I am sitting here pondering a project I asked someone else to do. I don’t know whether it is done. It should have been done by now, but I don’t know because I haven’t heard from the person I tasked with the assignment. I don’t want to have to keep this task in the front… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Client Communications
Subscribe to Client Communications RSS FeedWhen you need to, apologize. With feeling!
Posted in Client CommunicationsAt first, I thought the multitude of thoughts was simply the failure of one’s mind to bring order to the thinking process as a result of too many cocktails. But I didn’t have that many last night, so maybe I just needed to think harder to bring order to chaos. Maybe there was a central… Continue Reading
Watercoolers and clients
Posted in Client CommunicationsThey (and have you ever, like me, wondered who they are?) say that nature abhors a vacuum. I was reminded about the wisdom of this gem during a recent deposition. My witness was testifying about the sale of a company and management’s why management was releasing information to the employees. As she said, " you… Continue Reading
Forms of Address: Personal or Impersonal?
Posted in Client CommunicationsI received an email yesterday that began "Hi Patrick J." It caused a flashback to my childhood. When my mother was angry with me, she called me Patrick J. When she was really ticked off, she called me Patrick John. And when it was certain she was going to whip my sorry behind, it was… Continue Reading
On The Importance Of Writing Well
Posted in Client Communications, CommentaryMore litigation results from bad drafting that one can possibly imagine. Excellent writing is a critical component of excellent client service. My friends at What About Clients have two terrific posts on good writing. The first reminds us that writing well is hard work. The second discusses client-centered writing and advances the argument that over-reliance… Continue Reading
Bad News? Don’t Ignore the Gorilla.
Posted in Client CommunicationsYou can’t. But it’s amazing how people keep trying to ignore that old gorilla. As I’ve mentioned, I was listening to a panel of General Counsel share some stories last week. This story was told by one of them. The took a case to trial. And got hammered. Way beyond what trial counsel had predicted… Continue Reading
Trusted Advisor’s Insights On Transparency And Selling
Posted in Client Communications, Client Service, CommentaryMark Slatin has a most interesting post on Trusted Advisor. In Transparency and Selling, he writes: Yet, we’re trained to go in come back with information that will close the sale. Hunt it, kill it and bring it back to eat. • What if, instead of dancing around an answer we don’t know, we just… Continue Reading
Lessons From My Wife’s Broken Wrist
Posted in Client Communications, Client Service, CommentaryLast Saturday, my wife slipped and broke her wrist. Yesterday, her wrist was surgically repaired. She’s doing fine. I learned a couple of things while at the hospital that are germane to this blog. Here they are, in no particular order: 1) Your waiting room says a lot about you. A few weeks ago, I… Continue Reading
An Email Pet Peeve: Auto-reply
Posted in Client Communications"I will be out of the office until Tuesday, August 19. If your matter is urgent, please contact my assistant, Robin Hood, at 222-555-7777, or reach me on my cell phone at 222-555-9999. Thank you." You have a Blackberry–everybody does. Use it. This is the 21st Century. We have technology that allows people to communicate… Continue Reading
Both sides: you reap what you sow
Posted in Client Communications, Client Service, Commentary, Hourly Rates and AlternativesFor you GCs in the audience: how is it possible for this to happen? How is it possible a firm can spend that much money and you don’t know the detail of what the firm is doing? On a matter of this importance, where the fee is going to be large, you would have a… Continue Reading
Voicemail Greetings and TMI
Posted in Client CommunicationsWe’ve all experienced this. You call someone. The message starts. "Hi, I’m away from my desk…." And it goes on and on. And on some more. Ever hear this kind of message: " I’m visiting a really important client in a really exotic city and won’t be back in the office for several days. However,… Continue Reading
Email Free Fridays As Tool To Strengthen Client Relationships
Posted in Client CommunicationsLife without email? Probably not happening. But what about a day without email? Just imagine–an entire day where you actually had to … speak with people. Gulp! As I was driving in this morning, I was, as always, listening to NPR. The story that caught my attention was one on email-free Fridays at… Continue Reading
The Unique Relationship Between Clients and Lawyers: The Lawyer’s View
Posted in Client Communications, Client Surveys and AuditsTrust me, for a moment at least, that all of the following points eventually will come together. Every time I have the opportunity, I ask in-house counsel about whether their lawyers conduct formal or informal satisfaction meetings. Almost invariably, the answer is no. I always follow up by asking whether the client would find such… Continue Reading
“I try to leave out the parts that people skip.”
