In Search of Perfect Client Service

Yet another firm sacrifices its young at the alter of hours

patrick.lamb@valoremlaw.com (Patrick J. Lamb) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 07:53:35 -0600

Above The Law is reporting that my old firm, Katten Muchin, has made an announcement on associate salaries. Apparently the firm has decided that for an associate to advance a pay level, the associate must have met the firm's target hours requirement.

Unimaginative management in action. Defaulting to an hours standard only reaffirms the premium of hours over quality and efficiency. I wonder how long before clients realize how badly they lose out when firms employ these discredited systems.

The "good old days" are not coming back

patrick.lamb@valoremlaw.com (Patrick J. Lamb) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:43:13 -0600

In the opening paragraph of its 2010 Client Advisory, the joint Hildebrandt-Citi advisory ominously notes:

While the year ended with some hopeful signs, we enter 2010 with little prospect of a robust recovery and with mounting evidence that the profession is entering an era in which the fundamental economics of legal practice are likely to be significantly different.

The report later notes:

we expect that the economic recovery during 2010 will be quite
gradual. While we anticipate further improvement in demand for legal services – particularly in areas like M&A and other transactional practices – that demand growth will be tempered by pricing pressures that we expect to be even more severe than in 2009.

No client is going to willing return to "the good old days." Those old days were good for for law firms. Not so much for clients. And it speaks to law firms' self-centeredness when they fail to recognize the strain their freewheeling spending and pricing placed on their clients.

The report is sobering, especially if you operate in cost-plus environment.

Get off your phone. Thank you.

patrick.lamb@valoremlaw.com (Patrick J. Lamb) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:10:12 -0600

Along the lines of my last post on lessons from a scoundrel, I urge you to visit Brains on Fire and read On the people right in front of you. Eric Dodd was visiting a coffee shop named the Ugly Mug in Ypsilanti, Michigan--I'll let him pick up the story here:

When I went up to the counter to get my fix, I noticed something that caught my attention and made me smile.

They had this little sign on the register that said: “Get off your phone! Thank you!”

On first glance it seemed like all of the other notes taped on registers by employees that are annoyed with phone-distracted customers not ordering and slowing traffic down in the morning caffeine rush.

Or maybe it was getting at something deeper. Either way, it made me think.

You see, the Ugly Mug takes a lot of pride in their coffee, but they take even more pride in their baristas. I had a chance to meet one of them - he knew incredible amounts about coffee, matching tastes, roasting, tasting, testing and crafting incredible beverages. They don’t just pour coffee and make lattes - they’re experts. And they want to do everything they can to match a drink to your palette that will blow you away.

Okay, makes sense so far. To provide a great experience, the baristas want to be able to talk to you so they can provide a custom experience. Great. Works for me. But Eric goes further:

I think sometimes we get so busy staying connected to other people we know through the electronic devices that have become necessary in our lives that oftentimes we miss the people right in front of us. In fact, we don’t only miss them - we miss out on them. Bad customer service aside, face-to-face interactions are one of the most powerful things we can experience - personally or when we’re interacting with a brand. If I had been calling, texting, emailing, tweeting, etc. while I was ordering coffee, I might have missed out on one of the coolest baristas I’ve met - and consequently his guidance to one of the best espressos that I’ve ever had.

Let us focus on the value of personal contact. Put the phone down. Invest in real contact.

Client service lessons from a legendary scoundrel: email is not a good substitute for conversation

patrick.lamb@valoremlaw.com (Patrick J. Lamb) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:15:09 -0600

"Don't write anything you can phone. Don't phone anything you can talk. Don't talk anything you can whisper. Don't whisper anything you can smile. Don't smile anything you can nod. Don't nod anything you can wink."

Former Louisiana Governor and legendary scoundrel Earl Long.

Normally, one does not turn to scoundrels for lessons in client service, but an exception is due in the case of Earl Long's advice. People communicate by email. Somewhere between the formation of thought in your brain that you need to talk to your client and actually having the conversation, stupidity kicks in and you find your fingers do the talking via a keyboard. Email, as it turns out, is one of the worst things that has ever happened to client development and service.

So what should learn?

