Repeat business: Associate your law firm with customer service excellence

We are all experts in what it's like to be a customer, how it feels and the decisions that this experience propels us towards. But, how many of us use that expertise to focus on customer experience in our own businesses? In a market with a full range of choices and options, if an interaction with a business isn't a good one, it's almost guaranteed that, next time around, people will take their custom elsewhere. There are very few industries in which our needs are so unique that another provider is not perfectly competent and usually ready, able and fully equipped to step in where someone else has failed.

Research suggests that our buying patterns are influenced by a number of key factors - personal, cultural, psychological and social. In relation to each individual transaction, our priorities could be driven by a host of issues including:

• cost;

• quality;

• technical excellence;

• location;

• timing;

• handholding through difficulties;

• trusted advisor relationship; and

• commitment to ethical behaviour, sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

We each build our own decision priority matrix and then recalibrate it based on our circumstances at the time (see Figure 1). Our purchasing decisions are driven by a range of factors, with altering levels of priority based on what we consider to be relevant in each particular circumstance.
 

For example, cost is often a key priority for clients and, as a result, an ever-increasing number of legal services can be commoditised at low cost. However, when it comes to 'bet the company' decisions, price is almost certainly less important and the matrix shifts in favour of, for example, technical excellence or reliance on a trusted advisor.

But, to what extent are law firms focused on or even aware of the decision priority matrices of their target clients? How much time have they expended on understanding clients' needs and expectations? What have they done to adapt their businesses and service delivery models to align with clients' requirements?

And, just as importantly, even if your firm is spot-on in reading clients' needs, does the market truly know who you are and what you stand for, what differentiates your firm from the crowd, or what clues are in place to help a potential client choose your firm over any other?

A survey of professional service firms found that there is often an enormous disconnect in perception between clients and their advisers when it comes to issues like value for money, provider proactivity, management contribution, technical competence and client service. This suggests that there still is much work to be done by service providers to fully understand clients' needs and to meet their expectations to a satisfactory level.