoming court dates a stress-free preview of their day a the courthouse? They’d get a chance to know where to meet, where to park, how to get through security, etc. I did this once with a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy client (she accompanied me when we filed) and she was much more comfortable during her hearing than everyone else around her.

And, if you can’t bring them in person, do you at least have pictures of what these places look like that you can share with them before they go?

Written on 07/21/08 in Client Service, Innovation
1 Comment Leave a comment

A Great Traveler’s Tip: Let Me Give You a Clue

Gretchen Rubin at The Happiness Project shares a great tip for traveling parents:

A friend of mine has a great tradition when she and her husband travel away from their children.

Like many people, she brings her kids little presents from trips, but instead of just handing them over upon her return, she makes sure to pick the presents early in the trip, then allows her children to ask for clues. Each child gets one clue per day, and they have tremendous fun coming up with the questions, coordinating with each other about who will ask what, keeping a list of the clues that have been revealed, debating amongst themselves, etc.

She says that the gift itself brings them much less fun than the guessing game.

As someone who’s on the road a lot, I absolutely love this idea. Not sure it would work for clients awaiting your trip back from court.

Written on 07/02/08 in Client Service, Innovation
Leave a comment

Your Customers Don’t Want to Need You

I’ve been doing a lot of speaking lately, and have been revamping my presentation quite a bit to focus on just a few key themes. I’m going to share a few of them in the blog, and would love your feedback. Right now, I’m organizing my talks around a series of truths or “new rules.”

Here’s the first:

Your clients need you less than you need them. They don’t want to need you at all, and they’re willing to pay for the privilege.

Written on 07/02/08 in Client Service
Leave a comment

What’s your practice plan?

Michael Hyatt shares the importance of having a “Life Plan.” He talks about why it is important, and openly shares quite a bit of his own. Under the “My Colleagues” category of his plan, Michael writes:

I want my colleagues to remember my servant-leadership, my integrity, my humility, and my commitment to having fun. I want them to remember how much they learned and grew as a result of knowing me. Most of all, I want them to remember how I empowered them to accomplish far more than they ever thought possible.

When you read his post, think about the things you’d include in a Life Plan for your practice. The quote above would be a great start for the “My Clients” section. Give it a try.

Written on 07/01/08 in Client Service, Innovation, Money and Fees
Leave a comment

You Always Have to Say “I’m Sorry.”

Want to keep your unhappy clients from suing you? Apologize. Bob Sutton writes about the Virtues of Apologies and shares a NY Times article about how doctors and hospitals are reducing malpractice claims (by a sizable amount) by simply apologizing. Read the article and the post for some of the reasons why you should apologize.

What I want to share, though, is this gem from Bob’s post:

[T]he best single diagnostic question for determining if an organization is learning and innovating as it moves forward is: What Happens When People Make a Mistake?

What’s the answer for your firm?

Written on 06/13/08 in Client Service, Innovation, Practice of Law
1 Comment Leave a comment

Use “You, We, I” to Jumpstart Difficult Conversations

Steve Roesler at All Things Workplace shares this great “You, We, I” tip for starting difficult conversations. It works like this:

When you approach someone to talk, you’re asking for their time and their attention. Your topic might be interesting, it might have some tension attached, or maybe it’s about something you want to change. Regardless, the other person wants to know that you are thinking of them.

The next time you need to engage someone–especially if it’s a difficult conversation–approach it by thinking this way:

You are important to me and this conversation.

We are in this together.

I (hope, need, want) …

Visit the post above to see some examples, and think about starting your next difficult client conversation the same way.

Written on 06/13/08 in Client Service
1 Comment Leave a comment

Women and Word of Mouth

I’ve been dying to read Michele Miller’s new book, The Soccer Mom Myth. For long-time readers of this blog, you’ll remember Michele as one of the first contributors to my Five by Five series. In the Church of the Customer blog, Michele shares 5 Things You Need to Know About Women and Word of Mouth. Here arethe key two for me:

What can you do to make increase women’s word of mouth?

Here’s the wrong way to do it: “Sign up three friends and we’ll give you a 15% discount.” This feels like you are asking her to sell out her friends. Instead, change the offer to “You and every one of your friends who signs up will get a 15% discount.” Now she has special access to a discount that she can pass along to friends. You’ve made her the hero. She can offer value to her trusted network. She has just increased her trust and standing.

What about asking women for referrals; good idea, or bad idea?

This is tricky. Because women are such great referrers, it seems logical. If you are doing business with her, and she values your relationship, it may seem perfectly acceptable to ask her for a list of friends who might benefit from your services. But that may not be a good idea, even if she thinks you’re the best thing since Starbuck’s drive-thru. She is the gatekeeper of her relationships. She’s not being stingy, she’s being protective. A better idea might be to give her a few of your business cards and say, “if you know of anyone who might benefit from my service, feel free to give them my card.”

Unless you don’t have (or want) women as clients, read her book. I’ve just ordered mine.

Written on 06/06/08 in Client Service, Marketing
Leave a comment

Mistake-Proof Your Practice

Haven’t read this one yet, but it saw a review of Mistake-Proofing: Designing Errors Out on Kevin Kelly’s “Cool Tools” Blog. One of the excerpts really made me say, “Wow!” because it is so head-slappingly obvious:

Employees experience a continuous stream of encounters – one defect is a low failure rate. Customers experience a single defect as a 100% failure rate.

Think about that for a minute in the context of your law practice: if you fail to keep just one of 100 client commitments, you’re batting .990. However, to that client you let down, you’re batting .000.

Written on 06/06/08 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Three Things Wrong? Move On!

Saw this tip about buying antiques on the Rules of Thumb Blog, and thought it applied even more to potential clients:

Don’t buy a piece of antique furniture if you can find three things wrong with it.

So, if you’ve just finished your first interview with a potential client, and there are three (or more) things about that person or their case that don’t seem right, take a pass.  You’ll be glad you did.

Written on 04/05/08 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Pick up the phone!

Just a reminder to call your clients every week:

Each week, no matter the condition of the weather, the color of Ethan’s mood ring, or the extra hours it will take to meet our deadlines, we call each of our clients. We check in, ask how they’re doing, and give them an update on the activities surrounding their project. We call every week throughout the project, and even two to three weeks past the time we’ve delivered our work—all to make sure the client doesn’t have any last-minute needs, or has run into any problems.

That’s how we roll. We care like that.

Written on 04/01/08 in Client Service
2 Comments Leave a comment

Got Anxious Clients?

Think about it. Every client who enters a lawyer’s office is anxious. In fact, they’d probably prefer going to the dentist. That’s why this article on How to Deal with Anxious People is important reading. It sets out some research, with some valuable tips for deciphering visual cues, that every lawyer should know. Here’s why:

The more you talk over or at anxious people, the more pressure you put on their middle brain and the more they will close their minds to what you are saying.

Alternatively, the more you talk to an anxious person — or even better yet, with them — the more you alleviate that pressure and the easier it is to access their upper brain and open their minds to you. Here’s a critical point, though: the approach you may think you are taking in a conversation with an anxious person may not be the approach the other person perceives.

Also worth remembering when you are confronted with that big guy in the bar who accuses you of cheating at pool.

Written on 03/24/08 in Client Service, Practice of Law
2 Comments Leave a comment

(How) Do You Take Credit?

Here’s a great idea for ways to remember the folks who’ve helped you along the way, from this post on How to Take Credit:

So when the time comes to take the stage, remember that you didn’t get here alone: go ahead, grab the microphone and acknowledge your team. Do it before a crowd and in e-mail. Say it with bonuses and baked goods — but be sure to say it. No one likes to be left out. By sharing the credit the right way, you won’t diminish your own accomplishments, you’ll add to them by building a reputation as the kind of person people want to work for and for your focus on developing others.

Not sure whom to credit? In their book, Becoming a Resonant Leader, Annie McKee, Richard Boyatzis and Frances Johnston suggest keeping running lists of peers who have helped you along your route to success — along with notes about what you actually learned from them. Keeping such a list will likely help ensure that you don’t forget them in your acceptance speech.

I really like the idea of keeping a running list of people who’ve helped you along with a note or two about how they’ve helped.  This is a pretty powerful way to not only remember how you’ve gotten to where you are, but to also remind you to give help to others who seek it from you.  More on this in the next post.

Written on 02/28/08 in Client Service, Innovation, Practice of Law, Resolutions
Leave a comment

Simple Solutions, Informally Delivered

Paul Graham shares his product development strategy in a wonderful essay:

Here it is: I like to find (a) simple solutions (b) to overlooked problems (c) that actually need to be solved, and (d) deliver them as informally as possible, (e) starting with a very crude version 1, then (f) iterating rapidly. When I first laid out these principles explicitly, I noticed something striking: this is practically a recipe for generating a contemptuous initial reaction. Though simple solutions are better, they don’t seem as impressive as complex ones. Overlooked problems are by definition problems that most people think don’t matter. Delivering solutions in an informal way means that instead of judging something by the way it’s presented, people have to actually understand it, which is more work. And starting with a crude version 1 means your initial effort is always small and incomplete.

Paul suggests that his technique extends beyond startups to any type of creative work, and I’m inclined to agree. 

In the delivery of legal services, what are the overlooked problems that can be simply solved?  How many of us ask our clients (before, during or after they’ve engaged us) about the one thing we could change in our practices to improve their experience?  Is it something as simple as shifting our office hours to be available when our clients can see us?  Or, is it something more profound like changing the way we charge for our services?  No matter what that one thing is — and it could be a different one thing for every client — what’s keeping us for trying it?  Just once.  To see if it works.

Written on 02/24/08 in Client Service, Innovation
1 Comment Leave a comment

New Research Explains Billable Hour’s Staying Power!

Well, not exactly, but this article in the Telegraph discusses an experiment exploring humans’ preference for a familiar (though less efficient) path, and found:

most of us are happy to play follow-my-leader, even if we are trailing after someone who does not know where they are going and taking the most meandering route.  Even more striking, even when we are shown a faster route, we prefer to stick with the old one and tell others to take the long road too, a finding that could have lethal implications when it comes to evacuating a building or ship in an emergency.

