I always find articles and books from marketing gurus on how you need to stand out from the competition. His writing is usually peppered with advice on how to “position yourself” and “brand” your practice.
And many attorneys spend a lot of time, energy, and money trying to convince potential clients that they are somehow different (read: better) than others who provide the same service.
It’s silly, and I’ll tell you why.
First of all, you’re not really that much better or worse than others in your field. Oh I know, I know, you’re great. But guess that? You’re not the only one who’s cool. There are others that are pretty good too. Maybe even better than you.
But suppose you are much better than the others. This brings us to our second point. Your potential customers can’t tell the difference. They don’t have your expertise in the complicated financial and legal strategies you engage in every day. What you tell them may sound convincing, but so did what they read in Money magazine, or what their friend told them at a cocktail party, or what another advisor told them last week. It all sounds good, but they have no real way of judging. As far as your potential customers are concerned, any special knowledge, strategy, or technique that you advocate is simply a claim that you are making.
I hope you are the best lawyer in the world. Maybe you are. But in terms of marketing, that won’t do you much good. Trust me, you can be the most brilliant lawyer in the world and still starve.
But don’t despair. I’m going to tell you the real secret: how you can set yourself apart, blow away your competition, and have an endless line of referrals at your door.
Are you ready?
Develop great customer service.
Let’s be honest. In most companies, the service sucks. Hardly a week goes by that my friends and I don’t exchange anecdotes about the cable company, the phone company, the bank, or some retail or service business that actually seems to be doing everything it can to alienate everyone. who deals with them.
PLEASE SERVICE
The service everywhere is bad. But that’s good for you.
It presents you with an opportunity. It means that if you can provide even half-good customer service, people will rave about you and tell their friends about it.
Unfortunately, most attorneys know nothing about customer service. And the first thing they have to change is how they think about themselves and their business.
Here is the concept I want you to understand. You are not a law firm. You are a customer service organization whose work product happens to be legal documents.
Let me quote from Jack Mitchell, CEO of Mitchells/Richards, one of the most successful clothing stores in the US, serving high-end clientele in Connecticut and New York:
“At Mitchell’s, clothing is not our priority. It’s not the first thing we think about, nor the last thing. Don’t get me wrong. We like great products and look all over the world to get them, but we care about customers.
“That may sound unbelievable. A clothing store that’s not about clothing? But it’s true. And if we were a restaurant, we wouldn’t be about food. If we were an electronics store, we wouldn’t be about DVD players. Companies have lost the idea that customers, not the product, are the most important priority Most companies think that all they have to do is have a great product and the right value and customers will descend like locusts on their stores A lot of stores have those things. You can buy a great blue blazer or a black skirt anywhere. You can buy a big flat screen TV at any electronics store. You can get a big sofa at a lot of furniture stores. It’s the way how you treat customers determines your long-term success.
I’m here to tell you that creating customer satisfaction, or better yet, joy, is your job. Not drafting legal documents, not creating legal strategies, not giving legal advice.
HOW TO CREATE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
In their seminal book The Experience Economy, B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore put forward the proposition that customers do not buy goods and services as much as they buy experiences. “Work is theater,” they write, “and every business is a stage.”
Surveys show, for example, that 75% of people who travel to Las Vegas expect to lose. What a great vacation concept, right? Come to our city and lose money! But millions do, every year. Why? Because the end result is not the most important thing. They go for the experience.
The masters of this approach, of course, are the people at the Disney theme parks. Every customer is a “guest”, every employee is a “cast member” and each day’s business is a “show”. What are people really going for? A couple of walks and some memories?
So how do the lessons of “show business” apply to a serious law firm?
First, you need to determine what you want your customer (and potential customers) experience to be like when they call or visit your office. You need to “write” exactly what will happen.
Questions to ask yourself include: What does the customer see when they walk in? How does the receptionist behave? Are they escorted to the conference room? What will you offer them? What does the client see when she looks around the conference room? Does the attorney enter the conference room precisely at the appointed time? How does the lawyer greet the client?
I suggest that when deciding what you want your “script” to be, ask your employees for ideas. It will be of great help in the process of getting them to “buy into” the new way of doing things.
The client walks through the door and sees a sign that reads: “The Smith Law Firm welcomes Mr. and Mrs. Jones, June 1, 2005.” The receptionist gets up from behind her desk and greets the Joneses warmly by her name. They are escorted into the conference room and automatically served a glass of water from a pitcher. They are asked if they would like anything else: coffee, soft drinks, etc. The conference room is decorated with personal memorabilia and warm objects that reflect the values of the firm’s clients. (Example: If the firm specializes in elder law, there are photos of the attorney’s parents, a vintage radio from the 1930s, a copy of Tom Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation.) The attorney enters the conference at the precise time of the appointment and greets Mr. and Mrs. Jones warmly.
This is your script: the exact sequence of words and events that will create the desired customer experience.
The next step is to turn your script into a series of protocols for your employees. This is how we answer the phone. This is how we welcome visitors. This is how we talk about our firm and its attorneys.
And then, finally, training training training. Make sure everyone understands the protocols, has “shopped around” and practiced until it’s second nature. Arrange for one of your friends to pose as a potential client and try out your new script.
Remember this, above all else: just because you haven’t scripted your customer’s experience, doesn’t mean the customer won’t have it.
When you think about it, writing great customer service (hugging your customer, as Jack Mitchell calls it) is a much easier way to differentiate yourself than all the positioning, all the branding, all the continuing education or new designations or niche marketing. .
It feels good. Your employees and customers will love it. You will love it. And your bottom line will reflect that.
