My friend Mark Herrmann of Aon writes for Above The Law, sharing his insights as an inside lawyer. I read his post religiously because I learn a lot. Today, Mark wrote Inside Straight:How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Ignorance about the fact that in his new job, he doesn’t know as much… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Client Service
Subscribe to Client Service RSS FeedScoring client service–great idea from Matt Homann
Posted in Client Service, Commentary, People, Places and BlawgsI loved this post by Matt Homann suggesting lawyers score their client service on the quality of the client’s experience as well as the quality of the result. Matt’s “scorecard” is included at left. Matt’s suggestion is to ask your clients to show where you fit in the quality of experience/quality of result chart and… Continue Reading
“Smart” products helping lawyers capture even more time only add to hourly rate feeding frenzy
Posted in Client Service, Hourly Rates and AlternativesI got an email today that is proof that mass emailers don’t care a bit about who receives the emails. The mass email, on behalf of Smart WebParts, offered this enticement: Smart Time moves timekeeping into a new era, finally offering timekeepers a way to keep up with today’s hypermobile, multitasking work environments. In this new… Continue Reading
The importance of proofreading
Posted in Client Service, GeneralFrom the world of sports: A dispute over contract language that affects seven fired Jacksonville Jaguars assistant coaches for over $3 million may have been one of the factors that led to the dismissal of Paul Vance, the team’s senior vice president of football operations and general counsel, according to league sources. A source said… Continue Reading
It’s a great time of the year for law firms!
Posted in Client Service, Commentary, Hourly Rates and AlternativesI’ve been away from my blog the past little while. I had a case that was to start trial on October 24th. We finally picked a jury on December 5th and a verdict on December 15. The complete win for our client made this marathon worth it, but the trial occupied my complete attention for… Continue Reading
A great customer service story
Posted in Client ServiceYou gotta read this story. Way to go Morton’s! But think beyond the story. What does Morton’s do to create that kind of customer service culture? If anyone knows, please share.
Leo Burnett’s Advice To Lawyers
Posted in Client Service, Marketing, Branding and Sales"Don’t tell me how good you make it. Tell me how good it makes me feel when I use it."
Early Case Assessment Form Available
Posted in Client ServiceThe International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution has just released the 2010 version of its Early Case Assessment Toolkit. I am pleased to have been involved in the development of this tool and the ECA form. Even if you choose not to take advantage of this product, you certainly should be using some form of… Continue Reading
More on Kodak–Worst Service in History
Posted in Client ServiceIf you’re not familiar with my Kodak saga, you might want to read about it first. Kodak sent me an email. Here is the pertinent part, along with my comments: I am sorry to hear that your order confirmation email was delayed. Please be informed that all orders over $100 are automatically being reviewed by… Continue Reading
Kodak: Worst Customer Service In History
Posted in Client Service, CommentaryAll I wanted to do was order a Kodak zi8 video camera. How hard can that be, right? I went to the Kodak website and ordered it. At the end, I didn’t get an order confirmation. I got a cryptic statement that my order was "under review." No information on how long it would be "under… Continue Reading
Adding value by deconstructing
Posted in Client Service, CommentaryI was talking about how Valorem works, saying that we do things where we add value and try to avoid things where we don’t. I was pressed for an example, and here is one that jumped to mind. We needed to analyze a mitigation issue under California law. The normal practice is to have your… Continue Reading
McCormick and Schmick’s: Example of Poor Service
Posted in Client Service, CommentaryMy partner loves to eat lunch at McCormick and Schmick’s on East Wacker in Chicago. At least she did. M and S is in our building, so it’s convenient. And the food is usually good. But the last half dozen times she has joined them for lunch, they have screwed up her order. Wrong salad. Wrong… Continue Reading
Bank Of America Still Doesn’t Get It
Posted in Client Service, CommentaryLast week inExample Of Really Bad Client Service, I told the story of my colleague’s really bad experience with Bank of America. Per my custom, I tweeted about my post. A number of people retweeted my tweet, and eventually one of them included @BofA_Help on the retweet. @BofA_Help is described as "official Bank of America… Continue Reading
Example of Really Bad Client Service
Posted in Client Service, CommentaryMy colleague got married on January 2nd and changed her name from Lisa Castle to Lisa Carter (huge monogram savings). Now as unique as Lisa is, you can imagine that there are a few Lisa Carters in the world. Some of them have chosen to bank at Bank of America. Unlike Lisa Carter of Valorem,… Continue Reading
Get off your phone. Thank you.
