The vital role your support staff play in client satisfaction is often overlooked. However a client’s experience at reception, or their first phone call to your firm can colour every other interaction - for better or worse. Here are 12 quick tips your support staff can use to represent your firm even better.

1. Represent clients well - Always be a good ambassador or envoy for your clients.

2. Thank clients - Don’t take your clients for granted. Remember to thank clients for their business.

3. Return clients calls ASAP - This is a meaningful way to show your client just how important s/he is to you. If the lawyer isn’t around, return the call yourself.

4. Keep your clients informed - Your clients have every confidence in your firm’s ability to solve their legal problems, but they feel a whole lot more comfortable and secure when you keep them informed, frequently and regularly.

5. Learn what clients expect, then do it - You’ll never please a client unless you know what they expect, and then act on it.

6. Be completely discreet and loyal - Respect the confidentiality and commercial sensitivity of the information you come across. Reassure clients on this point. Be loyal: whatever you think of their behaviour, remember that - in the end - the client is paying the bill, and that without them, you wouldn’t have job.

7. Be a problem-solver - Clients want your help with their problems. Come up with solutions rather than excuses.

8. Constantly seek feedback - Ask clients how you can do better and listen to what they have to say.

9. Get to know clients - Show a genuine and sincere interest in each client.

10. Be helpful - Help your counterpart to do a better job and offer any guidance that you can.

11. Be flexible - Try to do things the way clients want, rather than the way that is convenient to you. Become more flexible and easier to deal with than any of their other advisors, especially other law firms.

12. Care about your clients - There is no substitute for genuine concern and a sincere interest in your client. If you don’t care, it will show. If you do, it makes all the difference.

Help your support staff understand their importance to your clients and your firm, and you’ll find client and staff satisfaction quickly improve.

Copyright 2008 Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd

Our extensive research confirms that most substantial clients value - and expect - periodic frank relationship reviews.

• clients want predictability and controllability of price - they also want economy, but economy alone won’t make up for unpredictable prices
• clients want to clearly understand the basis of your charges
• it follows that many clients want to use that understanding to take action to control their expenditure with you

We are often asked how to conduct an effective client relationship review meeting. Getting these meetings right is very important. Feedback obtained is essential input to:
• improvements service delivery
• future proposals
• reveal risks for you to address
• uncover further business development opportunities

So first, the basics
• have a clear agenda
• plan a series of “open questions”
• record the details of your review meeting
• take note of client’s attendees and their titles/roles
• thank attendees for taking time to participate in this process.

Next, agree clear objectives for meeting. For example:
• we want to understand how we’re going …
• we want your full and frank feedback …
• we want to understand exactly what you need and expect from us so we can advise and serve you better …
• we want to know if there are problems which we need to work on …

From here, move to specifics.  Include topics such as:

Our understanding of your business
• how well do we understand your business, the industry environment in which you operate, and the challenges you face?
• Do we properly understand your concerns, your problems, and your priorities?
• What work do we need to do on our understanding of your business and your industry?

The quality of advice we give you
• do we consistently provide the right advice to you?
• do you find that our advice is practical and tailored to your particular situation?
• does our advice help you to achieve your objectives?
• what improvements do we need to make in the area of advice quality?

The quality of our relationship with your people
• do our people take a keen interest in your matters and treat you as an important client?
• are our people always straightforward, direct, and honest with you and is their behaviour always completely ethical?
• have our people formed productive working partnerships with key players in your organisation?
• do you feel that we consistently work in your interests?
• how should we work to improve our relationships with your people?
• this is the starring point.

Our accessibility
• are our people readily accessible to you?
• do we return your calls, faxes, and emails promptly?
• do you feel that we are ready and willing to visit you and your facilities?
• how should we work on becoming more accessible to you?

Our responsiveness
• do our people respond in accordance with your priorities?
• do we keep you properly informed during the progress of matters?
• do our people give you clear explanations of legal matters in plain English?
• do you feel that we are easy to work with?
• what work do we need to do on our speed, our responsiveness, and becoming easier to deal with?

The tangibles in the relationship
• what is your opinion of what the quality of letters and documents which we present to you?
• is the format of opinions and advices clear and easy to follow?
• does the presentation of our premises meet your expectations?
• have you found that our technology and other facilities are up to the desired standard?
• are the people with whom you deal with from our firm consistently well presented?
• what aspects of the presentation of our people, facilities, premises, and documents do you suggest we work on?

