Private client focus | Will drafting: loss leader or innovation driver?

Wills present a great example of the wake up call we lawyers need. The world is changing, but I fear we solicitors may be lagging behind, or worse still we imagine we are immune to the need for change.

I don't pretend to have all of the answers to running a successful law firm. But it's not for the want of trying. Our small team in Surrey is encouraged to celebrate change - to be brave, and always question ourselves. Finding the best way of doing things ?excites us. Doing things the way it's always been done, for the sake of convention, is off our radar.

Ralph Waldo Emerson is quoted to have said "use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are". How true is that? But, how many of us 'get it'? You see, like it or not, the documents that we produce for our clients say an awful lot about us as a business. They project our brand. Produce long, wordy and old fashioned wills, and there is every chance that a discerning client will conclude that we are bags of wind stuck in the dark ages. So, what's the alternative?

Tell it like it is

The argument for old fashioned lengthy and wordy wills seems to get little beyond 'we have to use tried and tested precedents'. Really? When did you last test them? And, if you want to say 'I give everything to the dogs home', just say it! Don't dress it up. Don't pad it. It's OK to cut to the chase!

I recently saw clients for will reviews who had had wills in place for many years, but wanted them checking over. They were an older couple, and as they thought it their wills gifted everything to each other, or failing that equally to the kids. What masterpieces. Page after page of 'tried and tested precedents'.

What they, and their previous solicitor had failed to spot in and amongst those loyal old precedents was that, the wife's will had missed the bit about making provision for her husband! It's easy to see how it got missed - not least that the clients wouldn't have had a clue of understanding the antiquated language that rambled on for page after page.

Not that we were ever in any doubt, but rather than second guess what we thought clients wanted we asked them - simple plain English wills, or long wordy old fashioned ones. Go on, have a guess what they wanted… Yep, you've got it, they wanted wills they understood.

Forgive my flippant tone, but we all know that that is a relatively unusual thing to be done in the legal provision - clients will get what we jolly well give them is closer to the truth. But why? Will big hitting service providers (ABSs) do that when they get a hold on the market? No, they won't. They will do as they do in their supermarkets, and insurance companies, and take great care and time in understanding their customers, and give them exactly what they (their customers) want. Fools! That's not how we do law… or is it?

Value for money

Sadly, I've heard with my own ears a fellow practitioner poo poo plain English wills as they (a) remove the mystery, and (b) wouldn't in his view allow him to charge as he does for the lengthy old fashioned wills he favors.

Isn't it about communication? Explain to clients where the value is (the advice), then produce something they can understand and chances are they will be happy, and moreover end up with something they actually understand.

Loss leader or profitable work? I know many of us see wills as a loss leader. But why? Like anything, we need to produce what we sell for less than the price we sell it for. Do that, and you've got a valid business. For me, the trouble is that we still operate in an absurdly old fashioned way, and don't make the most of what modern technology can give us in time and cost savings.

A good case/document management system is at the heart of things for us. We use Peapod's LOLA, and have found it particularly flexible allowing us to add our own stamp to the standard package. We try to never do something twice, and so regularly add to and improve our bank of pre-drafted skeleton wills, advice templates, emails, and so on. It repays itself many times over.

This has removed the need for dictation and secretaries, and our lawyers are all self sufficient. No dictation I hear you cry? I understand that it is a skills point, and if you are not a competent user of computers you will struggle. I guess my rather harsh view on that is that we should all be competent. For me, the process of dictation, toing and froing with draft after draft between lawyer and secretary is absurdly expensive and inefficient. And, it will in time be consigned to the history books. Computers are now an essential part of our working lives, and we must use them to their very best effect.

The process

So, we're agreed that short, plain English wills are the future (that and computers). We're also agreed that short punchy modern wills tell our clients that we are modern forward thinking service providers. But, what about the process of delivering that final, punchy product (the will)? Does that play any part in our flourishing business? You bet it does.

The British cycling team talk about their recent successes being borne out of 'marginal gains'. The same can apply to us. I challenge anyone reading this piece to start with the first call (from a prospective client), and dissect the process right through to the will being signed. Ask yourself if you can make any efficiency gains. And, ask yourself what view your wills client will form of your practice on the back of their 'experience' (or better still ask them). Were you a pleasure to deal with, responsive, never needed chasing, and did you strip away all of the mystery producing a beautifully short and simple plain English will? Or, were you slow, difficult to talk to, and made it all very difficult to understand?

Come back for more

While we are of course only the providers of a service, we nevertheless often touch people's lives at significant times. In my view, that's a great privilege, and something we should all hold dear. That's quite a different thing to holding ourselves in misplaced high esteem, thinking we're beyond the demands of the modern world. We're not.

Our clients are, more than ever before, expectant of a particular level of service, whether buying wills or widgets. They have become used to other service providers who know and understand them, and do give them exactly what they want. We must do the same. Do that, and the lifeblood of our businesses (our clients) will continue to return. They will continue to tell the friends and family how wonderful we have been, and our provincial practices will continue ?to flourish.