Don't email anything you can call. If your client is local, get off your butt and go to her office. If not, give your fingers a rest and have a real conversation. Have enough of them that you can appreciate the nuance of a nod or a pause or a wink. Email is good tool to transmit information. It is not a tool for conversation. It is not the way to get to know your clients.

Patrick Lamb 2010

Necessity shows the impossible is possible

patrick.lamb@valoremlaw.com (Patrick J. Lamb) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:36:43 -0600

"You have to decrease the size of your law department by 40%. I know it's at a time when the demand for in-house legal services will be going way up, but such is life."

"You have to reduce your spend on litigation by 50% with no drop-off in quality."

How would you like to be on the receiving end of such an edict? Well, the edict part is made up, but the March issue of Corporate Counsel contains two stories that are must-read. The first is on the story of David Leitch, General Counsel of Ford, and how he had to cope with reductions of 40% in his department. 40%!!!

The second article is about Kevin Blodgett of Dynegy, and his restructuring of that company's law department and the reduction of its external litigation spend.

There is HUGE lesson to be learned. David Leitch summarizes it best:

Leitch acknowledges that the downsizing was painful. By the end, he says, "I thought we were really cutting into the bone." But his misgivings have dissipated: "As I sit here now, I realize it was necessary." Plus, Leitch says, "people have adapted, and are more efficient and effective than they ever thought they could be." His department continues to perform at the same level, he says. And it hasn't increased its use of outside lawyers to make up for the loss of in-house attorneys.

Think about that for more than a bit. A 40% reduction in in-house personnel. No fall-off in performance. What does that mean? I am not suggesting there was fat in the Ford law department. To the contrary, I am suggesting that when forced to do so by circumstances, lawyers like those at Ford find a way to get the stuff done that needs to get done, that necessity is a fantastic driver (pun sort of intended).

My guess is that if forced to do so, a lot of law departments could go through the same trial by fire and emerge much as Ford did.

Is there a lesson here for law firms?

How do you treat your best customers?

patrick.lamb@valoremlaw.com (Patrick J. Lamb) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:53:48 -0600

Once again, the real world provides wonderful lessons.

My wife calls to tell me to cancel a credit card--the bank had raised our interest rate to 30% "because we didn't carry a balance." Our primary card is at 9%, so 30% isn't going to cut it. I call the bank (which I won't identify , but if you guess Citibank, well, let me just say you're an incredibly good guesser) and they tell me they are sorry to lose me as a "terribly valuable" customer after 20 years. Would I consider staying if they lowered the rate to 7.9% for six months?

Put aside the financial aspects of this decision. How should I feel knowing that I am a "terribly valuable" customer but they were raising my rates to 30%? They could have offered me the Taj Mahal and I would not remain a customer.

This is the world of credit card companies, cable companies and phone companies. Never treat your best customers like your best customers. Give your new customers better rates and keep milking your loyal customers for all you can get.

Sad way to run a business. But then again, when law firms seek new business, how many of them do the very same thing?

At some point loyal customers are going to respond like I did: if my loyalty only matters when I complain, "cancel the damn account."

A Customer Service Failure

patrick.lamb@valoremlaw.com (Patrick J. Lamb) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:01:21 -0600

I just concluded a stay at a Four Seasons Hotel. When checking out, I was stunned to see two $100 plus charges for phone calls. When I inquired about the charges, I was told that the first minute of each call is $8 and each subsequent minute was $3. The rates are not listed on the phone, and it seemed unconscionable that a quality hotel would charge so prohibitively for phone services without making the scale of the charge clear. I said something to the manager as I was leaving, and the phone charges were cut in half.

This was a fair outcome, but really disappointed me. Four Seasons takes tremendous pride in its customer service. It should know better.

Is there a moral of the story? If so, it is that when the bar is set high and you fall, it looks like a long way.

10 reasons entrepreneurs hate lawyers? Really 10 reasons why most clients hate lawyers

patrick.lamb@valoremlaw.com (Patrick J. Lamb) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:20:23 -0600

Courtesy of Dan Hull's post on this same topic, I was drawn to a post by Scott Edward Walker on Venture Hacks, Top 10 Reasons Why Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers. I actually read this post half a dozen times looking for my favorite reason in the list of 10 so I could quote something here. But all of the reasons are spot on. And they are in no way limited to entrepreneurs. So I heartily encourage you to click over and read the entire post.