In the study, participants were led from one room to another. When asked to return to the first room, almost all took the familiar path back, even when they were aware of a shorter path:

All but one person took the route they had been led. What we were surprised by was how strong this effect was, even when the alternative route was much shorter …. They preferred the long route even when the experimenter had drawn attention to the alternative route, or when the experimenter took the long route solely to pick up a fallen poster, eliminating the possibility that participants thought the experimenter had a good, but unknown, reason to take the long route. By asking participants to collect the next guinea pig in the experiment, the scientists observed that each person in the chain copied the route of the participant before them: a simple tradition that meant the alternative route was never discovered.

Interesting food for thought, don’t you think?

Written on 02/19/08 in Client Service, Innovation, Money and Fees
Leave a comment

Can You Build a Firm this Cool?

Need some inspiration as you build your firm?  Check out HiQ, an English auto repair chain.  Rethink your model.  Put the customer first.  I know I’d at least check this place out if there were one in my neighborhood.

Tags: , , ,

Written on 02/13/08 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Got an Ass for a Client?

If you aren’t sure if one of your clients is an ass****, take this handy-dandy test.  Better yet, have your secretary, assistant or associate complete it for each client.  Fire those clients that “pass” the test.  Sad, but true.

Written on 02/06/08 in Client Service
1 Comment Leave a comment

Debrief your Client (Engagements)

LifeHack has a great list of questions has a great list of questions to answer once you get finish a big project that should go on every lawyer’s file closing checklist.  You have one of those, don’t you?  Here they are:

  • What was the outcome of this project?
  • What is good about the outcome of this project?
  • How do I feel about my performance?
  • What mistakes did I make that slowed or otherwise negatively affected the completion of this project?
  • How could I avoid making those mistakes in the future?
  • What was the best part of the project? What was the worst?
  • What strengths did I discover in the completion of this project?
  • What new abilities or knowledge have I learned from doing this project?
  • What do I wish I had known when I started this project?
  • In one or two sentences, what were the lessons of this project?

You should answer these questions (and some others posed in the article) after every client engagement.  However, don’t file your answers away with the now-closed client file– especially the answers to the last two questions.  Instead, keep them in two documents titled “What I need to know before starting a project,” and “Lessons I don’t need to learn again” that you review every time before accepting a new client.

Written on 02/06/08 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Keeping Tabs on Clients

I seem to be thinking a bit about client monitoring today.  Here’s another interesting service called RivalMap, that is “a web-based collaboration software that gives companies a central place to share and address information about competitors and their industr[ies].”   Seems like a great place to keep tabs on what your clients (and their competitors) are up to.  Check out a review here.

Tags:

Written on 01/20/08 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Monitor Client Web Sites with Dapper

You are keeping up with all your clients’ web sites, aren’t you?  Well, one way to do it is to use Dapper with your handy-dandy RSS reader.  Dapper can take any site (or portion of it) and turn it into any number of formats for you.  Very slick!           

Tags: ,

Written on 01/20/08 in Client Service, Technology
Leave a comment

Remind Your Clients of Their Apointments

Here’s an interesting (and free) application called Oh, Don’t Forget … that allows you to send a future text message to any phone at at predetermined date and time.  Use it to send yourself reminders, or to remind your clients when they are supposed to show up for court, appointments, etc.

Blogged with Flock

Written on 01/02/08 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Some Hiring Advice for Clients

If you are hiring (or advising a client who will be), take a look at these 30 Interview Questions You Can’t Ask (and the accompanying sneaky legal alternatives you can ask to get the same info).

Written on 11/27/07 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Some Great Tips for Keeping In Touch

Over at 43 Folders, they share some great tips from the late Leslie Harpold on keeping in in touch.  There are some great client-focused tips in there.  Here’s my favorite:

2. Send Thank You notes.  When you receive something from someone else, it’s important to let them know you appreciate the time and effort it took them to think about you, and reward the courtesy with a little token of thanks. A written note is a much nicer compliment than an e-mail, and it doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes to write one and mail it away.This step also does double-duty by making you keep track of people’s contact information so you don’t have to continually ask them for it. We tend, in this electronic age, not to remember street addresses and phone numbers, relying on our mobiles to remember who called and what number to call them back. Keeping an address book may seem old fashioned, but doing so allows you to easily send out baby gifts, birthday gifts, anniversary gifts and any other kind of token of friendship and appreciation that allows us to continue to like each other in a monetary fashion.Leslie even thoughtfully provided a step-by-step method of composing and sending thanks at one of her stomping grounds. Take a trip over to The Morning News and refresh your manners.

Written on 11/16/07 in Client Service
Leave a comment

15 Thoughts for Law Students: A Mini-Manifesto

I’ve written a few mini-manifestos for clients and lawyers before and remain quite enamored with the format.  Here’s one for law students with some random (semi-related) thoughts on law school and the legal profession.  Let me know what you think, and feel free to add your own in the comments.

1.  Law school is a trade school.  The only people who don’t believe this to be true are the professors and deans.

2.  Want to piss off your professors?  Ask them if they’ve ever run a successful law practice.

3.  Being good at writing makes you a good law student.  Being good at understanding makes you a good lawyer.  Being good at arguing makes you an ass.

4.  You can learn more about client service by working at Starbucks for three weeks than you can by going to law school for three years.

5.  Law school doesn’t teach you to think like a lawyer.  Law school teaches you to think like a law professor.  Believe me, there’s a huge difference.

6.  You can get through law school without understanding anything about what it is like to be a lawyer.  That is a terrible shame.

7.  The people who will help you the most in your legal career are sitting next to you in class.  Get to know them outside of law school. They are pretty cool people.  They are even cooler when you stop talking about the Rule Against Perpetuities.

8.  Your reputation as a lawyer begins now.  Don’t screw it up (and quit bragging on Facebook about how drunk you got last night).

9.  Law is a precedent-based profession.  It doesn’t have to be a precedent-based business.  Be prepared to challenge the prevailing business model.  Somebody has to.

10. Experienced lawyers work with clients.  Young lawyers work with paper.  You like working with paper, right?

11. You are about to enter a world where getting your work done in half the time as your peers doesn’t get you rewarded.  It gets you more work.

12. Except for prosecutors and public defenders, nobody tries cases anymore.  Especially not second year associates.

13. You have a choice:  You can help people and make a decent living, or you can help corporations and make a killing.  Choose wisely.

14. There are plenty of things you don’t know, and even more things you’ll never know.  Get used to it.  Use your ignorance to your benefit.  The most significant advantage you possess over those who’ve come before you is that you don’t believe what they do.

15. People don’t tell lawyer jokes just because they think they are funny.  They tell lawyer jokes because they think they are true.  Spend your career proving them wrong.

Written on 10/09/07 in Client Service, Innovation, Money and Fees, Practice of Law, Resolutions
13 Comments Leave a comment

Got er Done!

Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba share a great idea in this post about a condo development that posts huge “SOLD” signs on the outside of each unit, arguing that the signs “are the best possible evidence” that the condos are desirable.

I was wondering if this idea could also work for lawyers.  Imagine a weekly or monthly full-page newspaper ad that shows all the new business formations, real estate closings, or even “newly single” divorce clients a firm helped (with their permission, of course).  Not sure how this works in some jurisdictions, but it is a thought.  What do you think?

Written on 10/03/07 in Client Service, Marketing
1 Comment Leave a comment

The Mobile Lawyer 2.0

It has been a long while since I’ve been so WOW’d by a business model as I’ve been this morning.  Simply put, this is the BEST template I’ve seen for building a home-based practice from, of all people, a physician.  Dr. Jay Parkinson, MD is building a web-based medical practice.  From his website:

  • I AM A NEW KIND OF PHYSICIAN.
  • I strictly make house calls either at your home or work. 
  • Once you become my patient and I’ve personally met you, we can also e-visit by video chat, IM and email for certain problems and follow-ups.
  • I’m based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  My fees are very reasonable.
  • I’m extremely accessible.  Contact me by phone, email, IM, text, or video chat.  Mon-Fri 8AM-5PM.  24/7 for emergencies.
  • I specialize in young adults age 18 to 40 without traditional health insurance.
  • When you need more than I provide, I make sure you wisely spend your money and pay the lowest price for the highest quality.
  • I’ve gathered costs for NYC specialists, medications, x-rays, MRIs, ER visits, blood tests, etc…just like a Google price search.
  • I mix the service of an old-time, small town doctor with the latest technology to keep you and your bank account healthyl

How much for this service?  According to the "How it Works" on his site, his fee is "far less than your yearly coffee budget but a little more than your Netflix."  His web site also provides "Real Life Examples" that describe, in plain English, how you’d use his service.  Oh, and he’s blogging, too.

Lawyers, if you are looking for a real dose of inspiration (or a glimpse to the future of mobile practice) you HAVE to check this Parkinson’s site and business model.  Simply brilliant.  Great idea, great web site, amazing copy.  If I were still practicing, I’d steal it in a heartbeat.  Look at it now.

Via: Zoli’s Blog.

Written on 09/29/07 in Client Service, Innovation, Marketing, Money and Fees, Practice of Law
5 Comments Leave a comment

Youth Plus Inexperience Equal Success

I ran across a paper published by my friend Betha L. Whitlow, the director of the Visual Resources Collection at Washington University, titled "The Shock of the New: Using Youth and Inexperience as Tools for Success."  In the paper (link to Word document), Betha argues that newcomers to her field of Visual Resources should view their youth and inexperience as distinct advantages to be leveraged, not handicaps to be overcome: 

[Because] there are still many people at your institution who are unable to let go of the previous culture, thus limiting their ability to move forward and offer your institution a new and highly productive perspective … [i]t is my belief that by the very nature of being a [young] Visual Resources professional, you are uniquely positioned to be at the forefront of changes in the culture of your institution. With just a little bit of a brave and diplomatic push forward, [you] can embody the new role of the resource provider, promote interdisciplinary teaching and learning, be the model of the flexible professional, and tread the fine line between providing access to solid yet technologically innovative resources.

Young professionals, take this advice to heart.  There are plenty of things you don’t know, and even more things you’ll never know.  Get used to it.  Use your ignorance to your benefit.  The most significant advantage you possess over those who’ve come before you is that you don’t believe what they do.  Because you’ve never "always done it that way," you’re free to do it differently.  Question the business model.  Deliver products (yes, products) and services your elders would never consider.  Embrace technology.  Innovate.  Revel in your inexperience.  You have but one opportunity to start from scratch.  Don’t waste it.

