Service: what your clients' clients think.

• Author: Slavin, Nat
• Position: Reprint

The benefits of excellent client service are undeniable. At the 2007 LMA Annual Conference, keynote speaker Harry Beckwith reminded us that our goal is not to have simply "satisfied" clients, but clients who are thrilled, maybe even delighted! Satisfied is akin to a "3" on a five-point scale.

All lawyers believe in their heart that they are doing the best to serve their clients. If you want to support the attorneys you work with, arm them with the tools to better understand what matters to their clients. Support them in their communications and help them get inside the minds of in-house counsel.

In more than 16 years of talking to in-house counsel, I could share "client service" stories that might seem like fiction. Consider the time a client from Korea was asked to fly to Los Angeles to meet its new U.S. law firm and spent 30 hours traveling, only to have the firm bill the client for its lawyer's travel time when going to meet with the client.

I am sure the firm thought the client was "satisfied". How about the lawyers who sit in meetings with clients and use their BlackBerry? Really. It happens. One GC said, "Don't take calls or use your BlackBerry while you are in meetings with me unless it's a true emergency." As the GC went on to say, "Make me feel as if I am your only and most important client even if I'm not." Amazingly, I hear variations of this feedback all the time, although firms rarely hear it directly.

The Fundamentals

To avoid jeopardizing the relationships lawyers have with their clients, lawyers need to understand the fundamentals of client communications. To begin, they need to start getting feedback from their clients on what really matters to them. The following are just a sample of some of the questions you and your lawyers could collaborate on to start this process:

* What motivates their clients?

* What bothers their clients?

* For whom does the client work? Is it the CEO, the CFO, the board?

* What can your lawyers do to convince their clients that learning the details of their business, beyond the matter at hand, is a high priority?

* What do other firms do that your clients highly value?

* How do the clients prefer to communicate?

* How do the clients define responsiveness?

* Do your attorneys think about business conflicts, not just legal conflicts?

At the onset of most engagements, there are only three questions that matter to clients. You can work with the lawyers on the answers; You can add value by making sure...