Make Tomorrow E-Mail Free
How about implementing "No E-Mail Fridays" at your office? Check out this ABC News article to learn why it may be a good idea.
Is Your Business in Local Business?
Just noticed Google's Local Business Center. It allows you to add your business' name, address, etc. to Google's listings. It also allows you to offer coupons. A must-do for all small businesses -- including law firms.
Office Motivation Hack: Complete a Puzzle
Here's another fantastic Parent Hack that could work wonders in an office setting:
My 7 year-old son can be particularly stubborn and no matter howmuch we beg, plead, or reason with him, he stands his ground. SometimesI resort to bribery. He likes puzzles so I came up with puzzles to helphim do certain things. It started the summer before Kindergarten -- healready knew how to tie his shoes, but claimed that he “forgot” howover the summer since he wore sandals all summer. So I found a pair ofrunning shoes that he wanted online (I used Zappos.com)and printed out two full-sized pictures. One was in color and theother black and white. I then decided that I wanted him to tie hisshoes for two weeks on his own before I would buy him the shoes hewanted so I cut the colored picture into the appropriate number of“puzzle” pieces. Then every time he tied his shoes on his own heearned one piece that he could tape onto the black and white picture inthe correct spot. When the puzzle was complete we ordered him hisshoes.
What are the goals for your office, and what is an appropriate reward when the goals are met? Can you make a huge "puzzle" for your workers to complete as they reach appropriate milestones?
Cool Client Giveaway
If you are looking for something cool to give to your clients, try to find someone who makes this (courtesy of Autoblog). It is a feature on the new Renault Twingo, and may not be for sale, but if you can find it and give it away, you'll be the talk of the conference. I know I want one.
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 anindividual. Like someone? Hate them? Tell Gorb all about it, usingtheir handy Ajax slider to rate them from 1 - 10 in their professionaland personal lives, and leave written comments as well.
According to Gorb:
The professional marketplace in general is inefficient when it comesto distributing information about a person's reputation. Many of usoften make daily decisions based on relatively few inputs, some whichare poorly validated. When these decisions begin to form the basis forour perceptions about others that we don't know, it should be nosurprise that there's a hit-and-miss nature to this "off-line" system!Onthe other hand, many of us also use people that we know very well asreferences to gather information and make decisions about others. TheGORB aims to leverge reliable professional references and personalopinions to provide a balanced and widely adopted "online" ratingsystem, 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?
Send Your Staff to the Store with Gift Cards
Quick tip from Parent Hacks that would work for office personnel too:
Our nanny does a lot of our food shopping for us. It's something for her to do with the baby, and she likes helping out. Usually, I give her a chunk of cash that seems like enough to cover things, and then she gives me the change along with the receipts. Last week it occurred to me that I should just pick up gift cards for her to use! She usually goes to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. Both of these places sell gift cards (as do most supermarkets). I can put a big lump sum on each card, and then she no longer needs to worry about keeping my cash separate, etc.
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.
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.
Talk Really Isn't Cheap
Lisa Hanneberg writes about the high cost of communication. Required reading (if you've got the time) before you send out that next e-mail to 50 people or schedule that next two-hour meeting. If you haven't got time for the whole post, just think about this:
If your department budget was charged $100 for every minute you spentcommunicating, would you choose your words more wisely? It is likelythat the costs are that high or higher.
Chicago Blog Conference in May
My friend Phil Gerbyshak is helming an interesting blog conference in Chicago on May 11-12. I'm going to try to make the trip up I-55 for the event. Check it out!
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 blueairplane pillows. "Let's say you see it for sale in a public market inmy country, and you are interested in buying it. What is your firstquestion 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 getinto 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, thename of the artist, and so on. He learns about how fabric is made inyour country, how distribution works, and so on. In the course of thisyou 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 aretrivialized or made invisible when viewed through the prism of price.Relationship is not reducible to price, even though it may influenceprice. Families and friends don't put prices on their relationships.(At least not consciously, and only at the risk of cheapening or losinga relationship.) Love, the most giving force in any relationship, isnot about exchanging. It is not fungible. You don't expect a payback ora 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.
Advertise with the 'Hood
Roy Williams shares 10 Cheap Advertising Ideas in his Monday Morning Memo. My favorite:
10. Spray-Painted Signs. In the early 1970s, "Hamp Baker says Drive with Care" was spray-painted on car hoods salvaged from crumpled automobiles, then those hoods were tied with bailing wire to barbed-wire fences across the state. Nobody in Oklahoma had ever heard of Hamp Baker, but his name was soon a household word. When he ran for public office, he won by a landslide.
If I had a personal injury practice -- especially in a rural area -- I'd think seriously about giving this one a try. Just make sure you have your state's disclaimer painted somewhere on the hood too. ;-)
What About Billable Hours?
John Moore passed on the Jack Welch Quote:
The three most important things you need to measure in a business are customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and cash flow. If you’re growing customer satisfaction, your global market share is sure to grow, too. Employee satisfaction gets you productivity, quality, pride, and creativity. And cash flow is the pulse—the key vital sign of a company.
If Jack Welch ran a law firm, do you think he'd abandon one, two or all three to focus on measuring billable hours instead?
links for 2007-03-09
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Wonder how much "shock" those dog collars have? Here's you answer. Really funny (in a sad sort of way).
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 avariety of walks of life,” says Johnson. “As an icebreaker, we said,‘Tell us about the best service experience you’ve ever had.’” Of the 18people, 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 tohelp. “We said, ‘Well, how do we create a store that has thefriendliness of a Four Seasons Hotel?’” The answer: “Let’s put a bar inour stores. But instead of dispensing alcohol, we dispenseadvice.”...”See that? Look at their eyes. They’re learning. There’s anintense 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.