Written on 09/26/07 in Client Service, Innovation
Leave a comment

Client Stuff

Paul Graham has another great essay.  This one’s on Stuff — and more particularly, how to acquire less of it.  Here’s my favorite quote:

Another way to resist acquiring stuff is to think of the overall cost of owning it. The purchase price is just the beginning. You’re going to have to think about that thing for years—perhaps for the rest of your life. Every thing you own takes energy away from you. Some give more than they take. Those are the only things worth having.

I can’t think of a better thought to have before taking that next client.  When you take a client — especially that client that your gut tells you not to take — think about the overall cost of having that client.  Don’t focus just on the money you’ll make from them, but how you’ll feel while working for them.  Will their file keep you up at night?  Will you dread their call?  Will you be able to give them your best work?   Search for clients whose personality matches yours and whose work challenges you to do your best.  They are the only clients worth having.

Written on 08/06/07 in Client Service
2 Comments Leave a comment

Grow Your Practice by Asking Clients to Leave

Interesting post on the Church Marketing Sucks blog titled “Grow Your Church by Asking People to Leave.”  It is a point I’ve made before: your practice is often far healthier if you stop serving clients you don’t want to (and who are often unhappy with your service anyway).  From the post:

Craig gives an example where he preached on the church’s vision trying to get everybody on board. If people weren’t on board with the vision, he asked them to find another church. He even offered brochures from 10 other churches he knew and recommended. It was a serious challenge and 500 people ended up leaving. Most people would freak out at that thought. Not Craig:

The next week, we had about 500 new seats for people who could get excited about the vision. Within a short period of time, God filled those seats with passionate people. Many of those who left our church found great, biblical churches where they could worship and use their gifts.

Everybody won!

That’s why I sometimes say, “You can grow your church by asking people to leave.”

Craig focuses on making leaving a church a graceful option and a positive thing and not the bitter experience it often is.

I love it!

Written on 07/19/07 in Client Service, Marketing
10 Comments Leave a comment

Government Resources for Small Biz

Point your clients to some of these 13 Government Resources for Small Business.  Lots of great stuff!

Written on 04/26/07 in Client Service, Marketing
Leave a comment

For Administrative Professionals Day — Let Your Staff Fire a Client

I’ve written about this one before:  the best gift you can give your administrative professional/secretary is to let them fire a client of their choice.  Here’s the post from 2004:

Several years ago, I told my secretary she could fire one client, no questions asked. After she picked herself off the floor, she chose a client that surprised me. Turns out that this client, while perfectly cordial to me, was consistently rude to her on the phone and made inappropriate comments to her when he came into the office. I sent the client a nice letter telling him I would be unable to represent him any longer, and my secretary told me it was one of the best presents she had ever gotten.

The moral to this story is that there are clients who, if they treat your staff badly, don’t deserve your hard work. Every day you work for them sends a message that you value their business more than the happiness of your staff. The trouble is that you probably don’t even know who these clients are. So ask your assistant, and go ahead and give yourself a little bonus and fire your least-liked client too.

Of course, flowers are also nice.

Written on 04/25/07 in Client Service
2 Comments Leave a comment

Cool Tool(Bar) for Clients?

How about giving your tech-savvy clients their own firm- (or client-) specific toolbar for their browsers?  Techcrunch profiles Conduit, a company that makes it easy to “roll-your-own” toolbars.  Here’s the Techcrunch Toolbar, for an example.

Written on 04/16/07 in Client Service, Innovation, Technology
Leave a comment

Help Clients Worry Less

If you are a lawyer, your clients worry.  They worry about their case, their upcoming deposition, even your bill.  Here is a good checklist to share with them to help them worry less.  I really like this one as a way to keep those daily (hourly?) phone calls from freaked out clients to a minimum:

Write down your concerns and worries in a journal.

    Reserve a time for your worries and concerns at daytime. So you should try to develop a routine and reserved time for all the concerns and problems of the day. By writing your worries you will identify your common negative thoughts and worries. It will be much easier to find solutions when you’ll know the exact content and meaning of your worries.

    Take your time for these worries but not in the evening. The best time might be late afternoon. Sit down with a journal and write down your concerns of the day. This will take at least 30 to 60 minutes. Force yourself to think about all the worries and problems of the past and coming day.

Promise the clients a weekly phone call to go over their journaled “worries” and see how many of those “emergency” issues have already resolved themselves before the call.

Written on 04/14/07 in Client Service
Leave a comment

My (Client) Maps

Where are your clients?  Google just announced My Maps, a dead-simple way to create a (public or private) personal map.  You can embed photos, tags, links, etc. to each map.

Here’s a tip:  Add your client’s addresses to a (private) map.  Every time you are running errands or visiting clients, you can check and see if you will be near any of your other clients.  Drop in and say hi.  They will appreciate that you are thinking of them.

I am going to start a legal bloggers map today.

Written on 04/05/07 in Client Service
1 Comment Leave a comment

I’m Sorry for Your Loss. Was He Funny?

A quick tip for meeting the family of a decedent at estate wrap-up time, courtesy of Tricks of the Trade:

If you have to interview a grieving family after a death, a good question to ask is: “Did he have a good sense of humor?”

This will almost always shake the family out of their grief, making it easier for them to talk to you, and bring up an anecdote that really shows the character of the dead person.

Written on 03/28/07 in Client Service, Practice of Law
Leave a comment

Building the Perfect Innovation Retreat – Call for Help

Readers, I need your help.  I’m designing an intensive, two-day, innovation-focused law firm retreat that I can sell to medium and large firms.  Before it goes “live” I need to do it at least twice to iron out the kinks and make it hum.

Here’s what I’d like to do:

  • Do the retreat for a firm of 10-20 lawyers, their staff and selected clients (yes, I said clients).  The cost to the firm will be my travel, lodging and retreat materials.  I’ll also ask the firm to pay me an amount commensurate with the “value” of the retreat to the firm — but only if they thought it was the best retreat they’d ever done.
  • Assemble a group of 10-20 small firm or solo lawyers for a two-day innovation retreat here in St. Louis in early June.  Because most solo and small-firm lawyers don’t get the benefits of a law firm retreat, I want to bring several of these lawyers together to collaborate with one another and to bring innovation into all of their practices.  Also, I want to see if the concept of a solo/small firm “retreat” will work.  If I get enough people, I’ll set the fee at an amount sufficient to cover my costs (probably at $250 per attendee or so).  Each attendee will be on their own for travel and lodging.

Let me know if you are interested.  You can e-mail me at Matt@LexThink.com if you or your firm would like to participate.  Thanks.
 

Written on 03/27/07 in Client Service, Innovation, Money and Fees
Leave a comment

Does Your Firm Have the Guts to Seek Anonymous Client Feedback?

Mike Arrington posts about The Gorb, a online reputation monitoring service:

Gorb allows, even insists on, anonymous comments and ratings about an individual. Like someone? Hate them? Tell Gorb all about it, using their handy Ajax slider to rate them from 1 – 10 in their professional and personal lives, and leave written comments as well.

According to Gorb:

The professional marketplace in general is inefficient when it comes to distributing information about a person’s reputation. Many of us often make daily decisions based on relatively few inputs, some which are poorly validated. When these decisions begin to form the basis for our perceptions about others that we don’t know, it should be no surprise that there’s a hit-and-miss nature to this “off-line” system!

On the other hand, many of us also use people that we know very well as references to gather information and make decisions about others. The GORB aims to leverge reliable professional references and personal opinions to provide a balanced and widely adopted “online” rating system, that allows us to gauge the reputations of one another.

What do you think?  Would you or your firm tell your clients about The Gorb and ask them for an anonymous review of your services?  Why or why not?  What are you afraid of?

Written on 03/15/07 in Client Service, Innovation
1 Comment Leave a comment

Buy Your Clients a Virtual Lunch

My friend Scott Ginsberg (who has some really cool things up his sleeve, BTW) shares this really great way to connect with someone who doesn’t live or work close by.  I’ll let Scott tell the story:

A month ago, I got a surprising email from a woman named Lena West.

Lena lives in New York, which explains why I was so surprised.

See, she invited me to have lunch with her.

A VIRTUAL lunch.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Well, I buy you lunch from your favorite delivery place. Then we eat while chatting on the phone for an hour.”

Hmm. Cool idea.

So, last week we did it.

And our Virtual Lunch rocked.

Lena and I had an enlightening, energizing conversation for over an hour! We talked about websites we loved, books we read, places we traveled, you name it. Other than the obvious physical limitations, it was really no different than having lunch in person.

I challenge you to buy your best, non-local client lunch this week.  Let me know how it goes.

Written on 03/10/07 in Client Service, Innovation
Leave a comment

Actual, Actually.

I came across this article on Honda from an old issue of CIO Magazine and really liked the part about Honda’s focus on an interesting Japanese concept:

The collaborative environment at Honda is a byproduct of the company’s emphasis on the Japanese concept of the three actuals—go to the actual place, work with the actual people or part and understand the actual situation. Although it might seem unnecessary or impractical, adherence to the concept helped facilitate the efficient design of the ’98 Accord. When the designers weren’t sure whether a part they were designing could actually be welded, for example, they’d drive over to the manufacturing plant to ask a welder directly . A visit to the site about a specific problem not only prevents engineers from becoming detached from the actual process, it often yields insight into a completely unrelated and unforeseen issue, says Shriver.

I’d highly recommend implementing the same concept when working with clients:  go to their actual place, work with the actual people, and understand the actual situation.

Written on 03/10/07 in Client Service, Innovation
1 Comment Leave a comment

Relationship Economies for Professionals

I highly recommend this essay by Doc Searls on “Relationship Economies.”  In it, he recounts a conversation he had with a Nigerian pastor about markets and transactions:

“Pretend this is a garment”, Sayo said, picking up one of those blue airplane pillows. “Let’s say you see it for sale in a public market in my country, and you are interested in buying it. What is your first question to the seller?”

“What does it cost?” I said.

“Yes”, he answered. “You would ask that. Let’s say he says, ‘Fifty dollars’. What happens next?”

“If I want the garment, I bargain with him until we reach an agreeable price.”

“Good. Now let’s say you know something about textiles. And the two of you get into a long conversation where both of you learn much from each other. You learn about the origin of the garment, the yarn used, the dyes, the name of the artist, and so on. He learns about how fabric is made in your country, how distribution works, and so on. In the course of this you get to know each other. What happens to the price?”

“Maybe I want to pay him more and he wants to charge me less”.

“Yes. And why is that?”

“I’m not sure.”

“You now have a relationship”.

