Author: Anita Turner

I just finished The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America’s Leading Design Firm at the recommendation of Dave Gray.  (See more of his recommendations here.  You cannot go wrong with any of his suggestions.)

While written in 2001, this book is still very relevant today.  As evidence, in the book, the authors discuss how they would improve the check-in and departure process at airports.  Virtually every recommendation they made in 2001 is in effect in airports now.

Little Improvements Matter

One important point in the book is that not all innovation is of industry-disrupting scale.   As an example of this, the authors discuss the JanSport backpack company.  When customers return backpacks for repair, the company mails out postcards stating:

“Hi! Warranty Service Camp is really cool.  They say they’re sending me home soon.  Gotta run… we’re doing zipper races today!”

While this is arguably very silly, JanSport reports that nearly all of the correspondence the company receives now consists of cheery thank-you notes rather than angry customer letters.

What one small thing could you do today to improve your law firm clients’ experience? 

End-Of-Project Awards

Here’s an idea from the book applied to the legal industry: end-of-project awards.  (I am not talking a lucite for your desk shelves.)  Imagine that at a closing dinner for a major deal, instead of just running up a big bar tab and making small talk, you awarded the various deal participants (lawyers, business people, etc.) in a way that makes light of a blunder or “cleverly captures the heart of an individual’s achievement.”  As an example, one of IDEO’s studio heads sent a reversed drawing to a tooler; “his award was a mirror on a plaque.”

End-of-project awards create a memorable experience and the clients go home with fun tchotchkes that will forever remind them of the positive experience of working on a deal with you.

I have been doing a lot of reading lately on the need for law firms to refocus their strategy on the client.  This refocus includes everything from better understanding the client and the client’s business to providing an exceptional client experience.  For those who are as interested in this subject as me[i], here are some of the books I have found most valuable along with some small lessons from each.

Why do law firms need to refocus on the client?

In short, because clients are asking for it, and they are going to start asking more loudly. And you can’t increase revenue without clients.

American Law Firms in Transition: Trends, Threats and Strategies by Randall Kiser is an incredible primer on many hot topics in the legal industry.[ii]  It includes this summary of an ALM Legal Intelligence survey of law firm leaders: “’Growing the firm’s revenue’ is the highest priority for law firms.  But only 56 percent of firms have a ‘plan in place to build, track and measure client loyalty and satisfaction.’  Only 21 percent of leaders would like to ‘provide higher service levels,’ and only 9 percent would like to ‘institute client satisfaction surveys/interviews.’  Increasing revenue without tracking and improving client service strikes most people in business as incongruous, if not impossible.”

This means that law firms are relying on raising rates and billing more hours as their primary means of increasing revenue – probably not a sustainable long term strategy.

Another of my favorite Kiser observations is this: “Although attorneys try to impress new clients with their competence, clients are seeking answers to three threshold questions: Can I trust you? Do you care about me? Are you committed to my success?”  As a former lawyer, upon reading this, I realized that I often default to trying to prove my competence as a qualified expert in an initial client meeting, rather than focusing on building trust and warmth.

If we want to increase revenue, it seems logical to start with providing the buyer of our services with the exact service they want and need.  This has to be part of a law firm’s strategy.  How can we increase revenue if we are too busy proving our competence and never stop to ask clients what they are looking for?

In Legal Upheaval: A Guide to Creativity, Collaboration, and Innovation in Law, Michele Destefano elaborates on this point, stating that the value provided to outside counsel when law firms spend time “problem finding” versus “problem solving” is significant.

Destefano quotes the GC of a global cybersecurity company speaking about her outside counsel:  “They want to have a one hour kickoff call but really just want to suck off info from you and they are sort of listening to you but also selling themselves and it’s an hour and a half and they bill you for it and you could have found it on my website and then asked five minutes of targeted questions and that would have showed your value.”  Preach.  It is hard to overstate the value of doing your homework.[iii]

[Note: while worth reading, Legal Upheaval doesn’t make my “ohmygosh, you have to read this” list.]

 

How can we make this shift happen?

 

Build trust within your firm and realize that takes time.  No one is going to listen to advice from someone they don’t trust.

Law is a Buyer’s Market: Building a Client-First Law Firm by Jordan Furlong is an incredibly thorough study on how to shift your firm’s focus to one that is more client-centric.[iv]  Furlong acknowledges throughout the book that making this change is hard and offers this advice on the best approach: “Veteran salespeople talk about the “rule of seven touches” – it requires seven personal interactions to establish a level of trust sufficient for someone to take up a suggested course of action… Facilitating change in an organization is not that different.”

Don’t make it about you or take credit.