Posted in Client CommunicationsCheck out this post about excess verbiage in blogs at Instabloke. I plead guilty. I promise to do better. Good lesson about every kind of writing. Marketing materials. Emails. Letters to clients. Briefs. Each word should be essential to the communication.
Remember This Before Complaining
Posted in Client CommunicationsHow frequently do we complain? We all do so a lot. Sometimes we complain about things in the presence of our clients because they also are our friends. And because we are lawyers, are complaints are spiced-up and witty. Next time, maybe not so fast. I received an email today from my brother-in-law, a retired… Continue Reading
Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! The Worst Word In The Inhouse Lexicon
Posted in Client CommunicationsI received the July 2007 issue of Litigation News from the ABA today. The lead article reported on a 2006 survey conducted by the Association Of Corporate Counsel (incidentally, no longer known as the American Corporate Counsel Association, as it is referred to in the article), and then discussed a Section of Litigation program from… Continue Reading
After The Mistake Redux
Posted in Client Communications, Client Service, Leadership and ManagementMistakes. Everyone hates them, but everyone makes them. The thing that separates great client service from lawyers looking for new clients is how you deal with them. Some time ago, I provided a prescription for dealing with mistakes in my post, After The Mistake. Noted blogger Jim Calloway picked up on my post here, which… Continue Reading
Voicemail–Useful Tool Or Devil’s Folly?
Posted in Client CommunicationsTom Collins at morepartnerincome has a most interesting post on telephones and the use of voicemail. Tom’s post picks up on an article by Dan Pinnington in Law Practice. Tom picks up on this advice from Pinnington: Open with your name and title so the caller is sure they reached the correct mail box. Update… Continue Reading
Our Forms Of Communication
Posted in Client CommunicationsWith thanks to Matt Homann (the [non]billable hour) for the link, think about this information from William Glasser: How We Learn 10% of what we READ 20% of what we HEAR 30% of what we SEE 50% of what we SEE and HEAR 70% of what is DISCUSSED with OTHERS 80% of what is EXPERIENCED… Continue Reading
Good Writing
Posted in Client CommunicationsNot too long ago, I ran across a post on the the number of words in various writings generally regarded as among humankind’s best. The Pythagorean Theorem–24 words; The Lord’s Prayer–66 words; The Ten Commandments–179; The Gettysburg Address–186; The United States Constitution–1300 words. I am told that the U.S. Government’s regulations on the sale of… Continue Reading
Listening To–And Learning From–The Masters
Posted in Client CommunicationsI had a few moments of free time, so I started looking back at some blog posts I had saved but hadn’t really had time to read and think about. Guy Kawasaki of How To Change The World posted about an interview with Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google. Guy’s post caught my attention… Continue Reading
Law Firm Websites and Presidential Candidates
Posted in Client CommunicationsOn more than a few occasions, a firm’s website is one of its first communications to a new client. The client wants to check a firm out before picking up the phone to make a call. So I’ve reviewed a lot of websites to see what the firm says about itself. I’ve concluded that the… Continue Reading
The Case Of 1 + 1 = 5
Posted in Client Communications, Client Service, Selection of counselInteresting post in Rees Morrison’s Law Department Management blog. Thoughts on Why Law Departments Retain Outside Counsel discusses several theories. First, brains vs brawn. This theory postulates that inside counsel handle the routine stuff but turn to outside counsel for more challenging work. Second, the overflow theory. Here, outside counsel are retained whenever there is too much work… Continue Reading
That Time Entry Is A Critical Communication To Your Client
Posted in Client CommunicationsI’ve written before about the importance of clear, crisp, distinctive writing when recording time, using entries to tell a persuasive story. The entry is here. Tom Collins has a terrific post making the point in a more compelling manner. Tom writes the morepartnerincome.com blog. As Tom reminds us: There is one thing that you send… Continue Reading