Though price still matters in the developing world, the pastor suggested, relationships matter more:

It’s a higher context with a higher set of values, many of which are trivialized or made invisible when viewed through the prism of price. Relationship is not reducible to price, even though it may influence price. Families and friends don’t put prices on their relationships. (At least not consciously, and only at the risk of cheapening or losing a relationship.) Love, the most giving force in any relationship, is not about exchanging. It is not fungible. You don’t expect a payback or a rate of return on the love you give your child, your wife or husband, your friends.

Read the entire essay the next time you are deciding whether to focus your energies on attracting new clients vs. building stronger relationships with existing ones.

Written on 03/09/07 in Client Service, Money and Fees
Leave a comment

Can Your Firm Offer a “Genius” Bar?

Thanks to 37 Signals for pointing out a great article in CNN/Money about Apple’s retail stores.  The article talks about the inspiration for Apple’s amazing “Genius” Bars:

When we launched retail, I got this group together, people from a variety of walks of life,” says Johnson. “As an icebreaker, we said, ‘Tell us about the best service experience you’ve ever had.’” Of the 18 people, 16 said it was in a hotel. This was unexpected. But of course: The concierge desk at a hotel isn’t selling anything; it’s there to help. “We said, ‘Well, how do we create a store that has the friendliness of a Four Seasons Hotel?’” The answer: “Let’s put a bar in our stores. But instead of dispensing alcohol, we dispense advice.”…”See that? Look at their eyes. They’re learning. There’s an intense moment – like when you see a kid in school going ‘Aha!’

There are two things about this quote that really hit home:

First, how many law firms ask the same question the Apple store designers did (Tell us about the best service experience you’ve ever had?), and actually modeled their firm on that best-in-breed service experience? 

Second, how could a “genius bar” be implemented at your firm?  Could you open that “bar” at your firm for walk-in clients?  What if they paid an AppleCare-like fee to avail themselves of that service?

 I bet you could make it work.  Let me know if you need help.

Written on 03/08/07 in Client Service, Innovation
Leave a comment

Take your Client’s Stakeholders to Lunch

Joyce Wycoff suggests taking internal stakeholders to lunch:

Identify all of your stakeholders … the people who are affected by your work, immediately and at a distance.  Your monthly report may only go to 3-4 people but the information in it may get passed along or acted upon by dozens of others.  Start to invite your stakeholders to lunch one or two at a time and just get to know them.

This is great advice, and equally applicable to the stakeholders in your clients’ organizations.  Just make sure they know you are not billing them for the lunch!

Written on 02/27/07 in Client Service, Marketing
Leave a comment

Why Clients Don’t Listen

Wonder why your clients don’t listen to you?  Perhaps this article explaining why men ignore nagging wives may give you some insight.  In short, many people will act in ways that are not in their own best interest, just because they wish to avoid doing what others want them to do.  This is called “reactance,” and is defined as, “a person’s tendency to resist social influences that they perceive as threats to their autonomy.”  The article describes two interesting experiments that demonstrate just how ingrained this behavior can be:

In the first experiment, participants were asked to name a significant person in their lives whom they perceived to be controlling and who wanted them to work hard, and another significant and controlling person who wanted them to have fun. Participants then performed a computer-based activity during which the name of one or the other of these people was repeatedly, but subliminally, flashed on the screen. The name appeared too quickly for the participants to consciously realize they had seen it, but just long enough for the significant other to be activated in their nonconscious minds. The participants were then given a series of anagrams to solve, creating words from jumbled letters.

People who were exposed to the name of a person who wanted them to work hard performed significantly worse on the anagram task than did participants who were exposed to the name of a person who wanted them to have fun.

“Our participants were not even aware that they had been exposed to someone else’s name, yet that nonconscious exposure was enough to cause them to act in defiance of what their significant other would want them to do,” Fitzsimons said.

A second experiment used a similar approach and added an assessment of each participant’s level of reactance. People who were more reactant responded more strongly to the subliminal cues and showed greater variation in their performance than people who were less reactant.

“The main finding of this research is that people with a tendency toward reactance may nonconsciously and quite unintentionally act in a counterproductive manner simply because they are trying to resist someone else’s encroachment on their freedom,” Chartrand said.

Though the article pokes a bit of fun at the husband/wife dynamic, this kind of behavior has very serious implications for advice-giving professionals and our clients.  I’d encourage you to read the entire study (cost:  $30.00).

Written on 02/27/07 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Ask Your Clients for Ten Ways You Can be Better

Guy Kawasaki shares a study by Craig R. Fox (pdf) that compares two groups of students, each asked to evaluate an MBA course:

One group was asked for two ways to improve the course; the other was asked for ten ways to improve the course. The group that was asked to list ten ways showed a higher level of satisfaction with the course.

So, when will you start asking all of your clients for ten ways to improve your service?

Written on 02/23/07 in Client Service, Innovation
1 Comment Leave a comment

I’m Sorry, I Don’t Remember How to Say I’m Sorry

Joel Spolsky shares Seven Steps to Remarkable Customer Service that shares lessons his software company has learned (in come cases, the hard way).  Many make sense for professional service providers.  My favorite, though, is this one

Memorize Awkward Phrases.  

It’s easy to get caught up in the emotional heat of the moment when someone is complaining.

The solution is to memorize some key phrases, and practice saying them, so that when you need to say them, you can forget your testosterone and make a customer happy.

“I’m sorry, it’s my fault.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t accept your money. The meal’s on me.”

“That’s terrible, please tell me what happened so I can make sure it never happens again.”

It’s completely natural to have trouble saying “It’s my fault.” That’s human. But those three words are going to make your angry customers much happier. So you’re going to have to say them. And you’re going to have to sound like you mean it.

So start practicing.

Say “It’s my fault” a hundred times one morning in the shower, until it starts to sound like syllabic nonsense. Then you’ll be able to say it on demand.

One more point. You may think that admitting fault is a strict no-no that can get you sued. This is nonsense. The way to avoid getting sued is not to have people who are mad at you. The best way to do this is to admit fault and fix the damn problem.

Do yourself a favor and read the whole post.  It is really great stuff.

Written on 02/23/07 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Define Your Firm’s Rules of Engagement

Guy Kawasaki shares some “Rules of Engagement” from a company called SuccessFactors.  Here they are:

Rules of Engagement

  1. I will be passionate—about SuccessFactors’ mission, about my work. I will love what we do for companies and employees everywhere.

  2. I will demonstrate respect for the individual; I will be nice and listen to others, and respect myself. I will act with integrity and professionalism.

  3. I will do what it takes to get the job done, no matter what it takes, but within legal and ethical boundaries.

  4. I know that this is a company, not a charity. I will not waste money—I will question every cost.

  5. I will present an exhaustive list of solutions to problems—and suggest actionable recommendations.

  6. I will help my colleagues and recognize the team when we win. I will never leave them behind when we lose.

  7. I will constantly improve Kaizen! I will approach every day as an opportunity to do a better job, admitting to and learning from my mistakes.

  8. I will selflessly pursue customer success.

  9. I will support the culture of meritocracy and pay for performance.

  10. I will focus on results and winning—scoring points, not just gaining yardage.

  11. I will be transparent. I will communicate clearly and be brutally honest, even when it’s difficult, because I trust my colleagues.

  12. I will always be in sales and drive customer satisfaction.

  13. I will have fun at work and approach my work with enthusiasm.

  14. I will be a good person to work with—I will not be an asshole.

I agree to live these values. If my colleagues fail to live up to any of these rules, I will speak up and will help them correct; in turn, I will be open to constructive criticism from my colleagues should I fail to live by these values. I understand that my performance will be judged in part by how well I demonstrate these values in my daily work.

Any professional service firms out there with similar “Rules” for their employees?

Written on 02/05/07 in Client Service, Money and Fees
Leave a comment

Resolutions III: December 24

Resolve to become aware of news affecting your cients before they do.*

1.  Using Google Blog Search or Google Alerts set up several searches for each of your clients.  Use their names, industry, competitors’ names, products, etc.

2.  Subscribe to the RSS feed for each search.

3.  Notify your clients whenever you see something relevant to them or their industry.

Extra Credit:

4.  If you use Google Reader as your RSS Aggregator, create a “tag” for each of your clients.

5.  For each tag, Google Reader allows you to create a unique URL for that tag that you can share with your clients.

6.  Give each of your clients their tag’s unique URL and everytime they open it in their browser, they’ll see everything you’ve “marked” for them to read.

*  This post will be expanded into a longer how-to in January.

Written on 12/24/06 in Client Service, Resolutions, Technology
Leave a comment

17 Lawyer Tips: A Mini Manifesto

After writing 15 Client Tips: A Mini Manifesto, I figured that turnabout is fair play.  Here are 17 for Lawyers:

1.  Whenever your clients don’t understand what you are doing for them, they think about what you are doing to them.

2.  Many of your clients remain your clients because it is a pain in the ass to find another laywer – not because they love you.

3.  Every time your clients get your bill, they think about how beautiful your office is and about the nice car you drive.  And they wonder if you are worth it. 

4.  If your office is a dump and you drive a wreck, they wonder about that too.

5.  If your client doesn’t pay you, fire them.  Don’t ignore them.

6.  At least once a year, tell a client, “It’s on the house.”

7.  Taking a client to play golf doesn’t show how good a lawyer you are.  It shows how good a golfer you are.

8.  Quit being a pompous, demanding jerk around the office.  If you can’t keep good staff, you don’t deserve good clients.

9.  Your clients will always know their business better than you do.  They may even know the law better than you.  Make sure to seek their advice before giving yours.

10.  A lawyer charging extra for stamps and copies is like a car wash charging extra for water.  Stop it now.

11.  Your clients have wants.  Your clients have needs.  They often don’t know the difference.

12.  Whenever you interrupt a client meeting to take an “important” call, your client thinks about hiring another lawyer.

13.  Imagine a world where your clients knew each month how much their bill from you will be so they could plan for it.  They do.

14.  If you hate being a lawyer, be something else.  You are smart.  You’ll figure it out.

15.  A bill is not communication.  At least not the good kind.

16.  When is the last time you called a client just to thank them for being your client?  That’s what I thought.

17.    People don’t tell lawyer jokes just because they are funny.  They tell lawyer jokes because they think they are true.  Spend your career proving them wrong.