Let’s review some recent cases
• I’d like to turn to a couple of matter which we have handled for you to get your detailed assessment of how we’ve done. Taking these cases on at a time, thinking back over the [name of case, outlining key points] case, what, if anything, do you think that we did especially well? (Probe out fully.)
• what aspects of our handling of this case fell short of your expectations? (Probe out fully.)
• what suggestions would you have as to how we could improve our performance on such matters in the future? (Probe out fully.)

This will help you to progress towards your objectives in this forum.

The value we provide for the fees you pay
• do you believe that the advice we provide represents good value for money to your organization?
• how do you rate us in terms of value for money compared with the other law firms and professional advisors with whom you deal?
• are you happy with the style, frequency, and presentation of our bills to you?
• what, if anything, should we do to improve performance in relation to the fees you pay for our work?

Opportunities for expanding the relationship
• are there any other areas of your business which need quality legal advice?
• Would you or others in your business like to know more about any of the services which we offer?
• How do you recommend that we promote our services to your organization?

Effectiveness of marketing initiatives
• is our newsletter helpful to you?
• do you find the seminars we offer to you interesting and valuable?
• is our website valuable to you?
• has the education we have provided for your staff been useful?
• do you find access to our library helpful?
• what has been your experience of our client research programme?
• how do you feel about the entertainment we offer to you and other key people in your organization?
• what suggestions can you offer to improve the effectiveness of our value added services and marketing?

How we can work together better in the future
• are there barriers or obstacles in working effectively together?
• What can we do to become easier for you to work with in the future?
• Is there anything else at all which you would like to add?

At the end of the interview, again it in important to remember the basics.

• Thank your client for his/her time and interest
• promise action on key items requiring further investigation or consideration, indicate time frame for feedback
• explain what will happen as a result of the interview
• again, thank client for time and input.

Copyright 2001 Julian Midwinter & Associates

Each year, Julian Midwinter & Associates conducts many research projects, both on behalf of its professional service firm clients, and at an industry level. Here are some of the conclusions we’ve drawn from our experience.

• Clients who report their overall status as “standard” (or less than 4 out of 10) are often on the brink of becoming your competitor’s client
• the minimum level of client satisfaction from which professional service forums can draw any comfort at all is “very satisfied” at least 8 out of 10 professionals are often more concerned than their clients about price
• clients now regard high levels of responsiveness and accessibility as a “given” - returning calls promptly is not a service edge
• to understand client satisfaction with your service, you need to benchmark it against their satisfaction with your competitors service
• you can’t afford to rest on client satisfaction until you are rated “outstanding” in every important category - even then, if your competitors are similarly rated, you have to do a whole lot more work
• high levels of clients satisfaction (9 out of 10 or above) correlate with high profit opportunities (but do not automatically translate to profitability)
• Julian Midwinter & Associate’s findings are in line with those of leading researchers in other industries.

Client satisfaction is worth the effort - keeping a client is mostly a vastly better option than competing for a new one! (And, yes, there are a few clients who you and everyone else - can never satisfy).

Copyright 2001 Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd

In competitive and highly-crowded professional services markets, even minor differences in service delivery or client experience can be significant to consumers. This is especially true in those service categories with:
• high risk
• high transaction value
• high purchase frequency.

Professionals are often too prone to discount client views as inexpert, superficial, naive, or purely price-driven.

Our research confirms that high purchase frequency clients rapidly develop expertise in evaluating professional service alternatives. Those whose work is high risk and/or high value, are often especially sensitive to the subtleties of their professional services experience.

Our research also confirms that performance characteristics on which these clients base their evaluation frequently do not correlate with how the professionals concerned think their service is and should be assessed.

Earning and keeping a professional services market leadership position substantially depends on understanding how clients evaluate and rank various elements of your service offering and their consumer experience. Coming to grips with this will help you identify the small differences which matter so you can make them work in your favour.

Copyright 2006 Julian Midwinter & Associates

With so much to do - so many opportunities deserving of business development energy - only rarely are professionals truly satisfied that they’ve done all they should. It’s the economic problem: unlimited needs and wants, limited means (and time) …When we are confronted with seemingly endless ways to promote our services and grow our client relationships, it can be hard knowing where to make a start.

Rather than feeling overwhelmed, determine to make a start today.

By chipping away at your business development “to do” list every day, just a little at a time, you can start to get it done and make some valuable progress.

