The "Southwest Airlines" of Law Firms
In my last post, I talked about the book Creating Customer Evangelists and how it used certain companies as examples of how to create buzz and build customer loyalty. One of these companies was Southwest Airlines.
The subject of Southwest Airlines as a model business for lawyers comes up in Larry Bodine's Professional Marketing Blog where he summarizes a speech by Deborah Ackerman, VP and GC of Southwest Airlines. Ms. Ackerman said that a law firm run like SWA would:
-Be the low-cost producer. -Have excellent service. -Focus on clients as customers and not as a legal matter. -Have no layoffs. -Have an annual chili cook-off. -Have a tradition of fun. Halloween is a major holiday at the headquarters, and everyone comes to work in a costume, including the CEO. -Relax the dress code. -Be family-oriented. There is no expensive artwork on the walls of SWA. Instead there are pictures of employees with their families, pets and hobbies. -Display "brag boards" everywhere where employees can put up notes about their own and their kids' accomplishments. -Have many employee recognition programs. -Establish an Employee Catastrophic Fund to help employees in cases of an uninsured loss or serous illness. -Communicate in a timely fashion to employees. -Give hugs and praise from to staff as a daily occurrence.
Bodine calls this a "total fantasy" and says, "There will never be a law firm run like Southwest Airlines, because law firms care about partner profits, not employee happiness. The employees are there to serve the partners and help the firm make more money. Law firm goals are to move up the chart of the AmLaw profitability tables."
Why can't a law firm be run like Southwest? Don't clients deserve a choice? Airline passengers choose Southwest in no small part because SWA employees enjoy their jobs so much, they make travelling fun. How many lawyers enjoy their jobs so much, their enthusiam rubs off on their clients? Not enough.
Creating Client Evangelists
I just finished the book Creating Customer Evangelists by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba and found dozens of great ideas to build my ideal firm. In the book, the authors profile several companies that have created amazing "buzz" from extremely satisfied "customer evangelists." The companies profiled included Krispy-Kreme, Build-a-Bear Workshops, and Southwest Airlines. Each company was held out by the authors as an example of a good business made great through fervent customer support and word-of-mouth advertising. A singular focus on the customer experience (and not on stock price, shareholder value, or even profits) differentiated these companies from their competitors.
Th first step in creating avid customers is to learn what those customers want. Huba and McConnell set out ten golden rules for learning -- and valuing -- customer feedback:
1. Believe that customers possess good ideas.2. Gather customer feedback at every opportunity.3. Focus on continual improvement.4. Actively solicit good and bad feedback.5. Don't spend vast sums of money doing it.6. Seek real-time feedback.7. Make it easy for customers to provide their feedback.8. Leverage technology to aid your efforts.9. Share customer feedback throughout the organization.10. Use input to make changes -- and communicate changes back to customers.
I've been meeting individually with my best clients for the past month to learn what I can do to make my services more appealing to them. Now I have to identify and meet with my unhappy clients and learn how I screwed up my relationship with them (and how to keep it from happening again). I'm also beginning a Customer Advisory Board (another of the authors' great ideas) by asking my best clients to serve on a sort of "board of directors" for my firm and to help me learn to become indispensible to them.
Visit McConnell's and Huba's weblog Church of the Customer for a daily dose of their wisdom and insight.
What's your value proposition?
In this article on the MarketingProfs.com website (free registration required), Michael L. Perla suggests that "anyone should be able to answer the question, 'What's your value proposition?'" Perla defines a value proposition as follows:
In essence, a value proposition is an offer to some entity or target in which they (the possessor) get more than they give up (merit or utility), as perceived by them, and in relationship to alternatives, including doing nothing. In terms of form, a value proposition is generally a clear and succinct statement (e.g., 2-4 sentences) that outlines to potential clients and stakeholders a company’s (or individual’s or group’s) unique value-creating features.
In my line of work, then, a value proposition is an offer to a client giving them more value than they expect for less money than they think. While I'm still working on my value proposition, Perla suggests a few questions to help in formulating yours (paraphrased for lawyers):
-What are your core competencies and how do you differentiate yourself from the competition?
-How do you create value for your clients, and how do your clients measure the value that you deliver?
-What capabilities can you bring to bear to execute against your value promise?
-Why should your prospective clients accept your particular offer?
-How do you compare and differentiate the value that you deliver from the value that your competitors deliver?
-How do you substantiate your ability to deliver on your value promise?
These are tough questions. I wonder how many lawyers can answer them -- or have even tried? They sure don't look like any final exam I remember from law school.
The problem with the billable hour, Part 1.
In this article, Patrick J. Schiltz, a Notre Dame law professor, discusses the collision of money and ethics in traditional law firm practice. Arguing that the culture of the law firm -- with its focus on billable time -- induces many young lawyers to regularly "steal" from their clients:
For the typical young attorney, acting unethically starts with his timesheets. One day, not too long after he starts practicing law, he will sit down at the end of a long, tiring day and he just won't have much to show for his efforts in terms of billable hours. It will be near the end of the month. He will know that all of the partners will be looking at his monthly time report in a few days, so what he'll do is pad his timesheet just a bit. Maybe he'll bill a client for 90 minutes for a task that really took him only 60 minutes to perform. He will, however, repeatedly promise himself that he will repay the client at the first opportunity by doing 30 minutes of work for the client for "free." In this way, he'll be "borrowing," not "stealing."
Then what will happen is that it will become easier for the young lawyer to take these little loans against future work. And after a while, he will stop paying back these little loans. He will convince himself that, although he billed for 90 minutes and spent only 60 minutes on the project, he did such good work that his client should pay a bit more for it. After all, his billing rate is awfully low, and his client is awfully rich.