Written on 12/19/06 in Client Service, Practice of Law, Resolutions
6 Comments Leave a comment

15 Rules for Clients: A Mini Manifesto

UPDATE:  Welcome Gapingvoid Readers.  If you liked this, check out my 15 Tips for Lawyers, another mini-manifesto.

You are a client.  You need a lawyer.  Here are 15 rules (guidelines, actually) that may help you find and understand your lawyer:

1.  You have wants.  You have needs.  Focus on the needs first.  Wants are bonus.

2.  If you are seeing a lawyer because your dispute is “not about the money, but about the principle of the thing” don’t be surprised if your lawyer runs away. You can never be satisfied.  Also, it’s really about the money.

3.  Your case/matter is the most important thing happening to you right now.  It is not the most important thing happening to your lawyer right now.  It may not even be in his top ten.

4.  If you think your lawyer is trying to kill your deal, remember this:  though there may only be a “one percent” chance your deal will go bad, your lawyer sees that “one percent” over and over again.  She’s looking out for you.  She cares about you and your business.  She also doesn’t want her malpractice premiums to go up.

5.  You want to buy results, not time.  Most lawyers sell time, not results.  Make sure you both understand the difference before your first bill arrives.  You will certainly understand the difference after.

6.  If you want to find a lawyer who sells results, look hard.  There are a few of them out there.  They are the ones who can still smile because they get to see their children before 9:00 at night. 

7.  Big firm lawyers are not more efficient.  Or smarter.  Or cheaper.  They are certainly not cheaper.

8.  Make sure your lawyer understands your business.  If your lawyer doesn’t understand your business, find out if he’s going to learn about it on his time, or yours.

9.  You are your lawyer’s boss.  You are not her only boss.  She has hundreds of other bosses too.  Each one of them thinks their matter is more important than yours.

10.  How messy is your lawyer’s desk?  When they bill you for thirty minutes of “file review,” how much of that time was spent looking for your file?

11.  When you call a lawyer for the first time, how long does it take for him to return your calls? After you hire that lawyer, expect it to take at least three times as long.  Same goes for e-mails.

12.  Does your lawyer have reputation for being a “bulldog?”  That probably means they are an asshole.  To everyone.

13.  Look for a lawyer with a technology IQ no more than fifty points less than yours.  If you live in e-mail and your lawyer doesn’t, learn to like your mail carrier.

14.  If you hate your lawyer, fire him.  He probably deserves it, and you aren’t getting his best work anyway.

15.  You wouldn’t automatically marry the first person you date, so don’t automatically hire the first lawyer you see.  A great lawyer-client relationship can last a lifetime.  Your lawyer can be your advisor, counselor, confidant, and friend.  Most lawyers are good people genuinely interested in their clients’ best interests.  Find one you like, stick with him or her, and spread the word.  Oh, and stop telling lawyer jokes.  They aren’t really that funny.  ;-)

 

 

Written on 12/11/06 in Client Service
3 Comments Leave a comment

Building a Law Firm at the Idea Market

At last week’s Idea Market, one of the questions I asked the attendees was:  “A Perfect Law Firm Would …”  Here are the responses:

IMG_4256

Written on 11/25/06 in Client Service
1 Comment Leave a comment

Didn’t Get The Client? Here’s Why

Mary Schmidt compiles a terriffic list of reasons why vendors didn’t get her business.  Just a few:

1. You returned my call in which I asked for a price quote…a week later.

4. Your web site looks abandoned. (Copyright 2004? Are you even still in business?)

6. You never, ever answer your phone. It always go to voice mail.

7. You did more talking than I did in our first meeting.

9. You talk about “solutions” but never tell me how you’re going to solve my problem.

13. You treat your employees badly.

16. Your “free education seminar” was nothing more than a sales pitch.

Via Christopher Carfi

Written on 11/25/06 in Client Service, Marketing
Leave a comment

Are Legal Services Like Vegetables?

Cathy Sierra has another great post on motivating web visitors, that applies broadly to anyone selling anything.  Cathy discusses the two levels of motivation:  “motivation to interact and motivation to do something as a result of that interaction.”  Think of your marketing as the first kind of motivation and your in-person client meeting as the second. 

Just how do you motivate your prospects to hire you?  Cathy first tells us how not to motivate them:

Trying to motivate someone to action by telling them it’s good for them doesn’t… actually… work …  because it doesn’t invoke the right feelings.

In other words, don’t suggest your clients hire you because of what will happen if they don’t.  Instead, as Cathy suggests, citing a great Fast Company article , emphasize the positive things that will come out of your lawyer/client relationship.  Can’t think of any?  Try this exercise: 

Ask your clients to visualize a “best case scenario” conclusion to their matter .  Then ask them what personal or business benefits they’ll reap and how they expect to “feel” if the matter concludes in that positive way.  Keep track of their responses (maybe even suggesting they write them down).  After doing this for ten or twenty clients, you’ll start to see themes emerge.  These are the themes you should focus on when you are trying to motivate your clients to hire you.

Written on 11/13/06 in Client Service, Marketing
Leave a comment

Total Client Monitoring

A few weeks ago, I posted about 10 things lawyers should be monitoring for their clients.  Now, I’ve come across a new service called Competitious that seems to help you do just that.  Check it out.

Written on 10/11/06 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Stroke, Stroke, Stroke!

Kevin Kelly passes on this tip to identify when someone is having a stroke:

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. But doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

1. Ask the individual to SMILE.
2. Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
3. Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently, ie: It is sunny out today)

If he or she has trouble with any of these tasks, call 9-1-1 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

This is a pretty good list, and is certainly something I didn’t know.  Anyone who deals with older folks (estate planning lawyers?) should have this list handy for them and their staff.

Written on 10/11/06 in Client Service
1 Comment Leave a comment

Don’t Forget the E-mail Clause in Estate Planning Doucments

Saw this on Lifehacker:  What happens to your email when you die?  Suggests (linking to a CNET article) attorneys press clients to include password data in estate planning documents so heirs can get to your email, photo sharing, music, and other online accounts when you die.

Is anyone doing this?

Written on 09/26/06 in Client Service, Technology
1 Comment Leave a comment

Women Want a Story

Here’s a fascinating article from iMedia Connection on what motivates men and women to purchase things.  The whole thing’s worth a read, but what jumped out to me were these paragraphs that discuss how others’ purchasing decisions impact men and women differently: 

Men are willing to make a purchase once it has been demonstrated that someone else was successful with the same purchase; kind of a, “that worked for Joe, so it’ll probably work for me” mentality.

Women posit things differently. It’s good to know if something worked for Sally; it’s better to know what Sally’s motivations were for her purchase. Success in itself isn’t meaningful unless the conditions leading to success are the same. (So much for women not being cut out for the sciences!) This can be thought of as, “it may have worked for Sally, but Sally bought it for reason A and I’m interested in reason B, so the same purchase might not work for me.”

If you have testimonials on your site, and want both men and women to be impressed, this is important stuff.

Written on 09/25/06 in Client Service, Technology
3 Comments Leave a comment

How does your service rate on the ZSEG scale?

If you were asking your clients to rate your service (and you are doing that, right?), you could ask them to use the traditional ABCDF scale, or, you could use the Zinn-Segaran Experiential Grateness Scale:

0. Forgettable.  Events that could be forgotten and have no impact on your life. A typical example is a regular morning commute, which people often cannot recall at all due to having spent the time daydreaming about other things.

1. Inconsequential.  Many day-to-day events occur at this level. Running into and greeting a neighbor on the street, an uninteresting work project or a mediocre meal at a diner are all inconsequential. These events are distinguished from “forgettable” by the fact that they are usually remembered briefly, but usually not considered.

2. Eventful.  Experiences at this level are moderately memorable, and will possibly be discussed by those present for no more than a day or two after they occur. They are unlikely to come up in conversation with others except in responses to specific questions like “what did you do last night?”. Usually active concentration will be required to remember much of the event a week later.

3. Noteworthy.  Noteworthy experiences tend to elicit a fairly strong emotional response at the time whether confusion, amusement or anger. Usually the subject is eager to share them with others in the following few days, even without being prompted.

4. Significant.  When reminiscing about important things that happened in the past year, most events that are recalled will be significant. Typical examples include winning a minor award or totaling one’s car without serious injury.

5. Remarkable.  Remarkable experiences are those that have a strong impact on behavior or change strongly held views. They may not always be remembered, but they stick with a person in a meaningful way through their outlook and opinion.

6. Exceptional.  This is the lowest rating at which things will likely be somewhat memorable for one’s entire life, and recalled on occasion with a moderate emotional response.

7. Monumental.  These experiences are always remembered and likely to be discussed with those present for life. Oblique references to stories are understood without too much explanation. Many monumental experiences will elicit a strong emotional response upon recollection.

8. Epic.  Epic experiences become folklore not only among those present, but those familiar with them. Neologisms, handsigns or movements which reference but do not describe the experience may be invented and be recognizable to a large group of people for many years afterward.

9. Legendary.  The highest category of Experiential Greatness. Experiences that fall into this category, when related to others, become stories in their own right which are retold by others who are several steps removed from the original parties. The platonic ideal of a legendary experience is one that, years after having it happen to you, is relayed to you by stranger beginning with the words “I heard about this guy one time…”

This list was clearly done in fun, but it is significant to note that “Remarkable” is only in the middle of the scale.  Who knew being remarkable wasn’t enough?

Written on 09/25/06 in Client Service, Innovation
Leave a comment

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

Robert Middleton writes about the benefits of sending three short thank you notes each day:

About two months ago I started sending 2-3 short notes daily to vendors, clients, contractors, colleagues, anyone I came into contact with, however minor the occasion. It’s important to “smile as you write”, as your article suggests, otherwise it will seem like some contrived, dashed off attempt at connecting while trying to do 20 other things at the same time. 

But the exercise has had two effects for me and my company so far:

1) In a very unexpected way, it has made me feel better about myself and my business as a service provider, which bleeds through into the energy I exude all day long.

To anyone who doesn’t think it makes a difference in how you walk, talk, and carry yourself and your expressions, I would say try this for yourself and see. I also find myself following through with clients more thoroughly and attentively, and having better focus and productivity.

I think it has something to do with taking a few minutes to *slow down* and give someone your undivided attention. We all crave feeling listened to and acknowledged.

2) On a more tangible level, I have had two important corporate referrals and increased amounts of business from regular clients to whom I’ve dropped notes in the mail (one of them nearly double).

