Posted In: Culture & Diversity
Law Firm Service Excellence: One Litigation Counsel’s View
During a recent client feedback meeting with a senior Litigation Counsel for a Global Financial Services Company, I asked, “How would you define outstanding service?” He replied,
It’s quite simple. For me it’s about communication. I oversee 38 outside firms. Some get it; some do not. Here are the ways I believe firms best demonstrate value in this manner:
- If I am trying to phone you, please do not play telephone tag with me; just keep trying to reach me until you do and if you leave me a message, let me know roughly when you will try to reach me again.
- I appreciate updates and prefer not to have to ask for them. So please be proactive about calling me with updates before I ask—that shows you are thinking about me, your client.
- Please come visit me. Once a year is fine; a visit says you care and appreciate our company’s business. I have a fine firm I’ve worked with for four years and when I visit our offices in their city, I’m three blocks from them. They’ve never even made the offer to take me to lunch. Unfortunately, we’ll replace them. They don’t understand relationships.
He went on to say there are a lot of good lawyers, the ones who outshine the others are those who over-communicate with their clients.
Sometimes we all need a reminder like this good advice from the senior Litigation Counsel. We are in the service business. Simple and effective communication is a differentiator in today’s busy world. We hear a lot about improving service; it’s not easy to implement good habits across a large firm; but worth trying over and over.
If you have other examples of outstanding service, please comment. We welcome hearing from you.
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