And then he will pad more and more. Every two-minute telephone conversation will go down on his timesheet as 10 minutes, every three-hour research project will go down with an extra quarter-hour or so. He will continue to rationalize his dishonesty to himself in various ways until one day he stops doing even that. And, before long � it won't take him much more than three or four years � he will be stealing from his clients almost every day, and he won't even notice it.
As a solo lawyer, I don't have the pressure to bill a certain number of hours to please my superiors and pay for their BMW's. My problem with relying upon the billable hour isn't that I steal from my clients, it is that I steal from myself. I consistently fail to record all my time, and have yet to find a method that allows me to capture it all. It is not the big projects that escape me, but rather the 5 -10 minute projects, letters, and phone calls that happen throughout the day. I have had many 10 hour days with six or fewer hours of billable time. I also feel guilty sometimes about the time it takes me to do something -- thinking that I've taken too long to complete a project -- and I adjust my bill accordingly. Ditching the billable hour entirely gets me away from these problems and moves my practice toward a more fulfilling method of earning a living.
Just One Thing.
I am a procrastinator. However, to paraphrase a common quote, "Procrastination is like masturbation. It seems like a good idea at the time, but in the end, you are only screwing yourself."
A wise lawyer gave me this idea, which I find to be the best so far at combating my procrastination demons. The lawyer suggests that at the end of each day, compile a full list of everything you need to do. Then write down the one thing that, if you do it tomorrow, will make the most difference in your life. Only one thing. Hide your master list (I've been giving mine to my secretary to return each afternoon before I leave) and write that one thing down on a notecard and post it where you will see it before you go to bed and when you wake up-- perhaps on your mirror or nightstand. Bring it with you to the office and do it. Once you get it done, reward yourself. Then pick one more thing.
I hate billing by the hour!
I hate billing by the hour. I’m also not very good at it -- never have been. I find it very difficult to keep track of my day in six-minute increments. As a solo attorney, I have the flexibility to change the way I bill my clients, and I am resolving to do just that.
Now I know that New Year’s Resolutions are often forgotten before the snow melts, and how many times have we all promised ourselves to improve our personal and professional lives? Well this year for me is going to be different. With God (and the five or six people who will read this) as my witness, I resolve to do the following this year to make my law practice fun again:
I resolve to move all of my practice away from the billable hour -- no exceptions. I do not want to keep another timesheet as long as I live.
I resolve to think more and work less. I will take one day off each week to reflect on improving my practice and to recharge my batteries.
I resolve to write more and speak more. I will seek out writing and speaking engangements instead of waiting for them to come to me.
I resolve to make my clients my best sales people. I will offer my clients a completely different legal service experience than they are accustomed to. I will ask them about what they want their lawyer to be, and incorporate their ideas into my practice model. In short, I will astound them.
From this day forward, I will be working with my clients and staff to overhaul the way I practice law. In my blog, I will be sharing my ideas and keeping a log of my progress. Join me as I make practicing law fun again.
The Legal Stuff
While I work on a fancy-schmancy disclaimer, I hope this will work for now.
Though I am a lawyer, I am not your lawyer. I do not give legal advice on this weblog and if you think I'm talking directly to you and advising you on an important legal issue in your life, you have larger problems and should seek counseling. I'm probably not licensed in your state anyway.
I write for myself, I write for fun, and I maintain this weblog so I can have a place to collect all the great ideas and thoughts I have that would otherwise disappear everynight when I finally get to sleep. All opinions are my own, but many of the ideas I share come from others. I do the very best I can to give those brilliant people attribution, but if I fail once or twice, I assure you it is not intentional.
I hope you get great ideas from this weblog -- I really do. Nothing would make me happier than knowing that what I write will help other professioinals serve their clients. Leave a comment if you have something interesting to share. If you want to contact me directly, please do so. I love to talk to people who like what I have to say. If you disagree with me, just e-mail and I may or may not get back to you. My e-mail link and telephone number are in my bio, here.
Thanks for coming. I'll leave the light on for you.
About this Blog
In the [non]billable hour, author Matthew Homann (a practicing attorney and mediator) shares hundreds of inventive and original ways to bring meaningful and satisfying change to the practice of law. The blog focuses on how innovative billing strategies, creative marketing techniques, cutting-edge ideas from other industries and professions, and proven customer service principles, can combine to revolutionize the ways lawyers serve their clients -- and enjoy their lives.
About Matthew Homann
My name is Matthew W. Homann and I am a lawyer and mediator in Highland, Illinois. Join me as I work to transform my legal and mediation practices into the job I've always dreamed of.
I graduated from Washington University School of Law in 1993 and received my undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois. I remain a licensed, practicing attorney, but devote about half of my time and energy to mediation. As a lawyer, I still maintain a "general" practice, and help people navigate the legal system. I represent individuals planning their estates, taking care of their disabled children, buying and selling their homes, and starting their dream business. I also advise many local companies coping with the many legal challenges all small businesses face.
I am married and the father of a beautiful two-year-old girl. A life-long resident of Highland, Illinois, I am active in many community organizations. I am a member and past-president of the Highland Optimist Club. I also serve on the advisory board of the Korte Recreation Center and am the chairperson of the Highland Zoning Commission.
I am an Adjunct Professor of Law at Washington University Law School in St. Louis, Missouri, where I have been teaching Pre-trial Practice and Procedure since 1998. I have been the volunteer attorney-coach for the Triad High School Mock Trial team since 1996.
If you would like to contact me, e-mail me at Homann (at) gmail.com or call me on my cell phone at 618-Four Zero Seven-3241