I have also received expressions of true, bona fide human appreciation from both clients and vendors we work with, whom really will go the extra mile now. Little human touches in the impersonal “we care, but not that much” ocean has an exponential effect on people’s desire to know, like, trust, and do business with you.

Check out The More Clients Blog for more great advice.

Written on 09/24/06 in Client Service, Marketing
Leave a comment

Will Your Firm Be Better Tomorrow?

Black Belt Productivity suggests we Be Better Tomorrow Than We Are Today and I agree.  For some reason, the simple question, “How did I get better today?” has given me a productivity boost since I read the post last week. 

I also think it is an appropriate question to ask of your business.  When you have your daily/weekly/monthly “all hands” meeting, I suggest you ask everyone there if your business is better today than it was yesterday.  Despite their answers, I’d also ask them will they make it even better tomorrow.

 

Written on 09/18/06 in Client Service, Innovation, Marketing
2 Comments Leave a comment

Great Gift Tip for Children of Clients

Here’s another Parent Hack that could work just as easily in your professional office:

As the party came to an end, each pint-sized guest (and sibling, if there was one) received a wrapped party favor with his or her name written on it. Turns out the birthday boy’s mom, Mary Wells, had gone to our local library’s used bookstore and hand-picked a book for each kid. It doesn’t get better than that!

Stock your waiting room with a bookcase full of used books, which cost (at my local library, at least) between twenty-five cents and a dollar.  If a client, or a client’s child, likes a particular book, let them take it home with them.

Written on 09/12/06 in Client Service
1 Comment Leave a comment

Open an Art Gallery — In Your Office

I just stumbled across Parent Hacks today, and found this post about an “Art Gallery” Sara Brumfield found in a neighbor’s garage:

Out running in my neighborhood, I nosily noticed a neighbor’s garage open with the lights on.  When I glanced in, I saw that the entire back wall was covered with a child’s artwork, and big letters spelled out what I assume is the artist’s name — “Caleb.”  I thought this was a great idea — after all, how many pieces of art can a refrigerator hold?  I can imagine kids getting a big kick out of having their own art gallery, and taking vistitors out to see it.

I think this is a phenomenal idea.  I’m going to set up something similar for my daughter’s work.

If you have an office, take it to another level.  Ask your employees to bring in the artwork of their children/grandchildren/nephews/neices/etc. and hang it in your firm’s “Gallery.”  Every year, have an art show, where all the kids are invited (with parents, of course) to see their work.

And if you are a divorce lawyer/mediator, I’d even think about hosting your client meetings or mediations in the room with all of the kids’ art work.  It would make it a heck of a lot easier to remind your clients to focus on their children during their divorce, without having to tell them over and over.  Heck, I’d even invite your clients to add some of their children’s work to the Gallery.

Written on 09/06/06 in Client Service, Innovation
Leave a comment

Set Expectations Via E-Mail

Here’s a great tip via Email Overloaded:  In your e-mail signature, include something like Bob Walsh does:

(I usually check email every few hours during the day.)

Written on 09/05/06 in Client Service, Technology
Leave a comment

Total Information Awareness, for Lawyers AND Clients

Pronet Advertising has a great list of 10 Things You Should Be Monitoring online.  Other bloggers have jumped in with numbers 11–17 and 18–23.  The first ten:

  1. Company name
  2. Company URL
  3. Public facing figures
  4. Product names
  5. Product URLs
  6. The industry “hang outs”
  7. Employee activity/blogs
  8. Conversations
  9. Brand image
  10. Competitors

Good advice, but I’d take it a bit further.  You should absolutely be monitoring these things for all your clients, too.

Written on 09/01/06 in Client Service, Innovation, Marketing
Leave a comment

Reebok Rules for Lawyers Serving Entrepreneurial Clients

Sun General Counsel Michael Dillon, who’s now blogging, points to a fascinating article (pdf) titled  “Reebok Rules” from former Reebok GC John B. Douglas, III.  The “Rules” contain “important lessons about lawyering in an entrepreneurial environment.”  If you serve businesses of any size, it is a must read.

Written on 08/31/06 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Fire Us, Please!

Joel Spolsky has noticed that FAQ pages for online services almost never include instructions for how to cancel your account, then talks about making it easy for his clients to “fire” his company.  And about their moneyback guarantee?

Since we started the company in 2000, the moneyback guarantee has cost us precisely 2% of revenues, which also includes chargebacks, credit card fraud, and people who accidentally ordered twice. That figure that has remained remarkably stable through the years and which I think is well worth it, but then again, I’m only measuring the cost, because the benefit is too hard to measure!

Do you have instructions how your clients can fire you?  And about that guarantee….

Written on 08/31/06 in Client Service, Innovation
Leave a comment

Going to Get Really Sick? Follow These Rules

Gretchen Rubin is trying to find happiness.  Her blog, The Happiness Project, chronicles her year-long journey, in which she tests “every principle, tip, theory, and scientific study [she] can find, whether from Aristotle or St. Therese or Martin Seligman or Oprah” to help her become happier.

Lately, she has been reading dozens of memoirs about illness.  Here are the lessons she’s gleaned from them about dealing with doctors and hospitals (though they could just as easily be applied to dealing with lawyers and law firms):

You need to educate yourself as much as possible. Doctors don’t have the time or the emotional energy to explain all the possibilities to patients and their families.

Write everything down. It’s hard to take in information the first time you hear it. And keep thorough records for insurance purposes, too.

Every additional course of action carries pitfalls: side effects, pain, the difficulty of recovery from surgery, subsequent infections, time in the hospital, the real possibility of medical mistakes. So resist the impulse to “do everything.”

Double-check everything you can. When my father was in the hospital, his doctor told him not to drink anything, then a nurse urged him to take a pill with water—which would have been disastrous, if he’d done it. A friend who went through chemo had a special notebook where she wrote down her prescriptions, and checked her notes against the chemo bags before she allowed each treatment to proceed.

Before following a course of treatment, press as hard as you can—is this procedure absolutely necessary (e.g., do you really have to have that enema)? How painful will it be? How invasive is it? What other options exist, and are any of them less invasive, painful, etc? What will happen if the procedure isn’t done? Arthur Frank refused to sign a consent form when his doctor didn’t explain an operation to his satisfaction—and then ended up not having it at all.

Note that the medical staff often minimizes the discomfort and difficulty of treatments. Perhaps this arises from a desire not to be discouraging, but the effect is often to make it difficult to plan (will it really be possible to go back to work within a few days?) or to make patients feel that they’re complaining unreasonably.

Stay with the patient as much as possible. I don’t know what the visiting rules are in hospitals, but having read these books, I don’t think I’d leave a patient alone there, ever, if I could help it.

Insist on understanding the true prognosis. In several accounts I’ve read, people reflect sadly that they didn’t really understand that the patient was going to die. And so they made choices they regretted—for instance, resisting using methadone, despite its effectiveness in fighting pain, because of its addictive properties. A ridiculous concern to someone who will die in three months! Terrible news is hard to hear, and it’s hard to give, so if you want to know, you need to push. Stan Mack recalls that Janet’s doctors’ talk was “ambiguous.” He recalled a doctor saying, “You don’t have a curable cancer anymore, but with medication there is a subset of women who…” They didn’t understand what they were being told.

Written on 08/31/06 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Be Phone Tree Free

Got an e-mail the other day from Marcin Musiolik, alerting me to his company’s new project called Bringo!  Here’s how it works:

  1. Find the company you’d like to call by category (credit cards, mortgages, loans, health care)
  2. Enter your phone # (we will never disclose your phone number to anyone, not even your mother!).
  3. Wait a few seconds while we navigate the phone tree.
  4. When we call you back, pick up your phone and you’re done. No more phone trees.

Looks pretty cool.  Try it out and let them know what you think in the comments to this post.  And if you think your clients or customers would use this service to contact your firm, it’s time to rethink your telephone answering options.

UPDATE:  Marcin tells me they are adding law firms next month.  I’d sure not want to see mine on there.

Written on 08/29/06 in Client Service, Technology
Leave a comment

Advice for “Contact Us” Pages

Here’s some good advice for those “Contact Us” pages on the web:

Problem: Contact options are limited. …

Solution: Give customers more control of how to contact you. Provide plenty of options: phone, form, e-mail, and chat. Let them contact you their way. RADirect offers a telephone number to talk to an engineer, as well as a short form and a chat option when available. The e-mail form guarantees a response in one business day. If you click on “Speak to a System Engineer” in the nav bar, you’re guaranteed a response in two hours from the point of action.

Problem: People are left to send and pray. So many contact forms and “thank you for contacting us” pages leave visitors frustrated. They don’t provide any information on what to expect when someone contacts the company via form or e-mail. Visitors want to know when and how you’ll reply. Some pages won’t even give the business hours. …

Solution: Tell visitors exactly what to expect when they reach out to you. Tell them what’s happening and what to expect in the future. If they must have information handy when they contact you, be sure to list that on the “contact us” page, too.

There are lots more “Problems” and “Solutions” in the article.  Worth a look.

Written on 08/23/06 in Client Service, Technology
1 Comment Leave a comment

Do All Your Attorneys Talk To Clients Daily?

From Kayak.com’s founder comes this management gem:

At Kayak, I require that every employee talk or email with one or more customers every day. When I’ve mentioned this to friends– that we give personal replies to all feedback and require even high-paid engineers spend time talking with customers every day– they think I’m crazy. They think I should push customer support off to a separate lower-paid team rather than bothering my expensive engineers. But I will tell you a secret:

Having every Kayak employee talking with customers every day has been the best thing we have ever done. It is one thing to (a) have a computer or IVR trying to answer customer emails and phone calls and then (b) having a customer support department trying to address unanswered questions and then (c) raising the ones they can’t handle to a quality assurance department who helps out, and who then (d) raises only a tiny subset of those issues to the product engineers.

It is quite another thing to make engineers talk directly to customers, removing layers of communication. Many brilliant engineers are empathetic problem solvers but they are also sometimes lazy and don’t like to do anything more than once, including answering the same question over and over. When their software does something stupid, and they are thus required to answer the same customer question about it many times, and they have to look those customers in the eye and see their problem, those engineers then actually take the time to fix the problem.

Do all the attorneys in your firm talk to a client every day?  Maybe they should.

Written on 08/23/06 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Less Work Equals Same Productivity?

Interesting story related by computer company manager:

So we went down to a thirty-two-hour-a-week schedule for everyone furing a down time. We took everybody’s hours and salary down – executives too.

