The traditional approach

While brands, created by the cheque book marketing of multi-million pound advertising budgets, might dominate in consumer goods markets, when it comes to professional services there is the equally important concept of reputation.

Professional services firms have struggled with the concept of brand but have excelled at reputation '“ admittedly in a reactive manner. But can they be more active in maximising the value of hard earned, long-established reputations?

'Marketing catastrophic injuries legal support is a real art and can be tricky,' comments Frances Pierce at 16-partner Rix & Kay in East Sussex. 'Your reputation is important '“ you need accreditations, membership of professional panels and recognition as an expert at national level and by a range of legal and medical contacts.'

Word of mouth is still an incredible force. It would be interesting to explore how the more cutting edge online reputation management strategies '“ for example, third-party ratings, trusted adviser portals and buyer feedback systems '“ might be deployed for legal services. Perhaps larger firms might collaborate and share the costs of such ventures '“ or maybe this is a role for the Law Society once it is freed from its regulatory straightjacket? Some firms have loyalty programmes offering incentives (usually with a charitable donation) to satisfied clients to make recommendations.

Whereas large organisations can provide cash for advertisements, smaller firms might devote their time, leaders and experts to contribute comments, opinions and advice through proactive public relations initiatives. These smaller firms should have existing relationships with local media and community groups and might find it easier to pick up on local concerns. And smart firms are extending their PR online with sensitive advice websites, trusted online communities providing information beyond the narrow confines of legal content, and insight generating collective intelligence initiatives and lively blogs.

Referrer strategies

Reputations are often entrenched in particular geographic communities and are part of the local 'mafia'. So another tried-and-trusted communication strategy in the form of personal selling is the use of intermediaries and referrers.

'The most effective method of developing work is relevant and frequent contact with referrers,' says Frances Pierce. 'I chair the Kent Acquired Brain Injury Forum and I am also the honorary secretary of the Kent Law Society. In addition to preserving the good reputation of the firm, it ensures that key referrers are constantly reminded of us. I also regularly go out to of carers and case managers.'

Emma Moore, associate in the residential property team at 23-partner firm Barlow Robbins in Surrey commented: 'We find it beneficial to give presentations and seminars for estate agents. We focus on new areas of law, changes to the conveyancing process and have more recently, provided on HIPs. We have three offices and our expansion plans focus on increasing the geographical reach around those locations '“ primarily through extending the network of relationships with agents. By storing their information on our marketing database, we are able to keep in regular contact with these agents by inviting them to our educational seminars and hospitality functions as well as sending out updates and newsletters.'

'As most wealthy individuals have a network of advisers we find that is important to develop relationships with the accountants, private bankers and other advisers they use,' concurs Stella Smith, business development director at Boodle Hatfield in London'. This ensures that the client receives a seamless service from their professional advisers, and opens up opportunities of referrals. We have regular social evenings, knowhow sessions, run joint seminars and contribute articles to the in-house magazines of intermediaries.'

Structure and culture

Matthew Hansell at Mills & Reeve says: 'Our networking and relationship management activities are not highly structured but they are a part of the culture here '“ we drum into even the youngest lawyers the need to be closely involved with their professional contacts. And we do allocate the most important intermediaries to particular lawyers so that the relationship is managed properly. We know that more work comes in than goes out so we do not attempt to manage reciprocity.'

'Our marketing focuses on our doorstep '“ the 'village' around Portman Square,' explains Deborah Jeff, head of family at 18-partner firm Seddons. 'We have reciprocal relationships with the local marriage guidance counsellors and with those firms who do not have a family team. We like to know our neighbours well and put things back into the community. Recently we organised a charity quiz night at a local hotel and invited teams from a variety of local organisations '“ banks, financial advisers, accountants, a private club, an advertising agency, a charity, large and small commercial property agents and US and Japanese manufacturing giants turned up. In addition to raising a significant amount for charity we had a really fun evening and established relationships that are enduring.'

And it is important not to forget the need to market internally. Emma Moore adds: 'The residential property department is fortunate as we have many business clients who come to us for residential conveyancing. There are teams in other departments such as probate and family law who refer clients so internal marketing is important to us.'

