Editor’s Note: With this edition, Denver legal marketing consultant Martha Cusick Eddy begins writing for Law Week Colorado a monthly column, “Client Matters.”
Much has been written about the disconnect between law firms and their clients. From billing to basic communication, there is an indisputable gap between what clients expect, and what law firms deliver.
Here are a few facts that underscore the current divide:
In the 17th Annual Survey of General Counsel conducted by Inside Counsel magazine, 52 percent of law firms gave themselves an “A” on their client relationship. Only 25 percent of the client rated the relationship an “A.”
Similarly, in a presentation to DRI, Bruce MacEwen, publisher of the well-known blog Adam Smith, Esq., observed the gulf to be even wider, noting that two out of three law firms give themselves an “A” on client service, but less than one out of five clients agree.
The Association of Corporate Counsel, or ACC, saw the same trends in its 2008 “Managing Outside Counsel” survey, and as a result, urged law firms to “consider redirecting at least part of the time and money they are spending on new client marketing to assess and address existing client concerns.”
With the launch of the ACC Value Challenge, the organization is taking direct aim at the attorney/client disconnect and putting forth concrete steps for both law firms and corporate counsel to bridge the gap and improve the relationships between both parties.
Overall, the ACC Value Challenge is designed to foster enhanced collaboration and partnership between law firms and their clients.
To get started, the ACC wants participants from both sides of the equation to engage in open, honest dialogue about the delivery and value of legal services.
Here is the question they pose: Working together, how do we improve the value of legal services?
And here are the three steps ACC asks law firms and their clients take to answer that question:
• Meet: Firms are encouraged to choose their three best clients and schedule off the clock brown bag meetings for open dialogue between parties about service, delivery, budgets and value.
• Talk: To facilitate that dialogue, the ACC has assembled a series of questions (available on their Web site at www.acc.com) to guide the meeting.
• Act: Finally, ACC asks firms to act on the information gleaned in those meetings. In order to meet the Value Challenge goals, inside and outside counsel must both be willing to try new ideas to see which enhance overall value.
Much has been written about client interviews and using these programs to drive the value that firms deliver to their clients. Yet despite all the literature, many firms have been reluctant to do so. A 2008 survey of the AmLaw 200 by The American Lawyer found that just 2 percent of responding firms had met with their top 20 billing clients to discuss performance.
The American Lawyer also surveyed in-house counsel members of Legal OnRamp (LOR), leading the magazine’s editor-in-chief to conclude, “The vast majority of LOR respondents reported that their outside firms don’t even bother with client satisfaction surveys.”
And so, the disconnect between law firms and their clients continues.
Our own research with corporate counsel, including 200 interviews with law firm clients across industries, clearly reveals that firms that engage in open dialogue with their clients, conduct discovery to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their relationships and act decisively on feedback to drive increasing client value, are rewarded with loyalty and more profitable client relationships.
In addition to realizing stronger relationships, law firms have even more to gain from open dialogue with their clients. Client roundtables and formal interviews often:
• Uncover dissatisfied clients earlier to prevent unanticipated defections;
• Institutionalize the relationship so clients stay when attorneys in either the firm or the client organization leave;
• Foster enhanced understanding of a client’s overall business, helping to integrate legal strategies with business goals;
• Identify new areas for a law firm to serve a client, driving value for both parties.
The ACC has issued a call that law firm leaders and marketers should heed: Focus on current clients, dig deeper to understand how to improve the value of legal services, and look for win/win arrangements within the relationship – arrangements that benefit both parties with reduced costs, minimized risks, and stronger budget adherence for the client and increased client loyalty and improved profitability for the law firm.
Today’s the day. Take the ACC Value Challenge. Go talk to your clients.
Martha Cusick Eddy is a partner with Marketing Evolutions, which helps law firms develop and implement client feedback programs and client satisfaction surveys and interviews to increase value and improve the attorney/client relationship. Contact her at (720) 231-2183 or martha@marketingllp.com.