Even seemingly insignificant steps in the right direction, piled one upon another, lead to meaningful change, outcomes, and pay-offs. A series of small, not-too-hard actions can create a positive ripple effect. And, that ripple effect can be amazing.

Lawyers and other professionals can easily be so swept along by the pace of the day and all that is happening around them that they give up on making headway with business development. By making even a small step in the direction of a better professional future, you can plant an acorn today, plus another tomorrow, and tend them after that. Be certain that the oak trees we so admire today, wouldn’t be there except for the acorns of days before.

Copyright 2006 Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd

Good, old-fashioned word-of-mouth marketing, now renamed “evangelism marketing”, is being hyped as the tactic of today.

Fact is, it always worked - back then and now.

Many of your best business opportunities come from word-of-mouth (WOM). If you think back over your best clients, chances are that positive WOM put you in the frame.

When clients actively shop for a new expert professional, their usual first step will be to ask around among colleagues and contacts. Even for those who instantly google search, there’s a high propensity to check out professional reputation with trusted sources via WOM. For clients who embark on organised and formal selection processes, WOM is still a factor.

Chances are, WOM will have at least some impact on every buying decision by a new client - and that you’ll probably never know the exact extent.

Take a few minutes to think through those in your circle who are strong business influencers. Maybe consultants, investment bankers, industry analysts, clients (current, past or prospective). Then, work out those who show evangelistic zeal in converting their contacts to your prospective clients and your prospective clients to real work for you.

WOM evangelists will normally be active in their industry or professional circles and regarded as authorities in their fields. So, update them with information of value and interest to their contacts.

They’ll be [at least somewhat] interested in you, your firm, and your news. So, keep them in the loop.

They’ll pay attention to press coverage you receive, professional accolades, and other recognition. So, make certain they see it.

Your WOM evangelists will already be telling their contacts about you and what you do. So, make sure they have current material on hand.

Your WOM salesforce will be in touch with scores of people of interest to you. So, let them know you’d like to be in touch with those same people.

Those WOM gems will jealously guard their status as trustworthy sources of information and recommendations. So, do the right thing: never give them other than 100% correct information, pay warm and courteous attention to their referrals, treat their leads as important and do your finest work for them.

For most expert professionals, word of mouth is the most powerful of promotional tools. Use it well.

Copyright 2006 Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd

Clients have needs and wants. Some needs they recognise, others they don’t. Some wants they articulate, others are unspoken [but still wanted].

Sustainable success is founded on harnessing professional knowledge and skills to meet wants and needs of clients in ways which produce value for both parties.

Core to this process is understanding what clients need and want.

Beyond old favourite techniques like having a chat, here is a small selection of areas to explore to get a better grip on client needs.

Understand how clients use your work
Come to a clear understanding about what happens to the work you do when it’s put into the hands of your clients.
• How do they react to your work when they first see it ?
• How does it fit into their production processes ?
• Who does what with it ?
• Where does it end up ?
• What decisions or actions depend on your recommendations ?
• What could/should change in your work to make it easier for your client to use ?

Understand problems your clients confront
This happens at several levels - for business clients, from your front-line contact right through the organisational hierarchy.

By understanding the everyday problems or challenges faced by the individual with whom you deal, you’ll get an important perspective on his/her individual needs within the organisation.

• How does your work impact that individual’s KPIs or next management appraisal ?
Roll that all the way up to an enterprise-wide level.
• What are the pressures and challenges the organisation faces ?
• What are the problems that your work is directed to managing or alleviating ?
• How significant is your work and what is its impact on the enterprise ?

Understand what industry leaders are up to
Not all your clients will be at the forefront of their respective fields. It’s worth a close look at how the “out there” industry leaders and others racing for market dominance use your work or, services similar to those you offer. Consider how industry leaders relate to expert professional service providers.

Often, you can understand more about the latent needs of your clients by seeing how their serious competitors leverage value from their selected experts.

Understand changes afoot
Get a handle on the changes in the “big picture” - political, economic, social, technological - likely to impact your clients.

Legal and regulatory change, dynamics of financial markets and industrial cycles, population and lifestyle changes, and the state of knowledge and tools available to your clients to respond will translate into new and different needs.

Each client’s strategic planning horizon becomes your horizon in planning your business with them.

Understand what excites your clients
Comprehension of needs is incomplete without a clear grasp of those needs (or, more likely, wants) which matter to the point of creating some level of excitement about what it is you can do and/or how you can deliver it.