These strategies do not cost much cash but are expensive in terms of opportunity cost '“ the time of the lawyers who need to pursue them. Some firms have been embracing the idea of employing 'sales professionals' '“ people who are trained in the art of opening doors, establishing rapport and initiating relationships, finding and assessing opportunities and converting interest into business. Such individuals can have a dramatic impact on referrer networks and can be significantly cheaper to deploy on such activities than lawyers.

A key element of sustaining a good reputation and a strong flow of referrals is to provide a high value service to retain client loyalty. Frances Pierce says: 'Clients say they want the old fashioned things '“ courtesy, respect and understanding. Unfortunately, many young lawyers are so focused on the commercial need to get seven to eight chargeable hours recorded that they fail to provide the best service.'

Emma Moore supports the view about personal service. 'Many first-time buyers use the bulk operators, but we deal with other sellers, buyers, leasehold transactions and declarations of trust which are usually too complicated for them. People often come back to us when they have experienced the bulk operators '“ they want someone who is not just reading notes from a computer screen. They place great value in having a single point of contact.'

Regional experts

Nick Fagg, head of residential conveyancing at Rix & Kay adds: 'We are moving towards being the regional experts and make a virtue out of focusing on the complex end of the market. We have had to restructure and retrain everyone in the team (which has over 20 members) and everyone now has a personal marketing plan and is measured on their progress.

'Although we had early initiatives raising awareness and positioning us for HIPs, ultimately the delay helped us '“ we are now becoming recognised by the upmarket agents as a specialist property team with expertise in such areas as country property, enfranchisement and complex or technical work.

'We have a structured and systematic approach to obtaining and measuring feedback '“ at the end of each transaction each client is asked 15 questions and grades our service. We are getting 94.7 per cent overall satisfaction. We also have a similar system for agents with 12 questions and we are achieving 95 per cent satisfaction.'

Stella Smith at Boodle Hatfield sees client relationship management as fundamental. 'Relationship building is key to ensuring that private clients remain loyal to a firm. We have acted for some of the wealthiest individuals in the UK and overseas for generations. We have concentrated on developing a deep understanding of the clients, their families, motivations and interests. We have a programme of corporate hospitality to enable our lawyers to get to know our clients in a social context, and regularly host parties at events such as Garsington Opera, Boodles Tennis and charity dinners.

'We are installing a new CRM system, which is integrated with the accounts system which will enable us to track the often very complex family relationships, monitor referrals to/from other intermediaries, review the profitability of clients, the success of any marketing campaigns, and show us at a glance where we should be focussing more of our time.'

Matthew Hansell at Mills & Reeve stresses the importance of forward planning. 'There are 12 partners and 80 lawyers in our private client group across the country and we are now writing our plan for the next three to five years so that we know where we want to be and how we will get there. The national leaders of the private client team will then allocate the tasks to the teams in the various offices so that we are all involved. We could probably do some more research. Obviously we talk to our clients on a day-to-day basis to ensure that we know what they want but we do not do it formally yet. We have a website but do not think we are making as much of this as we could. We know that when people type questions and topics into the search engine in the site they do not always get the information that they need '“ so that is an area that we will be looking at more closely.

'The secret of success is to have a real commitment to private client work. And then to build a team that can succeed. You need at least 15 per cent of the firm's turnover in private client markets to get the investment you need. It is bad management if firms can not do private client work profitably '“ it is just about getting the right systems, gearing and charge out rates sorted. Private client work is relatively non-cyclical too and is far less prone to peaks and troughs than some legal work.'

Direct clients

What these three strategies '“ reputation, referrers and relationships '“ share is a deep knowledge of direct clients and referrers (indirect clients). In the world of business strategy, Treacy and Wiersema's dimensions of competence model says there are only three routes to success '“ excelling in operational efficiency, product/service leadership or client intimacy. The majority of small and medium firms appear to be focusing on the client intimacy strategy to get them through increased competition from large commercial competitors who have the resources to increase efficiency and develop cutting edge packaged products and services.