Zen & The Art of Legal Networking : Lawyers & Attorneys in an International Legal Network for Relationships & Referrals

I'm back with another tip for Tuesday! 

Today's tip is brought to you by a rather frustrating customer service experience I'm having, which is further impacted by social media.

The ILN normally gives a small gift to our delegates when they're attending a conference, as a memento of the city that they're visiting (we like to give them the warm fuzzies about our group!).  This morning, I'm attempting to order this memento for our next conference, and ran into the snag that they only allow you to order 15 of them.

It happens, so it's not a big deal.

But here's where it gets frustrating.  I first try to submit my request for assistance via their website. And I get an error telling me that the "page cannot be found." Okay...so did my request go through or not? I'm not sure.  

I next try to call them, but when I choose the option for customer service, I get an answering machine telling me that no one can help me right now.  They're in New York, and it's the middle of the work day, so what's that about? 

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I like to think that I have a good sense of humor and believe that there is room for friendliness in a professional relationship.  But I'll admit to being surprised, and not in a good way, when after sending a thank you email to an events planner I'm working with, I got this response: "Always at your service, mylady[sic]."  I've only been conversing with this person for a couple of months, and we certainly are not at that level of friendliness (although, as a friend of mine pointed out, a comment like this really only would have been appropriate had I signed off on my email "Until the morrow, my lord."). 

But all joking aside, most of my Facebook friends agreed that this crossed the line.  It inspired Christine Pilch's post "Avoiding inappropriateness to safeguard your brand," where she makes this important point (see her full post for the second example): 

"Both of the above examples were likely innocent mistakes, however they illustrate how easy it is to damage your reputation by simply crossing a line. Your reputation is very closely intertwined with your brand, which is a reflection of your constituency's perception of you. To illustrate my point, consider how BP's reputation over the past 3-months has affected their brand.

Your brand is critical, so be careful to avoid any inappropriateness that could potentially damage it. Resist the temptation to be cute because it might not be perceived that way on the other end."

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Last night, I caught the end of Neil Cavuto's show, when he told a story that made me think - he said that he was shopping for a Mother's Day gift and went into a store.  Both the store owner and his wife came over to him within the first few minutes to see if they could assist him with finding a gift to purchase.  He told them both politely that he preferred to look by himself, that he didn't have anything in mind, but was in a hurry, so he wished to be left alone.  They did so, but only for a minute.

As soon as he picked something up to look at it, they both immediately came over to him again, giving him information he hadn't asked for, insisting that the gift he was looking at must be what he wanted, and continuing to badger him.  He again asked them to let him look for the gift in private, and they continued to ask him what he was looking for and let him know that the gifts in the section he was standing in could all be mailed.  As he was getting more and more exasperated, his phone rang. It was his daughter in the store next door, saying that she had found a gift.  So he walked out of the first store, leaving the patrons in shock.  His message was that "no one is listening." 

That message got me thinking:

• Are we guilty of the same thing?
• Do we bother our clients or potential clients with information that they've asked not to receive?
• Do we help them when they need it and let them be when they want some solitude?
• What is our customer service experience really like for them - are we overbearing, like these store owners?
• Or are we facilitators, business partners, trusted advisors?
• Do we insist that we know what's best for them, without finding out what it is that they really want and need?
• Does that ultimately push them away?

I think Cavuto's message is a good reminder that part of being great at our jobs, whether as legal marketers, as attorneys, or in any other field, is really listening to our clients, their needs, and even the underlying needs and wants they have that they might not be expressing. Ask yourself today, are you listening?

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In the legal industry, we know how important it is to keep our clients happy, to find ways to work with them that show them we understand their business and their pains.  But how good is your firm's customer service, really?  Generally, you're not the only one interacting with your clients, so do the other people at your firm who work with your clients give them the same level of attention and service that you do?

You may ask, how important is that, when I already work so hard on my relationship with my clients? Well aside from comments from general counsel like we heard at the LMA conference, when they said that surprises in their bills made them wonder if their relationship-partner was reviewing them at all, I have two non-legal stories that I think illustrate why good, and bad, customer service can really affect your relationship with clients.

