Do your clients ever compare the level of customer service they receive from your firm to other industries?  Think not?  Think again!  These days, law firms are finding themselves under the same pressure to provide world-class customer service as banks, retail stores, insurance companies and shipping services. 

Forget the Old Ways

Simply excelling in the practice of law or networking with a client for new business over a game of golf will no longer differentiate a law firm from the very large pack.  And with client base attrition a hard reality in firms of all sizes and statures, the quest for new clients never ends.  Though not often thought of as a primary function of a law firm, customer service can be a way to proactively differentiate a firm, promote client loyalty and prevent attrition. 

While the concept of customer service in a law firm may be fairly new, the validity of implementing integrated customer service techniques and technologies is well proven.  From mom-and-pop shops like dry cleaners that know customer preferences and use the information to provide a “personal touch,” to large retailers like Eddie Bauer that study buying habits and offer suggestions and promotions based upon that information, to multi-service organizations like Citibank, whose enterprise-view of the customer enables them to understand the full value of each customer to provide appropriate service and increase cross selling opportunities—customers are being wooed, and their expectations are growing exponentially.  Clients within the legal industry are no exception.  Law firms need to understand and adopt the customer service principles that their corporate counterparts have been using successfully for decades. 

Key Components of Customer Service

Knowing and catering to your clients’ preferences and personal information—keeping them comfortable with your firm—make it less likely they will go elsewhere.  Imagine the client’s delight if the receptionist knows (from pulling up a profile) that he or she drinks coffee with cream and sugar, reads the Wall Street Journal and is meeting first with a litigation attorney and then with an IP attorney.  Providing such personalized service demonstrates professionalism, competence and genuine care. 

Anticipate needs and prepare in advance.  Empower your employees to strengthen each customer relationship with every contact.  Let’s say a client calls and speaks with a legal secretary asking for the date of their last bill, the detail behind it and the date and amount of their last payment received.  Picture that person’s reaction when he/she gets the information quickly because the secretary accesses it in real time while on the phone, rather than simply taking a message.  The client’s expectations will most likely be exceeded, and the secretary will have seized the opportunity to improve the client relationship. 

An enterprise view of the client leverages the firm’s size and practice areas.  It becomes a solid business rather than hundreds of small businesses.  The full value of a client is often spread across more than one practice group, office location and more often than not, across several distinct law firms.  Client loyalty is traditionally nurtured by the attorney or practice group and rarely associated with the firm as a whole.  Operating this way exposes the firm to client base attrition when an attorney leaves and leads to missed opportunities to increase the full value of the client within the firm.  Typically, firms that have been successful in promoting loyalty have implemented Customer Relationship Management Systems (CRM) that allow individuals within the firm designated access to basic client information, thereby leveraging the collective knowledge of the firm.  From the receptionist, to the marketing department, to the attorneys—these systems allow firms to understand and serve their clients better and help prevent attrition.

Make life easy for the client; give them assurance; and they will be more likely to repeat business.  Although the business of operating a law firm can be complicated—filled with paperwork, disparate technology and multiple business processes—clients don’t really care.  What they really want is competent legal work and client service.  Unfortunately, many firms focus more on providing competent legal work than client service (thus exposing their clients to the shortcomings in business operations).  But software applications that reduce paper and automate business processes can play a major role in improving business operations and making life easier for the client.  CRM systems can give everyone within the firm an opportunity to improve customer service.  When these technologies are working in unison, the firm has a much better chance of retaining and attracting clients.

Surprisingly, in many firms, these traditional customer service practices represent a huge paradigm shift.  However, the bottom-line benefits of a customer service focus cannot be denied.  Like the corner store that grew into a major retail chain, law firms are finding it increasingly difficult to provide the same level of personalized customer service they did in startup mode.  Fortunately, today’s technologies can make this task easier.  In fact, it’s probable that your firm has systems in place from which information can be mined to help with proactive customer service.  The most important thing is to combine these systems seamlessly and make them easily accessible, to empower everyone at the firm to improve client relationships.  CRM applications that

integrate with client-related applications (e.g., time and billing, records management, document management and e-mail) give your firm the best chance to meet this challenge.

How can you begin to implement change at your firm?

Conduct a reality check.  Assess the current situation by utilizing a variety of information-gathering techniques, including an open discussion at a partner meeting, client satisfaction surveys, in-house opinion surveys, candid conversations with close clients and a review of issues contributing to client exits, to name a few.

Identify problem areas and organize a task force. 

• Decide which departments and personnel should be involved.
• Develop specific goals, objectives and timelines for improving customer relations.
• Conduct an internal audit of your firm’s existing information-gathering and storage resources.  Identify the technologies and existing information that can be leveraged in a new way to improve customer service.
• Brainstorm new procedures and/or technologies that could be implemented to bring about change.
• Solicit feedback from industry consultants, vendors, peers and corporate counterparts.
• Inform all firm employees about the firm’s plans and rationale.  Clearly explain expectations, especially those pertaining to any procedural or policy changes. 
• Roll out your program with clearly defined benchmarks.

The bar has been raised for customer service across all industries-including law firms.  Leveraging existing technologies and incorporating new ones, such as CRM applications, can go a long way towards understanding clients’ needs and taking every opportunity to improve each client relationship.  Strengthening client relationships will lead to more repeat business, fewer client defections and an improved bottom line. 

About our author . . .

Jane Trombly is principal of FieldDay Consulting Group, LLC, headquartered outside of Philadelphia in Flourtown, PA.  FieldDay specializes in development of business and functional requirements and in the selection process for CRM, financial management and records management applications.  She can be reached at jtrombly@fielddayconsulting.com or 215.836.5163.