Posted in Client Service, CommentaryAlong the lines of my last post on lessons from a scoundrel, I urge you to visit Brains on Fire and read On the people right in front of you. Eric Dodd was visiting a coffee shop named the Ugly Mug in Ypsilanti, Michigan–I’ll let him pick up the story here: When I went up… Continue Reading
Client service lessons from a legendary scoundrel: email is not a good substitute for conversation
Posted in Client Service, Commentary"Don’t write anything you can phone. Don’t phone anything you can talk. Don’t talk anything you can whisper. Don’t whisper anything you can smile. Don’t smile anything you can nod. Don’t nod anything you can wink." Former Louisiana Governor and legendary scoundrel Earl Long. Normally, one does not turn to scoundrels for lessons in client… Continue Reading
How do you treat your best customers?
Posted in Client ServiceOnce again, the real world provides wonderful lessons. My wife calls to tell me to cancel a credit card–the bank had raised our interest rate to 30% "because we didn’t carry a balance." Our primary card is at 9%, so 30% isn’t going to cut it. I call the bank (which I won’t identify ,… Continue Reading
A Customer Service Failure
Posted in Client ServiceI just concluded a stay at a Four Seasons Hotel. When checking out, I was stunned to see two $100 plus charges for phone calls. When I inquired about the charges, I was told that the first minute of each call is $8 and each subsequent minute was $3. The rates are not listed on… Continue Reading
Service is a choice. What choices do you make?
Posted in Client Service, CommentaryCourtesy of a tweet by Gini Dietrich, CEO of Arment Dietrich, I was directed to Speed, In The Right Direction, a post about lessons to be learned from Apollo Ohno, America’s most decorated winter Olympian. Ohno had a hugely successful Olympic experience in Turin, and then hit the celebrity circuit. Blogger Randy Hall picks… Continue Reading
Once More, With Meaning: Ours is a Service Business
Posted in Client Service, CommentaryCourtesy of the inestimable Scott Greenfield, I was referred to a post by self-proclaimed leadership expert, Andrew Hughes. It appears that Andrew’s leadership expertise comes from being "part of the senior leadership team of a national [Australian] law firm." As I have said, the odds of the words "leader" and "law firm" appearing in a… Continue Reading
Customer Service In Action: A Great Story
Posted in Client ServiceKayak.com is a way cool company. If you travel and want to choose amongst the best options, rather than having the choice made for you, it is the best place to go. But that’s not why I am writing this post. My partner Nicole Auerbach shared this great article about one of Kayak’s founder’s, Paul… Continue Reading
Responsiveness is damned important
Posted in Client Service, CommentaryI have a new matter on which I inherited local counsel. I send emails asking simple questions, like "did you do a choice of law analysis before saying State A’s law applies." Days later, I’m still waiting for a response. I am waiting for, literally, a one word response. The fact that I haven’t gotten… Continue Reading
Storytelling … and Client Service
Posted in Client ServiceIt is amazing how one well-written sentence can communicate volumes and engage the reader to think beyond the sentence. My friend Dan Hull writes my favorite blog, What About Clients?. He had a post the other day with the simple title, Storytelling. The entirety of the post was this quote from Anton Chekhov: Don’t tell… Continue Reading
Valorem’s Mark Sayre: sharing insights on securing insurance coverage is great client service
Posted in Client ServiceMy partner Mark Sayre spent a lot of years trying cases on behalf of insurance companies. Turns out, all that work for insurance companies not only helped him become a great trial lawyer, but it also gave him loads of insights into the netherworld of insurance coverage. Mark has written a paper on how businesses… Continue Reading