When I started practicing back in 1982, my firm's clients were entrepreneurs. I remember feeling like I was missing something since our clients didn't have GCs. They weren't big institutions. I felt I was missing out. Instead, I had to deal directly with CEOs and CFOs. I learned if you didn't provide business advice, you had no voice. I learned the two paragraph rule--whatever you want to say to a CEO better fit in two paragraphs because that was all the time you got. As I look back, that training was priceless.

These days, in-house law departments are becoming more like small businesses than most can imagine. They speak the same language. They are starting to use the same tools as the businesses do. Law, whether in-house or outside, is a business with a different name. As a result, the lessons listed by Scott Edward Walker are perfectly applicable in every environment.

POSTSCRIPT: While Dan Hull runs from start-ups and entrepreneurs, Valorem embraces them. They bring an excitement and passion to what they do that is infectious. So Dan, before you turn to run, given them our phone number!

Thanks to LexBlog for post about moi!

patrick.lamb@valoremlaw.com (Patrick J. Lamb) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:07:01 -0600

Thanks so much to Lisa Kennelly at Lexblog for a very kind post about this blog in Kevin O'Keefe's fantastic Real Lawyers Have Blogs. Kevin is a pioneer, perhaps the pioneer in this area, and he was the person who convinced me that I could be a blogger. In large measure because he surrounds himself with great people like Lisa, I've been thrilled to associated with LexBlog for a number of years. And I'm honored to be mentioned in Kevin's blog--thank you Lisa!

Service is a choice. What choices do you make?

patrick.lamb@valoremlaw.com (Patrick J. Lamb) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:37:28 -0600

Courtesy of a tweet by Gini Dietrich, CEO of Arment Dietrich, I was directed to Speed, In The Right Direction, a post about lessons to be learned from Apollo Ohno, America's most decorated winter Olympian. Ohno had a hugely successful Olympic experience in Turin, and then hit the celebrity circuit. Blogger Randy Hall picks up the story:

The story was about how Ohno was invited to all of the A-list parties and hottest events, and the velvet ropes were quickly dropped for him at even the most exclusive Hollywood clubs. He had essentially arrived. He was recruited for, and won, Dancing With the Stars and made numerous television appearances that continued to add to his fame and stature among the elite. And then he pushed it all away and decided to compete again.

Ohno recommitted himself to the sport he loved and moved from the red carpet to the training room. He dropped 20 pounds of weight and endured three work outs a day combined with a strict nutritional program that left him able to lift weights twice as heavy as when he began his training program. It’s so easy for us to look at people like Ohno and say that they are different, special somehow, and that things come easier for them because they are gifted in some way. Ohno is the first to admit in interviews that the first workout of the day is difficult to begin and that finishing the third is even more so. Look closer at any of the athletes and you will see that they are just people. But they are people who made a choice to be more.

In an interview with the Seattle Times Ohno said, “When I’m done skating, I guarantee you that I will not look back and remember standing on the podium. ”I’m going to remember these days — being with the team. Training alone, in my basement. Training when everybody else is sleeping. Doing things that nobody else is doing. Digging down. Seeing what kind of character I truly have.”

I love that line--"seeing what kind of character I truly have." It occurs to me that as I look over my desk and decide what to do for my clients and how to do it, what to search for that will help them solve their problems and make their life easier, I have a choice to make. We all do. Service is a choice. It's hard work and we can never take time away from our training regimen.

So, what kind of choices do we make? What kind of character do we truly have?

Fee Sharing is a necessary part of joint venture work

patrick.lamb@valoremlaw.com (Patrick J. Lamb) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:54:48 -0600

I've written before about the great value clients can receive when firms work together for the client's benefit. But I have not written about this from a fee-sharing standpoint, and I have certainly not written about this as well as my friends Dave Bohrer and Michael Kallus at Confluence Law Partners. Check out their post Fee Sharing With Foreign Lawyers in their terrific new blog, Flat Fee IP

A return to the good old days? Dream on.

patrick.lamb@valoremlaw.com (Patrick J. Lamb) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:48:37 -0600

From the January 2010 McKinsey Quarterly:

Even though cost containment remains a high priority, many respondents worry about the sustainability of the cost reductions and are only somewhat confident that their companies are adequately prepared for even bigger cost challenges, which they expect in the coming year. These are among the findings of a survey of 300 operations and other senior executives from around the world.

