Tailor made

Products and services 'as chosen by you' are touted as bespoke client-led innovations that intend to put one provider above the rest of the market. This kind of responsive behaviour '“ asking people to identify the services they want, how they're delivered, packaged and paid for '“ is the basis for at least three recent successful advertising campaigns, ASDA, Sainsbury's and Natwest. Each corporation stresses its commitment to listening to clients, responds with a new range of reformed products and asks for feedback to enable further service development. This is not just service, this is value-added service.

So, while the supermarkets pull in a raft of creative agencies, market analysts and service development teams, there are major cultural shifts that need to happen in a law firm before this kind of responsive practice innovation can be put into action. This means beyond simply saying you provide quality, client-orientated services on your website. 'Quality' for a start is a vague term '“ what one person perceives as a valuable ROI might not be a generally accepted level of service.

What is needed is a culture of developing services with clients, as well as ensuring you have the commitment and resources internally. Engaging everyone within the organisation and developing the practice with a defined, client-led business plan is essential.

A law firm or chambers looking to gain a market-leading edge requires a definitive understanding of the market, where it wants to gain an advantage, how the business is perceived to be successful by its clients, how the clients use and choose legal service providers and what more it could offer '“ then it needs the right resources to get there and a strategy based on this research.

At Civitas Law, a specialist set of public and civil law barristers, the core focus is to provide bespoke, expert and responsive services to clients. Formed two years ago on a foundation of new standards and practice management models that outstripped even the Bar Council's expectations, it has moved away from traditional set models and is run by an elected management committee. This model is transparent, inclusive and includes professionals from the financial, creative and marketing sectors on the management team to help drill corporate and private sector management values into the business plan. The end result is a more focused and fresh attitude when it comes to working with clients. This enables the set to create new and relevant services, as well as ensuring barristers, clerks and support staff are given the skills they need to do their day job and get involved in business development.

One of the first thing on my agenda after being appointed business development manager earlier this year has been to help guide the management committee and chambers through a process of client engagement and feedback into what Civitas Law offers. The set looked at how it delivers its promises and how it can take the next step in delivering the services that really mean something to clients in the public and private sector. The majority of barristers are founding members, however − just like equity partners− all of them have a stake in the business. This makes engagement easier but not always absolute. It's essential for everyone to be on board when making changes and to develop a brand culture '“ to ensure that statements on websites are more than mere promises and more clients are added to the books.

The magic touch

Major supermarkets have the 'magic touch' course where staff are given basic customer service training, flavoured with the unique style of the brand. Although potentially an alien concept for the legal sector, similar client service skills and courses can be offered across the firm '“ from partners to support staff '“ to disseminate the 'why' and 'how to' of client relationship management (or customer service). For example, Civitas Law has a series of internal workshops (which clients have also asked for) on networking, people management, presentation skills and public relations. This gives them the ability to be responsive to clients, while understanding how this will benefit chambers. It also means barristers and supporting professionals are fully-equipped, confident ambassadors of the brand in the media, at events and with collaborating organisations.

Maintaining that engagement with fee earners has also been made easier by matching the business development plans to the personal development of the individual. All organisations, no matter what size, should have a career development plan or system in place that:

a) gives employees and directors access to the skill sets they need to maintain and progress their role;

b) allows the organisation to be flexible enough to give lawyers/staff the opportunities they expect;

c) ensures a succession/recruitment plan is in place to maintain high standard of practice management when people retire and move on; and

d) keeps people motivated with new projects − be they fee-earning, business development or community/pro bono programmes.

There is some good news for SMEs too. It should be far easier to engage and motive individuals in a smaller team to initiate new ideas, look for collaborative and procurement opportunities and to be responsive to clients' needs.

Lead by example

Looking internally, Civitas Law has also extended the training offering for barristers and staff, to ensure chambers will always have the right people with the right skills and freedoms to innovate the practice. It also looks to industry associations that provide access to further training when people need it. For instance, events held by the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Confederation of British Industry link management, barristers and staff to experts in a multitude of contrasting practice development ideas. They also offer a fresh pair of eyes to look at a new project. In addition, chambers is experienced in the use of agencies and consultants to get the most out of investments in new ventures and programmes '“ whether it's the new website next year or a review of internal systems and processes.

Another recent development at Civitas Law has been to create a 'key performance indicator' system to measure the progress and achievements of the barristers in Civitas Law. This was a response to a demand from individuals who want to measure their progress, not only in their practice, but also in non-billable business development on behalf of chambers.

Recently, barristers and staff have all played a significant role in directing chambers through Bar Mark accreditation (the Bar Council's quality standard). As a direct result of a cohesive determination effectively enhance the procurement, administration, client service management and recruitment elements, the Bar Mark standard was achieved by Civitas Law in just three months '“ a record first for any chambers completing the process in England and Wales. Internally this is a significant recognition that chambers is able to respond to market and industry demands quickly and effectively. Externally it provides its clients with reassurance that the practice is able to innovatively deliver and direct new and existing services in a sustainable, responsible and client-friendly manner. It also provides a benchmark for team working and engagement for future projects that benefit both the business and clients.

Listen to your clients

Many firms have already taken the first step towards client engagement, doing what most consumer companies have done for decades '“ listening to clients to understand how they really use, buy and value services and products. This isn't for the faint-hearted, it requires asking your key clients to be honest about the service your firm delivers and its ability to meet their needs now and in the future.

An experienced marketing professional either inside or commissioned by your organisation can assist in focus groups and feedback, so long as they have a brief of your service areas, types of clients, competitors and service regions. Either one or a series of focus groups and targeted client feedback campaigns can provide you with valuable information about how your clients and target markets really do use legal services, when and why. For some client groups, cost and speed may be the key factor, whereas for others it might be extra services such as access to a full-service HR department when purchasing employment legal services (already a successful and desirable service for clients of a Sheffield-based employment firm).

As well as gaining information about what clients say they do, it's important to understand what they do in practice. This requires delving further into why 'loyal' clients still use your competitors or simply avoid using a solicitor. If you are a full-service firm and your clients purchase different services from different firms, find out why they do it. It could be your clients don't realise you offer will drafting as well as personal injury work, or it might simply be that you could offer a package of services to maintain their loyalty 100 per cent of the time.

This process does need to be managed sensitively and professionally. Make the most of 'neutral' professionals within the organisation, such as a business development or marketing manager. It could also be an HR professional, but it's important that the client is able to be frank with the representative without feeling that they might ruin their relationship with the fee earner. Clients need to feel reassured so they can be honest, but most importantly that their opinions and needs will be followed up '“ either by further meetings to work a new way of working together, or responded to with bespoke solutions.

It could be you are missing out on new business for traditional reasons: not enough client care, having a central point of contact or enough client social events. Or it could be that it takes too long to answer the phone. But there are always relatively low-budget and simple solutions. Rather than invite clients to the mainstream industry events, take them to cross-sector dinners, awards and meetings. Introduce your key clients to people they could do business with or benefit from their expertise.

Do your homework, listen to your clients, give them the added-value services that they are looking for and be their advocate '“ remember to give them a reason to do business with you, above anyone else. It sounds simple, but then the most 'innovative' projects for a successful business often are.