Any time you have a chance to determine what your clients need and want from you, consider it a priceless opportunity to learn. Their needs and wants–and their experience with your firm–are the key to identifying the focus of your marketing efforts. Finding and delivering what your clients need and want will not only result in satisfied clients but, if you apply this knowledge to your practice, their experience of your firm can also become your branding.
At a corporate law firm in Century City a few years ago, a senior partner shook hands with one of his clients after completing the company’s first public offering. The two men reminisced about their long relation-ship. “We’ve been through a lot together–both good and bad–from climbing out of our financial mess, to the opening of our first four stores, to building out nearly four hundred of them, עורך דין תאונות עבודה to finally going public,” the president of the company said, smiling. “It wasn’t an easy journey, but I’m sure glad in the end that it was you who was with us. No matter where we were, you were always there too.”
When a client speaks to you from the heart, the insight you receive will be priceless. The marketing materials for that Century City law firm had previously emphasized their track record, their versatility and their willingness to be tough. Had they failed to incorporate this client’s insight, they would have missed a precious marketing opportunity. Luck-ily, the senior partner was a savvy marketer. He immediately knew the value of a long-term client’s praise. It became an important part of the firm’s identity and, after a while, made its way into the firm’s branding and marketing material: “Wherever you go, that’s where we’ll be…”
Beyond the decent service, the sound legal advice and the expectation of professionalism, what mattered to that client on an emotional level was that this firm had been by his company’s side through the good times and the bad.
Not all of your clients will hand you a resonant marketing phrase. But an experienced marketing professional with the proper skills can make you more aware of them when this does happen, and more impor-tantly, can help you use them to shape the way your firm brands its services. But the key in this example is not the catchy phrase or even the kind expression of gratitude. What makes the Century City firm’s marketing insight so important is the fact that it represents a fundamental truth about the firm: It does stick by its clients even when times get rough. That’s how the firm does business.
In the late 1990s, one of the largest law firms in the nation decided it wanted to tap into the technology boom. The marketing team advised the firm to target small start-up companies and offer them a reduced hourly rate for general business matters in the hope that, if the business succeeded, the firm would be handed all their legal work, including taking them public. The marketers believed that doing this would demonstrate the firm’s commitment and loyalty to their smaller, more vulnerable clients. One such client had this unfortunate experience dealing with the firm:
“In the beginning, the firm really seemed interested in what we were trying to create. They spent time getting to know us and expressed a real desire in seeing us suc-ceed. I really believed them. I was invited to firm-sponsored seminars and even got invited to the firm’s sky booth for the big game. Everything was going well until the technology bubble burst–and with it, our close relationship with the firm. No more friendly partner calls to see how we were doing. After a while, I was lucky to get my calls returned. They knew we were strapped for cash and, when we were unable to pay their bills, they sued us. They didn’t just sue the corporation (the one they helped us set up), they sued me personally, since I was the president of the company. It was a disas-ter. When the chips were down, this firm came at us with knives. I will never forget this experience–nor will my associates and friends.”
It doesn’t take a marketing genius to know that it’s bad business to sue your clients, but the contrast between the Century City firm and this one is worth noting. One firm made a loyal friend out of a client while the other made an enemy. The point is that how a firm does business, whether it’s how they manage their receivables or which new practice group they decide to open, says something important about the firm in relationship to its clients.
In most cases, firms consider internal business decisions to be entirely internal–separate and distinct from the external side that the public sees. Firms fail to recognize that what a firm is can often be measured by the decisions it makes, and they often make decisions without regard to the effect they might have on clients, even in indirect ways. Firms must con-sider the ways in which their decisions may change the nature of the con-tact between them and their clients.
Law firms make important business decisions every day, and rarely do they consider the impact on those who do business with the firm. When problems do surface, they are often handed over to the public relations department to clean up.
The Zone of Contact
Consider that almost everything a firm does or communicates impacts the clients’ experience of the firm. The parts of a firm that clients deal with directly are part of the firm’s zone of contact.
Everything a firm does is, in some way, an expression of the firm’s values or lack of values. Every act or omission reveals the level of the firm’s commitment or lack of commitment.
Everything–from the paper stock the firm uses to its policy of return-ing phone calls to how lawyers and staff greet new clients and say good-bye to departing ones–can impact clients. Even small things–like the quality of coffee, the effort put forth to make a client feel welcomed, the demeanor of a law clerk and the pictures on the wall can make a differ-ence.
Sophisticated marketing experts take great effort and time in examin-ing a firm’s major points of contact. The quality of the client’s satisfaction relative to a particular point of contact is an indicator of the general health of the firm. Much of marketing consists of translating these ordi-nary points of contact and shaping them into positive client experiences.
Altering the point of contact to be more in line with the client’s satis-faction will certainly improve the quality of the service your firm pro-vides, but it will not, by itself, bring about a fundamental change in the firm’s quality of service. For this, the firm must examine its innermost core–the primary leadership and the inspired principles these leaders rely on when building the firm’s character.