* * * *

While the results reflect a lingering environment of uncertainty and risk in the short term, they also show that some companies are making important strategic moves in cost reduction—among them, a focus on organizational effectiveness and capability building—to position themselves advantageously for the long haul.

So, if you're sitting around wonder when the good old days will return, wrap your head around the fact that more of the same is on the way.

Once More, With Meaning: Ours is a Service Business

patrick.lamb@valoremlaw.com (Patrick J. Lamb) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 13:55:24 -0600

Courtesy of the inestimable Scott Greenfield, I was referred to a post by self-proclaimed leadership expert, Andrew Hughes. It appears that Andrew's leadership expertise comes from being "part of the senior leadership team of a national [Australian] law firm." As I have said, the odds of the words "leader" and "law firm" appearing in a positive way in the same sentence are remote at best. Perhaps Andrew is that one-in-billion exception, but I just can't picture him coaching George Patton, for example, or even George of the jungle, so I share Scott's amazement with the self-proclaimed part.

Hughes writes of the problems law firms have with the X and Y generations. Here's the part that draws Scott Greenfield's ire, as well as my own:

As illustrated by the ‘problems’ firms are experiencing with X and Y geners, there has been a global values evolution. These generations are less willing to accept the same incursions on their family and social lives in return for rewards in the future. They are also less tolerant of organisations that fail to give them the opportunity to be part of a larger cause, one that exists outside of a profit motive or the meaningless client service guff that is often dished up. (emphasis supplied)

Gee, it is a shame that client service gets in the way of family and social lives. A damn shame. My suggestion to the Andrew Hughes disciples? Do what Andrew did and find another damn profession to work in.

Breathe in. Deeply. Breathe out. Slowly. Repeat.

Okay, everybody repeat after me: The law is a service profession. We practice to serve our clients. That "client service guff" is the cornerstone of our profession. Without clients to service, there is no need for our profession.

Every time I write about someone who fundamentally doesn't get it, I am shocked and awed. But after I relax a bit, I am really thankful. The more people who buy into the lame views of Andrew Hughes and his ilk, the better it is for the Scott Greenfields and Dan Hulls of the world who understand that client service is the relevant scorecard.

Lessons from Blast Emails

patrick.lamb@valoremlaw.com (Patrick J. Lamb) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:33:00 -0600

Every two weeks, I receive an email from a legal staffing vendor. Each time I receive it, I deleted it. Each time I went through that short process, I was annoyed. Today, I finally unsubscribed. It is highly unlikely I will ever choose to do business with this company, and the annoying blast emails, which send me information I don't want at a time I don't want it, will be one of the principal reasons why. I have to believe that the company did not intend to trigger this reaction: to the contrary, they probably view these emails as an important part of their marketing. But I also have to believe that my reaction is not unique. But I am not writing to tell this story--instead I am wondering what lessons I should learn about my own marketing efforts.

Here are my top lessons:

1. As enamored as I am with our story, the prospective client doesn't care about our story. He or she cares about his or her issues.

2. Talking about "us" is not useful--it is counterproductive.

3. Selling solutions is much better than selling pieces with the idea that the client will assemble a solution.

4. If my goal is to get on someone's radar screen, my outreach has to be either useful or funny. Serious and sales-y, not so much.

Now, to put those lessons to work.

A court hearing with 5 attorneys

patrick.lamb@valoremlaw.com (Patrick J. Lamb) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:17:34 -0600

My partner just returned from court. All by his lonesome. This was a multi-party extravaganza, but one of the parties was represented by 5 attorneys. Count them--one for each finger. One for each day of the work week. How many spoke? Just one. To visualize this, raise your hand with all fingers extended. Then close all your fingers except the middle one (it was the "big shot" who spoke, after all), and you'll have a good idea of what this firm is saying to its client.