In Leading Professionals: Power, Politics and Prima Donnas by Laura Empson, Empson discusses at length the ideal people to lead law firms.[v]  One observation specifically really resonated with me: “it takes a special kind of person to succeed as a management professional within such organizations.  They need to be exceptionally good at the job but also willing to stay out of the limelight.”

And make the shift easy.

I read a whole book on this called Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.  In it, the authors state “If you want people to change, you can provide clear direction… or boost their motivation and determination… Alternatively, you can simply make the journey easier.  Create a steep downhill slope and give them a push.  Remove some friction from the trail.  Scatter around lots of signs to tell them they’re getting close.  In short, you can shape the Path.”

The Heath brothers’ lesson?  If you want to help your firm make a change, make it as easy as possible.  For example, if you want your real estate associates (and even some partners) to better understand the economics of real estate deals so they can better understand their clients’ motivations, create a lunch seminar on the topic and secure CLE credit for the time.  Feed them; provide them CLE time; and don’t take them away from their desks for more than hour.  Win. Win. Win.

Before you tell me, “easier said than done,” I have done exactly this.  It’s not that hard.  (And if you would like me to teach your associates this commercial real estate economics lesson, send me an email.)

 

What are some concrete examples of what the shift to knowing your client better and exceptional client experience looks like?

 

Remember: the little things add up.

It seems obvious to start this topic with a book named Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization by Leonardo Inghilleri and Micah Solomon.  However, to be honest, I probably would not have heard of this book if I had not attended a Law Firm COO/CFO Summit moderated by Inghilleri a few years ago.  Inghilleri’s insights were incredibly eye-opening and I was anxious to read more of them.

In Exceptional Service, Inghilleri and Solomon discuss the collective effect of small client-focused touches. (p.72)  They warn that while a firm might believe that something like a follow-up thank you note is not valuable to the client, getting rid of it can have unforeseen ramifications.  “All of these touch points, and so many more, ultimately build an experience that is more than the sum of its parts: The collective is what does it.  That’s why the attention to details is so important in the service business: making sure that each one of those touch points is well executed.”  He adds “service-focused companies tend to delete crucial value from their service offerings, all in the name of efficiency.”

The Power of Moments by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, echoes this sentiment with the statement:  “Beware the soul sucking force of reasonableness.”  For instance, while it is easier and arguably accomplishes the same purposes, an emailed Thank You does not make the same impact as one that is handwritten and mailed.  Reasonably, email saves time.  But it’s a compromise.  Don’t compromise.

Over deliver.

Another Inghilleri gem: “Don’t imagine you’re doing something special for a customer by making things how they should have been in the first place.” (p.35)  In context, Inghilleri is referring to compensating a customer for a service failure.  However, I believe it applies to all service delivery.  If you deliver only what is expected, you are not creating a client for life.

Don’t pass up an opportunity to know what your client is thinking.

The End of Lawyers: Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services by Richard Susskind is a must-read classic for those interested in the legal industry.  Among all of the big ideas, I found this little gem: “Most lawyers with whom I speak dismiss Twitter as yet another plaything for their children.  Of what possible relevance, they inquire, could this possible be for a senior legal practitioner?  I reply that I know quite a few General Counsel and senior in-house lawyers who now use Twitter and regularly send out messages about what they are doing, what they are thinking, and where they are going: and if my clients were sending out regular updates on their news and views, I would want to be on the receiving end, even if the medium has a slightly silly name.”

On a related note, I suggest searching for your client’s individual and company names on the Podcast app.  If they are speaking on a podcast, you should probably listen to what they have to say.

In the next installment of “what Anita is reading,” I will share some articles I think may be worth your time.

Until then…

 

[i] I realize I just lost 90% of my readers with this statement.

[ii] Send me an email if you would like a copy of my extensive notes on this book.

[iii] I preach this to my kids on the daily and it is yet to be determined whether the message is sinking in.

[iv] I highlighted half the book as I found so much of it worth future reference.

[v] A must-read if you are a managing partner or COO/Executive Director.

A few years ago, law firm Paul Hastings re-titled their administrative assistants to “client service assistants.”  Why? To emphasize that the job of all Paul Hastings employees is ultimately to serve the clients.

I am not a Paul Hastings client, so I can’t tell you whether this translated to better client service, but I applaud the approach.  It is straight out of the Zappos’ playbook created by its founder Tony Hsieh, and Zappos gets service right.

In his book, Delivering Happiness, Hsieh details the different approaches Zappos uses to instill the client service mentality into its culture.  The first is to make customer service a priority for the whole company.  Another is to make Wow a verb that is part of the company’s everyday vocabulary. And my favorite: view each call as an investment in building a customer service reputation.

