Next time you walk into Starbucks, watch the barista behind the counter. Chances are, by the time you’ve ordered your drink, she’s smiled, welcomed you to the store and struck up some kind of conversation. If you’re a regular, your drink is probably on the way before you’ve even ordered it. Sure, their job is to make you a great cup of coffee (or latte, cappuccino or cup of tea), but even more important, it’s to deliver the “legendary customer service” that keeps you coming back every day, sometimes several times.
Local retailers, such as Starbucks, Nordstrom, Costco and REI, have a lot to teach lawyers and law firms about the kind of service that motivates clients to return to solve their legal problems day after day. Says Dan Turner, senior lecturer in marketing at the University of Washington Business School, “These are organizations that really, truly, deeply understand who their customers are. … They have, or had at some point, a blinding insight about what it is that people want when they enter into a retail exchange.”1
Those insights have catapulted these Northwest-based companies to success. At their heart is an unflinching commitment to service — at every level of their companies. Sally Jewell, CEO of REI, put it this way: “The common thread for successful Seattle-based retailers is that each has made a commitment to provide an outstanding customer experience. … That commitment has resonated with consumers across the country and is setting the standard for other retailers.”2
Says Starbucks CEO Jim Donald, “We like to say we’re in the people business serving coffee.”3 These retailers understand that every time a customer interacts with someone from their store, it creates an impression. If the customer has a great experience, that creates an expectation for future interactions. It also sets a high bar for their competitors, other companies and professional service firms — like law firms — outside their industry.
The Business Case for Delivering Excellent Service
In retail, customers spend up to 10% more for the same product with better service. In the legal profession, Fortune 1000 clients who consider their primary law firms to be “best” at client service spend twice as much with them as companies who don’t consider their primary firms as highly.4
That’s not to say that being an excellent attorney isn’t important. But, most corporate executives, business owners and general counsel expect top-notch lawyering from the people they hire. In fact, according to recent research, when general counsel are asked to recommend a lawyer, “exceptional client focus” drives 40% of their recommendations, while “legal skills” drive only 18% of the recommendations.5 Delivering an excellent legal product usually is not enough, by itself, to motivate a general counsel or senior executive to recommend a particular attorney.
What Clients Consider “Good Service”
So much about client service has been written and discussed at CLEs and bar meetings that most attorneys know how important it is to return clients’ phone calls promptly and to meet deadlines, but that’s generally not enough.
In fact, it is unwise to assume that, just because you and your team are being responsive to their calls or have delivered an important victory, your client is delighted with you. In its annual survey of general counsel, Corporate Legal Times (now, Corporate Counsel) reported that 59% of law firms believe they deserve an “A” for overall performance, while only 22% of general counsels give their firms an “A.”6 Furthermore, if clients are unhappy, they rarely tell us. Most often, they simply give their work to someone else.7
In-house counsel from large corporations around the country have a wide range of expectations for their attorneys, including:
- A focus on strategy and a deep understanding of their business;
- Budgets, especially for litigation and IP;
- Cost-conscious and cost-effective practices;
- Inclusion of in-house counsel in discussions about ongoing legal matters;
- Risk sharing; and
- Broad services from a single firm.8
What about small businesses? Repeatedly, in individual interviews, business owners tell us that they value:
- Strategic advice: Lawyers who not only understand their key strategies, but who can deliver legal advice that protects or enhances their businesses.
- Practical ideas: They want solutions that are geared toward the size and scope of their businesses.
- Responsiveness: Speed and thoroughness are critical.
- A “nose” for their business: They want and need lawyers who are business counselors.
Regardless of size, one client’s expectations may be entirely different from another’s. Retailers spend billions every year to find out what their customers value — through mystery shoppers, focus groups, surveys and interviews — and then act on it. The key lesson for us is: We can’t assume we know what each client wants. We’ve got to ask.
Your Role As Attorney
At Starbucks, the friendly barista is the frontline employee who creates the customer’s experience. At Nordstrom or REI, it’s the knowledgeable sales clerk. At law firms, each attorney — and often every staff member — who works with a client contributes to an impression of quality service. Client service happens at the individual level.
Setting service standards at the beginning of a relationship, regularly communicating and helping clients solve their legal problems within the larger context of their business or public environments are key to building long-term healthy relationships. So, next time you step into a Starbucks, pay special attention to those people behind the counter. You may want to linger, then maybe, leave them a little extra tip.
Leslie Meagley is a principal with Meagley Strategic Marketing, www.meagleymarketing.com, a consulting firm that helps professional service firms boost their marketing and business development efforts. Meagley is the national chair of the Legal Marketing Association Research Committee and the 2005 president and a founding member of the local chapter of the Legal Marketing Association.
1Ed Kromer, “The Seattle School of Retail,” UW Business, A Publication of the University of Washington Business School (Spring 2006):22-29.
2 Id
3 Id.
4 The BTI Consulting Group, “Strategic Review & Outlook for the Legal Services Industry 2006,” a presentation to the Legal Marketing Association’s Annual Conference, 10 March 2006.
5 Id.
6 Scott M. Gawlicki, “Peace at Last” (The 16th Annual Survey of General Counsel), Corporate Legal Times (July 2005):36.
7 The BTI Consulting Group presentation, 10 March 2006.
8 Dee A. Sciavelli, “Teaching Lawyers to Ask About Customer Service,” Strategies: The Journal of Legal Marketing (July 2006): 12.
Top Tips
Whether you are leading a team of attorneys serving a large corporation or are the only lawyer working with a small municipality or business, here are several tips for creating a positive and lasting relationship with your client.
- Find out at the beginning of the relationship what he or she needs and expects from you. Hold a face-to-face meeting at the client’s place of business with their team and yours to establish mutual expectations.
- Create communication guidelines with your client that include the type of information that needs to be communicated, how frequently, and in what format they prefer, whether by email, phone or other means.
- Adopt a clear set of service standards to which you hold yourself and everyone else on your team. These can be as simple as returning client phone calls and emails within a few hours, answering your phone within three rings, providing regular monthly updates on client matters and including clients in important meetings.
- Finally, set up regular check-ins with your client to make sure the relationship is going smoothly. At a minimum, meet with your client at the conclusion of each major matter to ask his or her views on the representation. Make it clear that you value your relationship and that the client will not be charged for the time. Ask for input about fees, responsiveness, staffing, etc., and what else they might like to see in future representations. The key here is not only to listen, but to respond openly to any suggestions for improvement that you hear. Then, follow-up.
These steps sound simple, and they are, but in the day-to-day pressures of meeting deadlines and managing the firm’s business, they often get forgotten — at your peril. Given the standards being set in retailing and other industries, clients have high expectations and many lawyers from which to choose.