A couple of weeks ago, I was returning from Social Fresh in Portland. For some reason, I'd chosen to take the red-eye flight, which meant that because I'd been there for less than 24 hours, I felt like it was 2:30am when we were supposed to board.  The incoming flight was delayed because of weather on the east coast, and when they got there, it turned out that they were having some difficulty with the de-icing light on the plane. The Jet Blue agents at the gate made an announcement, told us what the problem was and that they didn't know how long we would be delayed. They continued to update us at regular intervals until we finally were able to board and take off (on the same plane).  I slept for a bit on the plane, and woke up when they turned the cabin lights on. That was also when they announced that the de-icing light had come back on, and because of the weather in New York, we had to land somewhere that wasn't experiencing icing conditions - Buffalo. 

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As I mentioned yesterday, I've been following along as attendees of Georgetown's Law Firm Evolution Symposium have been tweeting the conference highlights.  Rachel M. Zahorsky of the ABA Journal was in attendance, and wrote a great article that summed up a theme of the conference - BigLaw must change or die.  She quotes several speakers, who make ominous statements:

- Patricia Gillette, Orrick partner: "It is a mistake to think of change in terms of silos...Change must be sweeping. If you do not change, you will die."

- Susan Hackett, Association of Corporate Counsel vice president & general counsel: "The window is open for another year to year and a half for firms before clients start walking and looking at firms they've never looked at before...Whenever a firm says [it] can't hold to a budget number because of unpredictability, the GC still has a busted budget. It's not unpredictable. It's unforgivable that they don't know and unforgivable that we haven't held them to that."

- Robert Ruyak, managing partner and CEO of Howrey: "Partners must be willing to sacrifice some short-term profitability for greater success and profit in the long-term.  That's something many partners don't want to do, but we have to.  There is no choice because some firms will, and they're the ones that will be eating our lunches tomorrow." 

But some are saying that there are firms that think that the legal industry will soon be back to the way it was, and so they don't have to worry about changing. 

Mid-sized law firms, like those in the ILN, often find it easier to adapt than BigLaw because their size makes them more nimble.  But even though this is the case, clients are asking all of their firms to more strongly consider their needs, focus on strengthening their relationships.  As was said at the LMA Conference this year, clients have always had the power, but now they know it.

So what are your firms doing to adapt to the siren call of change?  How are you providing your clients with better service, more value, strengthened relationships?  And how are legal marketers supporting their attorneys to make these changes possible? 

Or, on the flip side, are you one of those who believes that the legal industry will rebound, and so there isn't any need for change?

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The client panels held during the LMA conferences always provide a wealth of useful information for legal marketers to bring back to their firms.  This year's panel was no different - moderated by Michael B. Rynowecer, President and Founder of The BTI Consulting Group, the panel featured Eric Hilty, Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel of Apartment Investment and Management Company (AIMCO), Carmel Gill, Corporate Counsel, Legal Department of Level 3 Communications, Jeffrey K. Reeser, Vice President and Secretary of Newmont Mining Corporation, and Julie DeCecco, Associate General Counsel and Director of Litigation at Sun Microsystems, Inc.  The session was titled "What we love most about our lawyers," and the panel started by saying that in order to stand above the competition and become a prefered provider, firms need to step up partner engagement and have a proactive knowledge of their clients' business.  The clients listed a few of the law firms that they consider top of their lists, and one included ILN member, Holland & Hart.

So what gets a firm "on the list?"  One of the panelists counseled that lawyers shouldn't make them jump through legal hoops, but should do as much for them as they can, so that they don't have to do it themselves.  Another said that lawyers should identify the obstacles for their clients, think two steps ahead to the solution and articulate it.  Their impressions of firms come from their experiences with the attorneys of that firm, reinforcing the theme that it's all about relationships.  The panelist admitted that she thought saying service was the most important thing to her might offend the audience, but as Kate Haueisen said via Twitter "we influence service too!"  The panelists suggested that firms have a dialogue with their clients about their expectations for communication, workflow, and sharing the work burden and they agreed that they are trying to isolate the firms that they have good relationships with and save some money. 

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