Articles From the Team

Talk to your clients

Being 40 years old I have fond memories of working in an office where using a fax or post was the only way of marketing information to your clients, amazing isn’t it? No e-mail, no text, no navigating technological mazes. I can’t imagine how I ever transacted any legal recruitment specific work without the internet, but I did. I remember that I had to speak to my clients A LOT. You had no choice.

Most law firms today are “striving to increase their customer service or product quality levels”. We hear this a lot, firms describing themselves as 100% "customer-focused" or "customer-centric." I remember living day to day without hearing phrases like this and we all did ok but they have become common place in our on-line driven culture. Being on-line should really improve the customer experience but research tells us that its having the opposite effect.

I think we can probably all recall that at some point in the last month you have been let down when dealing on-line or off line with a service provider. I think that without doubt customer service levels are slipping and many of us are frustrated by attitudes of indifference or being bounced around a website only to find not what you were looking for but something far less relevant. Having said that, we could all name a company we are happy to buy services from, it’s these firms that we need to take notice of.

What do these firms have in common? They have what is known as an “integrated customer focus”. Here’s what that is:

Ring One – The Basic Product – so if we were talking about a hotel room booking we would be talking about a bed, a toilet, a TV…

Ring Two – Expected Product – we don’t control this ring, it’s all in the customer’s head so if we continue with hotels we are now moving on to a kettle and some nice snacks, a paid for mini bar, a menu for room service and WIFI.

Ring three – the WOW – the fresh flowers in the room and the free bottle of wine with a welcome note and collection from the airport.

But, you cannot implement any of this without first speaking to your client.

For more information please contact BCL Legal or call 0845 241 0933.