Business development | Service is a beautiful word

With all the hype surrounding social media and, to a lesser extent, business development, it's easy to miss a fundamental point; namely, that solicitors still have to serve their clients, hopefully brilliantly and with unabashed enthusiasm. Indeed, service is the sine qua non of professional services; and, if it were otherwise, every firm would be consumed, in no time at all, by the interminable process of attracting and winning new clients.

But what does service mean? This is not such a stupid question, even allowing for the fact that solicitors have to cope with such oppressive but necessary regulation - necessary, I assume, in giving the brand 'solicitor' leverage in the market.

For many solicitors, it means little more than doing the job. Here is our retainer, we will not deviate from it and we will keep to our costs estimate. If you think there is a hint of criticism in the above, you would be right. How many times do you read one article or study after another that laments the fact that clients still have cause to complain, principally about costs and delays?

Perhaps then 'service' is not ubiquitous. Even if it were otherwise, most firms will assume that one size fits all. But, in doing so, they are at risk of negating the personalised nature of service and the fact that each client group will have a different buyer persona (see webinknow.com and The New Rules of PR and Marketing by David Meerman Scott).

Just ask

Understanding your client persona goes beyond the modality of advice delivery. It touches upon: (a) tone of voice in your communication; (b) the frequency of communication; (c) the format of communication; and (d) any added value services such as newsletters, events and networking opportunities. You might ask how you unlock from your clients' heads this level of detail? A starting point would be to take a leaf out of Amazon's book and ask for feedback beyond the usual client survey information. This need not be at the end of the job or even at noteworthy milestones. Any time is a good time. If the process yields a low return, then invest the time to speak to your clients on the phone or face to face. If you don't have the time, then it might be worth looking for a bit of external help. The thing is, the more you refine your service offering and (consistent) delivery, the more likely it is that your clients will start to talk in terms of a personalised approach and not one hewn from a monochromatic rock.

But service goes way beyond one-to-one communication. What about the exterior of your offices? Or reception? Or the way the phone is answered? Or the ease with which a client can get hold of you? Or the synchronicity in your branded communication offline and online? One the face of it, every managing partner will know how important these aspects are, but, as with any small or medium-sized business, there is a slew of competing demands - cash, wages, tax - and the service wish list is always a compromise: "If only we had more"

Be that as it may, all firms should understand that, no matter what the strength of the relationship or firm association, clients are hardly likely to boast about you to their nearest and dearest if they are embarrassed by a tired faade, a receptionist who is harried and short with clients or a lot of documenation that gives the impression it was printed off a printer where you can't afford ink, let alone decent quality paper.

Tilting at windmills

If you are left thinking "tell me something I don't know", ask yourself who assumes responsibility to make things happen on the service front? To say that firms operate a patchwork approach is probably an understatement. Of course, your resources are stretched paper thin, but just imagine appointing someone to the role of service excellence manager or master of wow (a nod to the seminal book in this area The Pursuit of WOW! by Tom Peters). Yes, I might be tilting at windmills but I would love to enter your premises or make a call only to come away with the lasting impression of exceptional service. And, hopefully, a desire to tell everyone I know (who might in turn tell everyone they know) how brilliant your firm is.

The thing is, firms obsess about winning new work, but it is normally an accepted statistic that it's your existing clients giving you more than 50 per cent of your work. Of course that might reinforce the point that your service is already top drawer, but just imagine, if you could notch it up by a few percentage points how the existing client and referral dial might move up a notch or two. To be clear, I see service through the Kaisen lens (incremental change). If you aim to get better by just a small amount every day - turn around a document 30 minutes earlier or the like - then pretty soon you will be a leader in your field.