But [the company] discovered two surprises.

First, productivity did not decline. I swear to God we get as much out of them at thirty-two hours as we did at forty. So it’s not a bad business decision. But second, when economic conditions improved, we offered them one hundred percent time again. No one wanted to go back!

Never in our wildest dreams would our managers have designed a four-day week. But it’s endured at the insistence of our employees.

Now, if you could just figure out a way to get your clients on board and let you charge them for that phantom day each week. 

Written on 08/23/06 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Good (Net)Vibrations

Here’s an exercise for today.  Check out NetVibes, a really cool customizable home page, with the ability to display multiple types of content in drag-and-drop boxes (read a quick review here).  Then think about the kind of RSS-driven content your firm or company could generate (think RSS feed for each case, for example) and imagine giving your clients a home page customized just for them.  Oh yeah, the cost of a NetVibes page?  Free.

Written on 08/17/06 in Client Service, Innovation, Technology
Leave a comment

Meet Tomorrow’s Clients

According to this study:

Gen Yers spend 12.2 hours online every week — 28 percent longer than 27- to 40-year-old Gen Xers and almost twice as long as 51- to 61-year-old Older Boomers. Gen Yers are also much more likely to engage in Social Computing activities while online. For example, they are 50 percent more likely than Gen Xers to send instant messages, twice as likely to read blogs, and three times as likely to use social networking sites like MySpace.

“All generations adopt devices and Internet technologies, but younger consumers are Net natives who spend more time online than watching television,” said Forrester Research Vice President and co-author of the report Ted Schadler. “Younger generations live online, reading blogs, downloading podcasts, checking prices before buying, and trading recommendations.”

Written on 08/11/06 in Client Service, Marketing
Leave a comment

What Start-Ups Want in a Lawyer

OK, so Andy Lark is talking about hiring a PR agency, but I think he could just as easily be talking about hiring a lawyer:

But I don’t want $15,000 dollars worth of service. I don’t even know what that is!

I want results. I don’t care what it costs or whether an agency has to under or over service to deliver it. I just want results against the agreed budget. You commit, I commit, we all commit together.

What is more troubling to me as a Valley CMO is:

1) finding a great agency is bloody hard work. They are few and far between. At any billing rate. Few CMOs I know get the value of PR or AR, let alone the value of a good agency… I accept we are part of the problem, but…

2) finding an agency that gets your business and has a real enthusiasm for contributing to the growth of the business – harder still

3) finding an agency that understands that great ideas get funded – near impossible. They are caught in the conundrum or belief that ideas require budget prior to being generated. Bullshit. (and I am talking about real ideas, not those regurgitated from the last pitch)

4) finding a team that can explain why they should get paid more and then associate some kind of outcome with the result – well, if you find them, let me know. The most common justification – “we’ve been over servicing your business for six months now, you need to pay us more” – is nuts. Nuts!

5) finding an agency – the word is a bit of an oxymoron. It implies some kind of powerhouse of ideas and execution – the strength of a team. What you generally end-up funding is one very dedicated individual surrounded by some other folks – generally you aren’t quite sure what they are doing but they all arrive for meetings and scribble madly into notebooks.

What is needed is a new kind of agency. One not built on billable hours and 10k budgets. Maybe one built on the power of ideas to drive a startup’s growth curve? One with the courage and conviction to articulate a value proposition that resonates with the CMO of a start-up and ability to explain what the budget should be.

You see, we live less in the conceptual world of brand and reputation and more in the real world of qualified opportunities, pipeline growth and time to sale.

Until then, 10k sounds like a nice round number to start with. Agencies shouldn’t let it end there. We will pay more. And I am willing to put my money where my mouth is.

If you want to serve this market, listen closely to Andy’s complaints.  Make it your number-one priority to contribute to the growth of your clients’ businesses, not to extract the maximum amount of money from their coffers.  Build client-centered teams — and make sure your client meets everyone on the team BEFORE their time shows up on a bill.  Finally, start your representation by focusing on the goals of the client and the results they desire.  Then agree upon a budget (or, gasp, a fixed price) to meet those goals and achieve those results.

Written on 08/03/06 in Client Service, Marketing, Money and Fees
1 Comment Leave a comment

Toilet Training to Understand Clients

Rick Segal needed a new toilet seat.  He removed the old one and planned to take it to Home Depot so he could find another that fit.  Then he had this though:

On the way over I started thinking about how normal (aka comfortable) it will be to wander around home depot with a toilet seat.  Everybody in the place is there to do something involving the installation or repair of something. Indeed one might think of it as a sign of pride or a badge of honor that I, lowly VC/Bureaucrat, had the macho chops to be DIY in the bathroom business. Oh, yeah.  In fact, to be Joe “I’m bad” Fix-it Stud Muffin, you haul around the whole toilet but that’s for another day.

I was, at the same time, pretty certain that if I walked around the grocery store with a toilet seat, the reaction would not be the same.  I was sure of it, but as a service to my now loyal readership of 20 (thanks to all the cousins out there), I endeavored to prove this theory.

I swung by the grocery store (Sobeys, if you must know), hopped out and proceeded in with my toilet seat.  I dropped it into the basket, wandered around, grabbing a few things, and then headed to the checkout. Stares, looks, snickers from kids, right on cue.

Next, I headed over to the Home Depot and did same. Nothing. Everybody, including the kids with parents, were all busy doing whatever.

So, what’s the point of this bathroom humor?  According to Rick:

Developers of products and services spend way to much time thinking that whatever environment they are in, it’s the same comfort zone as everybody else.  So, the next time you want to remind a developer/designer to remember the target, send em out for a case of soda and a bag of chips while carrying the office toilet seat.  That feeling of being uncomfortable, stared at, etc, is what some people feel like when a software and service isn’t comfortable for them. 

I think he’s absolutely right.  As lawyers, we tend to forget just how uncomfortable our clients are when they meet with us, give a deposition, or go to court.  To remind ourselves just how uncomfortable they feel, perhaps we should take Rick’s toilet seat advice.  Next time you are about to appear with a client for the first time on “just a routine matter” in court, think about how you’d feel standing there in front of the judge with a toilet seat in your hands.  That should come close to approximating your client’s unease and discomfort.   

Written on 07/17/06 in Client Service
Leave a comment

May I Help You With Anything Else?

Michael Cage shares three mistakes he sees many small consulting practices (like law firms) making.  Number two on his list:

Your clients have problems they do not know you can solve. Clients have many problems you can solve. But with many of those problems, they have no idea that your business can help solve them. It is up to you to identify the problems, let the client know you understand them, and tell them what to do about it. (There is a never-fail system I use to do this, it’ll be the topic of another post. Keep an eye out…)

How do you identify all of your clients’ problems? 

Written on 07/14/06 in Client Service
3 Comments Leave a comment

I’m Sorry I’m Late, To Whom Do I Make This Check?

Earlier today, I posted about a novel way to make sure clients keep their appointments.  In a comment to that post, a reader wrote:

That is a good plan except it should work both ways. With rare exceptions, I have never had a doctor get me in on time.

I agree.  Imagine if you promised to donate the same amount you charged for missed appointments to your client’s charity of choice if you are the one who misses the appointment. 

Written on 06/27/06 in Client Service
Leave a comment

One Way to Sell Wisdom

Having a difficult time “selling” your value as an advisor instead of a tecnician?  Here’s an easy-to-understand way to communicate the differences between Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom, from the Across the Sound podcast (via Howard Kaplan):

Data is “the sun rises at 5:12 AM”

Information is “the sun rises from the East, at 5:12 AM”

Knowledge is “If you’re lost in the woods without a compass, follow the direction of the sun to find your direction”

Finally, wisdom is “Don’t get lost in the woods”

Written on 06/27/06 in Client Service, Marketing
Leave a comment

If You Can Find a Better Lawyer, Hire Them …

If Chrysler can do it, so can you:  Offer a Guarantee.

Written on 06/26/06 in Client Service, Marketing
2 Comments Leave a comment

Length Doesn’t Matter

Are your best clients those who have been with you the longest?  Apart from the fact that your longest-term clients may be paying your lowest rates, just because someone has been with you since 19xx doesn’t mean that they are your best client — or even that they love/appreciate/tolerate the work you do for them.  In a post talking about a long-term client’s dissatisfaction with (perceived) higher billings, Jeffrey Phillips hits the nail on the head and shares six lessons his company learned from the episode:

We perceive that we work in the best interests of our clients, often redirecting or turning down work that we think is unnecessary for the client – or attempting to find good, lower cost alternatives.  However, doing this doesn’t necessarily mean the client recognizes those efforts as beneficial to them.  I’ve learned a few things:

    • never assume that because a relationship is long that it is necessarily a good one
    • never assume that silence means that a customer is happy
    • have the data to support your positioning that you are doing things for the good of the client
    • toot your own horn to the client ocassionally.  No one else does.
    • recheck your assumptions and value proposition periodically.  What a customer valued a year or two ago may not be so important now
    • keep the customers that value the benefits you provide, and fire the customers who can’t establish a trusted relationship with you.

The first two should be written on top of every file, don’t you think?

Written on 06/26/06 in Client Service
1 Comment Leave a comment

Easy, not Free, Does It

Joyce Wycoff suggests that “Easy” is the New “Free” on herGood Morning Thinkers! blog.  She recounts her experience applying for a mortgage, both in person at her local bank, and online.  She raves about her “easy” experience with QuickenLoans and asks a question we all should take time to answer:

So, how could you make life easier for your customers (internal or external)?  It may be the most powerful thing you could do.

Indeed.  How often have we focused on making things easier for us (as professionals) but not for our customers?  In fact, do any of us know what our customers/clients want or need?  What would make it “Easy” for our customers to do business with us? 

Go ask them.

Written on 06/26/06 in Client Service, Innovation
1 Comment Leave a comment

Relaxify Your Office

Steve Pavilina shares 10 suggestions for creating a more relaxing workspace.  Though most of the tips are to make your office more relaxing for you, some of the same suggestions would help “relaxify” (his word) your office for your clients:

2.  Clear out the clutter.  One look at a cluttered workspace, and you get a sense that the person working there is stressed, overwhelmed, and disorganized.  Years ago I read about a study that concluded most managers will not promote a person with a messy workspace into a position of responsibility.  It’s assumed that if you can’t organize your physical environment, you’re probably incompetent to a certain degree and can’t be trusted.  And if layoffs happen, you can imagine who the most obvious targets are.

