Client Care

Client Care has two vital elements.

If we refer to Practice Rule 15 and the need to agree on precise terms of engagement before proceeding we are using the term in its usual sense in a legal office. This is absolutely vital and an unbreakable requirement but you would not believe how many senior solicitors I come across that still miss this on most if not all files. You remind them that they may have no entitlement to a fee unless it is done and that the Law Society regulators require it but it makes little difference.

Good Client care in the regulatory sense is a given and we can deal with it quickly. I favour a neat Terms of business leaflet that covers all the small print stuff – cancellation terms, storage of documents, complaints procedures and so on. This method gives several benefits:

1)The terms in place at any given time will have been carefully drafted by someone senior and will be uniform for all departments, with any changes applied across the firm. Too often I have seen Rule 15 letters drafted by individual departmental heads and then amended as time went by. There had been no uniformity to begin with and less and less as time went by. Quality control and risk management had become very difficult as the rules varied so much between departments.

2)The actual letter sent as matters are opened can be short and precise, outlining only such things as what the FE understands the client’s instructions to be and the other things specific to the case. As far as all the small print is concerned the letter need only refer to “the enclosed leaflet”. Doing this any other way involves a many page letter that looks far less professional to a client.

Once this is established the only thing to do is to make sure they are done. File review procedures should take a firm line if ever such a letter is missing (see Quality Control – File Review).

Now let us move on to the aspect of Client Care that may not be a requirement but that is every bit as vital – taking the very best care of the client.

There is a tendency in many firms to be too inward-looking. Staff get so involved in their work that they appear to forget just why they are there, what it is all for. As I have written elsewhere, solicitors enjoy the intellectual challenge and sometimes seem to forget the other important elements in providing services to clients. We need constantly to have our minds on what the client is experiencing and here the smallest things can make big differences.

I was involved at one time with a firm that had a good-sized and well-respected wills, trusts and probate department. We took a call from a potential new client who wanted to come and discuss her requirements. A senior FE saw her promptly and after he had spoken with her for a few minutes he quickly brought in the head of department. It had transpired that she worked for a local charitable trust involved in the care of the elderly and they needed a good local firm to take on all the tax planning, will writing and so on for their many residents. We clearly made a good impression because she decided to use the firm, and a very useful amount of work followed. (in fact I had nothing but respect for that department, which took really excellent care of its clients and always seemed to go the extra mile for them. As a result it was also always busy and highly profitable).

The lady in question told us of the experience she had had visiting other firms – she had carefully checked out other local firms before making her selection. In one she had been met by a narrow reception hatch through which a busy secretary in another room had given her the curtest of greetings before saying “Take a seat!” and had then been kept waiting completely alone for thirty minutes past the appointment time. She had been about to leave when a distant, booming voice from somewhere upstairs called out “Come!” Somewhat bewildered she eventually realized that this call was meant for her. She had to climb the stairs alone and look through a number of open office doors before she found the caller, who turned out to be the senior partner. She was then treated with disdain by a man who clearly had little interest in her or her business and who was constantly interrupted by the phone, expecting her to sit quietly while he talked on it at length each time.

Now, this may seem like a silly question, but would you have chosen that solicitor? And yet that experience is not particularly unusual.

So the golden rule of good client care is VERY simple. Put yourself in the client’s shoes! In fact this is all tied up with marketing so please see the thoughts on those pages, including Marketing - Reception.

Some further thoughts on this area of client care a a marketing tool?

Really excellent client care works better than trying to win new clients. Happy, satisfied clients tell their friends and this makes it a very real and vital marketing tool. It should really be thought of as the biggest single part of your marketing strategy and so given the attention it deserves.

Surveys have found that a happy customer or client will tell five or six people, while an unhappy one will tell 23! The need to delight clients is clear.

Send your clients something whenever you can find an excuse. Birthday cards may be going a bit to far but a "Welcome to your new home" card should go down well. It's all about keeping your name in the client's mind.

And finally - the most neglected opportunity of all, in most firms across the country: Cross Selling. Surveys show that whenever clients go elswehere to their next job it is usually because they did not know that the previous firm did that kind of work. And yet this is easily fixed. Make it a part fo your file closing routines, on the checklist and required of all FEs, and monitor it. I can yield huge benefits but at the end of the day it really is all about taking good care of your clients.

And don't be afraid to ask your clients what they think of you. You will seldom get the chance to see your FEs at work with clients and you may have one or two that could handle them better. A regular survey of client satisfaction levels will be enormously helpful in preventing damage to your business.

IMPORTANT NOTE

All the opinions expressed are those of the contributors, are based on personal experience and are given in good faith. The ideas and suggestions here have worked for us but every situation is different. As a result, we are sure you will understand that no liability can be accepted for anything that may arise from following advice on this site.