Client Service

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This afternoon, I was thinking back to my very first "official" job, as kennel help at a pet store in northern New Jersey. It was hard work, and long hours, but playing with puppies was a pretty great benefit of working there. It also taught me a lot, and one lesson I remember being crystal clear – don’t be afraid to ask questions. 

The story is that after working there for a little while, the store’s owners let me assist with other kinds of work at the store, including running the register. This was not too complicated, but a job that involved a lot of trust (we were dealing with pretty big sums of money, for one thing). Most of the charges were paid either by credit card or cash. But there was one afternoon when a woman wanted to pay for her puppy and his associated gear with a check. 

Thanks to my fourth grade teacher who had done a unit where we all got "checkbooks" and had to learn to use them to make payments, my 16-year-old self was pretty comfortable with what a check looked like, and which fields needed to be filled in. But there was one extra thing I was required to get from this woman in order to process the check. Continue Reading Client Service: There are no Stupid Questions

The week before last, I was on the road in Chicago. Funnily enough, I checked in to the Amalfi Hotel in January, and because they changed names, checked out of the Kinzie Hotel in February. 

One thing that didn’t change was their high level of service though, and I want to share a story with you to illustrate how easy it is to genuinely please a client, and not only make them loyal to you, but make them an advocate for your brand at the same time. 

We were checking out of the hotel on Saturday afternoon. I’d arranged for a late checkout, and was traveling to the airport with two of my friends and colleagues. One of them was delayed a few minutes, so two of us were sitting in the lobby of the hotel with our bags, waiting for her.

The doorman came over and asked whether we needed transportation to the airport. We said that we would, but that since we were waiting for someone else, we’d grab a taxi when she arrived. Continue Reading Good Client Service: How Well Are You Listening?

On Monday, I presented a short recap about the Zappos session at LMA’s Annual Conference to my local LMA city group.  So they’ve definitely been on my mind this week, particularly after a customer service experience I had with another company. 

We’ve talked before about how bad client service experiences can have a negative impact – and a lot of that is common sense. But what about lukewarm client experiences? 

To illustrate, I want to compare Zappos with the experience that I had with Groupon yesterday.  Zappos mantra is customer happiness – they don’t just want a satisfied customer, they want an ecstatic customer.  Ecstatic customers will go out and tell their brand story in a happy and positive way, so Zappos is not only creating repeat customers, but helping to facilitate new clients. Continue Reading What Kind of Client Experience Are You Creating at Your Firm?

A lesson I learned several years ago that has been invaluable to me is that of "identify, don’t compare." When you compare, you’re looking to match your situation exactly to that of someone else’s – and when we do that, we’re always going to come up different (and that can paralyze us).

But when we identify, we’re looking for those elements that run through a situation that are the same as ours – and this gives us the inspiration to keep moving forward, instead of giving up because we think we’ll never be the same. That lesson comes in handy when I’m sitting in a session like the Zappos one from the LMA Annual Conference.  Although it’s easy to try to compare Zappos to legal marketing and come up lacking because they’re a consumer-driven business, when I identify instead, I find many parallels which allow me to take the lessons that Graham was sharing with us and apply them to my own situation.Continue Reading Identify, Don’t Compare – Lessons from Zappos for the Legal Industry

We’re getting underway this evening with the ILN’s 24th Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. Tomorrow, as I do at all of our meetings, I will be presenting to our attorneys and I thought what better topic to discuss than that of client satisfaction? 

My presentation is based on the client panel from LMA’s Annual Conference this year, and you get the first look! Continue Reading The Client is in Charge – Are You Listening?

The final session that I attended during the LMA Conference this year was “Creating a Culture of Client Service Excellence” with Leonardo Inghilleri, the EVP and Managing Partner of West Paces Consulting.

I was a few minutes late to the session, and the energy in the room felt a bit low, so I was initially concerned I may have chosen the wrong session. But I was quickly proven wrong as Leonardo provided us with fabulous insight and an interesting perspective that proved most valuable.

As his bio on the LMA Conference website states:

"Leonardo Inghilleri is a recognized business expert and author, and an opinion leader in the area of organizational effectiveness and strategies, client service excellence, and business innovation. As one of the key architects behind the Ritz-Carlton’s two Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards, he has first-hand experience in creating a culture of client service excellence. During this session, you will learn about proven techniques that will help your firm improve the quality of the relationships with your clients. Leonardo will share the concepts and practices that will help to create and maintain the kind of client service environment that can produce strong bottom line results.”

Continue Reading Creating a Culture of Client Service Excellence – an LMA 2012 Re-cap

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? Continue Reading Tip for Tuesday – Be Careful with Customer Service