But even more critical is the effect a cluttered workspace has on your focus.  It’s difficult to feel centered when you’re surrounded by unfinished tasks that constantly remind you of what you haven’t done yet.  Ideally the only paper items on your desk should be directly related to the current task at hand.  Store everything else in drawers, shelves, or cabinets.  Many people notice a dramatic improvement to their productivity when they try this.

If managers won’t promote a person with a messy workspace into a position of responsibility, why should you think your clients will trust you with even more of their business if you work in a pig sty.

4.  Make it smell good.  Australian dentist Paddy Lund has his staff bake fresh muffins for his patients daily.  Think about how a dentist’s office usually smells.  Now imagine walking into one that smells of blueberry muffins.  Along with other changes, this reportedly helped Lund increase his income by a factor of 10.  I’m not suggesting you add a Holly Hobby Easy Bake Oven to your workspace, but there are plenty of practical ways to make it smell better than cleaning supplies.

Personally, I’d choose chocolate chip cookies. 

9.  Personalize your space.  Does your workspace look like an automaton works there, or does it include elements that are uniquely you?  Remember that your workspace is your living space for much of your day, so make it livable and not just workable.  A good way to accomplish this is by adding items that hold emotional significance for you.

Photographs are an easy way to personalize your space.  I have some typical family photos in my office and the requisite wedding picture, but there’s one particular photo from when my wife and I first met that was taken by my (now deceased) grandfather that’s very special to me.  I like being able to see it when I work.  It also reminds me that I’m not alone — my wife and I are sharing a wonderful path together, and I’ve seen plenty of signs that my grandfather is watching over us.

For lawyers, “personalize” doesn’t mean “display your diplomas.”  Instead, make sure you have some family photos and things that hint that you are a regular person.  These are great conversation starters, though I’d be a bit careful with golf stuff and your membership certificate in the BMW Owners Group, as these really play into many client’s negative stereotypes of lawyers.

In a final tip (and my favorite, to boot) Steve suggests we:

10.  Establish uninterruptible periods.  Negotiate a period of time each day where you turn off all outside communication, and encase yourself in a cocoon of concentration.  Put up a “Do Not Disturb” sign, turn off your phone, disable your instant messenger, and don’t check email either.  Use this time to work on the tasks that would cause you the greatest stress or which require your utmost concentration.  It’s easier to relax and focus when you know you won’t be interrupted.

Some jobs obviously require more solo concentration time than others.  A computer programmer may need a lot, while a receptionist may need virtually none.  Determine how much you need to be productive, and do whatever is necessary to get it.

 

Written on 06/26/06 in Client Service
Leave a comment

This Calls for a Round on the House

Next time you find yourself having a cold beverage with friends or clients, remember this list of toasts, courtesy of Modern Drunkard Magazine.  Just a few of my favorites:

Here’s hoping you live forever.  And mine is the last voice you hear. — Willard Scott

It is better to spend money like there’s no tomorrow than to spend tonight like there’s no money. — P.J. O’Rourke

Wise, kind, gentle, generous, sexy.  But enough about me, here’s to you.  — Anonymous

Here’s to a long life and a merry one.  A quick death and an easy one.  A pretty girl and an honest one.  A cold drink—and another one.  — Irish

Written on 06/25/06 in Client Service
2 Comments Leave a comment

Blogs are Child’s Play

According to this study, 78% of young people have a personal website or blog.  These are tomorrow’s clients and customers.  They will judge you based upon your online presence, or lack thereof. 

What are you going to do about it?

Written on 06/14/06 in Client Service, Marketing, Technology
Leave a comment

The Client is Not Broken

Have you ever come across something so forward-thinking you read it several times and said “Wow” after each read?  Maybe it’s the caffiene or lack of sleep talking, but I came across this post, titled The User is Not Broken: A Meme Masquerading as a Manifesto, from K.G. Schneider on Free Range Librarian that hit that spot for me. 

I’m cherry-picking the best ones (OK, almost all of them), but they are all that good.  If you are not a librarian, and I know many of you aren’t, I’ve taken the liberty of replacing “librarian, library, and user” with “lawyer, law firm, and client.”

All technologies evolve and die. Every technology you learned about in [law] school will be dead someday.

You fear loss of control, but that has already happened. Ride the wave.

The [client] is not broken.

Your system is broken until proven otherwise.

That vendor who just sold you the million-dollar system …doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about, and his system is broken, too.

Most of your most passionate [clients] will never meet you face to face.

Most of your most alienated [clients] will never meet you face to face.

Your website is your ambassador to tomorrow’s [clients]. They will meet the website long before they see your building, your physical resources, or your people.

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than to find a [law firm] website that is usable and friendly and provides services rather than talking about them in weird [legal] jargon.

Information flows down the path of least resistance. If you block a tool the [clients] want, users will go elsewhere to find it.

You cannot change the [client], but you can transform the [client] experience to meet the [client].

Meet people where they are–not where you want them to be.

The [client] is not “remote.” You, the [lawyer], are remote, and it is your job to close that gap.

The average [law firm] decision about implementing new technologies takes longer than the average life cycle for new technologies.

If you are reading about it in Time and Newsweek and your [law firm] isn’t adapted for it or offering it, you’re behind.

Stop moaning about the good old days. The card catalog sucked, and you thought so at the time, too.

If we continue fetishizing the format and ignoring the [client], we will be tomorrow’s cobblers.

Your ignorance will not protect you.

This kind of work is what’s so amazes me about the Blogosphere.  K.G. Schneider is a writer and librarian.  As I sit here today, this “Meme Masquerading as a Manifesto” is at least as good (and frankly, IMHO, much, much better) as anything I’ve seen Tom Peters or Seth Godin write this year.  I’m looking forward to reading what she has to say next.  Your thoughts?

Written on 06/06/06 in Client Service, Innovation
3 Comments Leave a comment

Only Four Decks of Cards Left

I was going back over some old posts this morning, and found this one.  Seems there are only 209 days left in the year as I write this.  That’s only four decks of cards “worth” of days left of your original seven decks. 

What do you expect to accomplish before year’s end?  Even more importantly, what did you expect to get done by now?  If you are looking for ideas, I’d suggest reviewing my Resolutions for Lawyers series.

For your clients, maybe you could schedule a “mid-year meeting” (at no cost to them) and use the opportunity to ask your clients what they want to get done before the year is over?  Then use the decks of cards as a visual planning tool to help them accomplish their goals.

Technorati technorati tags: , ,

Written on 06/05/06 in Client Service, Resolutions
1 Comment Leave a comment

Who Can Your Potential Customers Call?

Ethics considerations aside for just a moment, can anyone imagine a law firm doing this?

Here are over 100 people from around the world that know our software better than anyone else (except us of course). Feel free to ask them about our software, our service, tech support, anything you like. There is nothing better than getting an answer from someone like you!

Via Church of the Customer.

Written on 05/31/06 in Client Service, Marketing
Leave a comment

Your Customers Don’t Want to do Business With You

Mark Cuban said something Friday that really struck home for me.  Writing about the struggles of promoting movies through traditional newspaper and magazine channels, he tells those industries:

Each of us is looking for the  holy grail of promotion.  A way to leave you as a customer.

How scary is that ? A huge customer of your industry would prefer not to do business with you.

I think the same can be said for most people who deal with lawyers.  If there is a real alternative to using lawyers, how many of our clients would jump at the opportunity?  What are we going to do about it?

Mark’s advice to the magazine and newspaper businesses:

So its time to buck up. You either squeeze what you can and cry when it happens, or you step up and create cost effective alternatives.  The days of a movie review and the ad for the movie wont cut it for much longer. 

So those of you in the entertainment sections and sales groups of newspapers and magazines have two choices, come up with new ideas, or a new version of your resume…

I have some more thoughts on this issue and will share them soon.

Written on 05/31/06 in Client Service, Money and Fees
Leave a comment

A Lesson For Lawyers … and Buick?

Here’s a piece from The Truth About Cars arguing that GM should abandon its desire to lure younger buyers to Buick, and instead position Buick squarely as “The Pensioner’s Best Friend.”  Like the piece on Ford I’ve already highlighted, this article contains some pretty radical advice that should not be ignored by lawyers looking to find their elder-law niche.  For example:

With a little development, Buick is the logical choice. “Beyond precision” lies simplicity: a brand offering vehicles with cost-effective innovations and equipment levels. Cataract-friendly gauges at the heart of basic instrumentation. Oversized switchgear. Heated, cooling, massaging seats that swivel to ease entry and exit (remember those?). Extra wide door apertures with reinforced hinges to ease entry and exit. OnStar. Electric everything, with power sliding trunk floors for easy loading and unloading, and power pedals within a Rockport’s reach. Adjustable warning chime/turn signal volumes. Electronic medication reminder timers. Run-flats. Oversized sunglasses bins for granny’s favorite set of Terminator shields. Two words: Rascal storage.

Every possible safety feature should be standard, from lane-departure warning systems to self-parking. Electronic nurses? Loads: SRS + ABS + EBD + DSC + ASR + BA = AARP. The ordering and purchasing experience must be simplified as much as possible. This author has railed against illogical options bundling, but the geriatric niche is one segment where simplified trim levels actually make sense. If higher-end features like satellite navigation are deemed a marketplace necessity, so be it— but designers must ensure that they’re simple, intuitive designs, preprogrammed with relevant waypoints— drug stores, casinos, cat hospitals and Cracker Barrel restaurants, say.

If you were building a firm from scratch to only serve a certain population, where would you start and what would you do?

Written on 05/30/06 in Client Service
Leave a comment

Four Eyes for Clients

Ever have clients come by your office who need to read documents?  Get a load of this tip (for waiters and waitresses) from Tricks of the Trade:

Keep a pair of reading glasses at hand. At least once every few days you’ll get a customer who forgot their glasses and are unable to read the menu. Produce your spare pair and a good tip is secure.

Reading glasses are cheap at Wal-Mart, Target, etc.  Grab a few pairs and your clients will “see” what a great lawyer you are.  I know, bad pun.

Written on 05/25/06 in Client Service
2 Comments Leave a comment

Legal Widget

How about a dashboard widget (like this one) for tech-savvy clients to request a call/e-mail/im chat from their equally tech-savvy lawyer?  Kind of like a legal Bat-Signal.