Only by focusing on those factors which can take your service offering beyond merely “measuring up” will you understand how to differentiate yourself sufficiently to excite the right attention from your client.

Opening serious, in-depth conversations with clients about their needs and wants will arm you with essential information to respond appropriately and profitably for both parties, and to stimulate favourable decisions and action.

Copyright 2006 Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd

You may remember that old warning from your childhood: “beware - your eyes are bigger than your tummy”. This was occasionally uttered when someone wanted more on their plate than they could possibly finish, but more often when someone took on too large or challenging a task to maintain interest to completion.And so it is with some clients: their “eye” for your expert work is bigger than their “tummy”. These are the clients who like the look and sound of what you can do, and even become swept up in the excitement of having it all, but their real capacity to digest - and pay for - is much smaller than their appetite.

Beware clients whose “eyes are bigger than their tummies”. Classically, they present as:

• less-astute clients who suddenly want the “best of the best” for their business
• clients who, usually acutely cost-conscious and looking for “no frills” solutions, suddenly “fall in love” with expansive plans
• giving rapid-fire agreement to every optional extra, including those of marginal benefit
• allowing substantial project scope creep, without taking stock how all the bells and whistles will add up.

Risks you face in allowing clients to be swept along by an appetite for your work which [no matter how fine] might ultimately prove indigestible to them include:

• embarrassment for them
• cooling in your relationship
• loss of trust and confidence
• angry outbursts
• time spent handling problems
• delinquent bills
• reputation damage.

Protect your clients from this syndrome and do yourself some big favours at the same time by:

• putting yourself into the client’s shoes and working out those items from which they’ll derive most benefit and focusing on those
• being wary of clients who take an uncharacteristically “no expense spared” approach
• resisting the temptation to sell clients of more than they can afford
• being clear about budget
• rather than selling a client of modest means the “whole box and dice” fully-featured service package up-front, breaking your service offering into a series of stages or “chunks” which deliver benefits and bills, one piece at a time
• for those who insist that they want to embark on a full-scale project right away, segmenting work to deliver interim benefits and bills and so maintain affordability
• encouraging clients to work through cost and timing of likely benefits before embarking on large-scale work
• reconfirming along the way that the grand vision holds, together with budget capacity to achieve it.

Often, it’s the very best professional experts - those with passion for excellent work and results - who are at most risk in this area. Their enthusiasm sweeps not-so-strong clients along.

But the very essence of professionalism is exercised in understanding what’s good for a client, appropriate for them, financially prudent for them, organisationally “digestible” by them, and then doing the right thing by preventing all that attaches to the “eyes bigger than tummy” syndrome.

Copyright 2006 Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd

As I write eTips each week, it’s often the product of business development challenges and behaviours I’ve observed among our clients, or learned second hand. Now, I need your input on the eTips topics you find most relevant, how eTips can improve, and what you’d like more of.

This week, please take this brief, three to five minute survey, and tell me, and the whole JMA team, what you think.

As a thank you, you will be entered into a draw to win a bottle of fine wine.

Of course, if you have any queries or other comments, do get in touch.

Thanks for your support and important feedback.

Linda and the team at Julian Midwinter & Associates

Each year, I conduct many personal interviews with high value clients of professional service firms. Every interview is different and each turns up something unexpected - often a new service opportunity. While interviewees are often effusive in praise of their lawyers and other professional experts, there is a pattern to irritations, annoyances, and things which damage relationships.

It drives your clients nuts when:
• you should understand, but don’t
• you don’t build that understanding into your advice, strategies, and tactics
• you’re not prepared to change from how it’s been in the past
• you take the relationship for granted - or appear to
• you resist their decisions, preferences, processes, and standards - instead, you just keep wanting to do it your way
• you don’t look after their money (including their investment in your services)
• you don’t do your best to minimise what they need to spend with you to get the right result
• you don’t understand their financial constraints and budget cycles
• you don’t bear the cost of team churn
• you leave it to the client to get your early-career people up to speed with their work and their organisation
• you don’t bear the cost of your own mistakes, wrong-turns, and errors of judgement
• your behaviour reflects poorly on the executives and teams with whom you deal, leaving them with lots of “please explains”.

All these irritate, annoy, and damage relationships: I recommend a long, hard look at whether you’re transgressing. Better still, invest in some research to see how a client’s reality compares with your perceptions of what you’re delivering, and how.

Don’t drive your clients nuts - and drive them away.

Copyright 2008 Julian Midwinter & Associates