These methods are highly applicable to the administrative staff in the legal industry.[i]  Three examples of what this would look like if a law firm or other service firm put them into action include:

The Admin/Client Service Person Who Always Answers the Phone

When people need to talk to their attorney, they often really need to talk to their attorney; however, when they call, they frequently get voicemail.  They are forced to leave a message with no idea when they will get a return phone call and no way of communicating the urgency of their request.  Their anxiety level increases until they hear back from said attorney, which could be in five minutes or five days.

The client is ultimately going to understand if the attorney could not get back to them for a good reason, but wouldn’t it be so much better to alleviate the client’s anxiety at its onset?  Give the client the option to “zero out” of voicemail and speak with the client service assistant.  Then make darn sure the assistant answers the phone or returns the phone call right away.  The assistant can ease the client’s mind by setting an expectation as to when they will be able to talk with their attorney or by connecting them to another attorney at the firm if the matter is urgent.

This sounds intuitive and elementary.  I can assure you, it is not.  If you doubt me, ask your clients what their experience has been when trying to reach an attorney at your firm.  Maybe even include a question about phone call experiences in client interviews.  See what you hear.

[Side note: I wrote a whole blog post here on the importance of just answering the dang phone.]

The Admin/Client Service Person Who Knows the Clients

I have had some amazing administrative help in my career, and some of the best support came from the people who knew my clients.  These people looked my clients up on LinkedIn, kept notes in my Outlook on the clients’ birthdays, alma maters, and likes/dislikes, and then used that information so that we could better serve the clients.

As an example, I had an assistant who set up her own Google alerts on some of our clients.  She would give me a heads up if an individual or a company was in the news and the newsworthy event warranted a phone call or other recognition from me/us.  This was so appreciated by my clients and me!

The Proactive Need-Recognizer

When you can go beyond the first and second levels of customer service (meeting expectations and meeting desires) to the third level – meeting unrecognized needs, you increase client loyalty.  The client service assistant who goes to the third level and meets clients’ unrecognized needs increases the stickiness of that client’s relationship with the firm exponentially.

How do you meet unrecognized needs?  Next time your out of town client is coming to town for a meeting, deposition or other business, the assistant could reach out to the client to see if they need recommendations on hotels/restaurants/transportation.  If the client really won’t need a rental car for this stay, the assistant could help them understand how a combination of Uber and walking could save them time and money.

The assistant should also ask the client if they will need some place to work while they are in town and either arrange hoteling space in your offices, or help locate other space that meets their needs.  If it’s raining when they arrive in town, send a (branded) umbrella to their hotel to be there when they check in.  If they are flying into Chicago in winter from Florida, send gloves.  Unrecognized needs à met.  Or in Tony Hsieh terms: Wow.

And then, celebrate the Wow.  Tell the firm about the exceptional client experience created by your client service assistant.  You will encourage your assistant and motivate many others.

Three Minutes

If your firm is already doing these three things, I just wasted three minutes of your time.  Honestly, that’s the best case scenario.  If your firm is not, you’ve got some opportunities.  Three minutes well spent.

 

[i] Note that I am not stating that client service is not a priority for the attorneys.  Rather, I am focusing on the opportunity to better leverage legal assistants in the client service role.

Can a law firm with 14 offices around the United States and Europe consolidate all of its shared services operations to one location, and in the process save money and improve productivity?

The answer is “yes” if you ask Fish & Richardson.

The Situation

About four years ago, Fish & Richardson’s Chief Operating Officer, Rick Anderson, started exploring the possibility of a shared services “hub.”  It was Anderson’s belief that having all of the firm’s shared services functions under one roof would not only reduce real estate costs, it would also improve operations through increased collaboration.

Anderson thought he could bring finance and accounting, IT, HR, risk and compliance, conflicts, and marketing to Minneapolis – the firm’s headquarters.  He also thought he could consolidate the firm’s experts (PhDs and engineers) who work with attorneys across the firm into one location.

The Perfect Solution

Working with Mark Minich, Anderson’s real estate advisor at CBRE, Anderson identified a great option in the firm’s existing headquarters building.  The building’s ownership was interested in converting the third and fourth floors of the building from retail to office space.  The ownership also wanted to extend Fish’s office occupancy as long as they could and realized that by bringing in additional functions, Fish was more likely to extend its term.  Consequently, Minich was able to negotiate a very competitive rental rate (less than half the rent asked on the higher office floors) and tenant improvement package on the third and fourth floors.

I cannot overstate the brilliance of using converted retail space from both the Landlord’s and Fish & Richardson’s perspective.   Often law firms try to save money by putting their non-revenue generating employees in less expensive space.  This can sometimes result in basement locations with zero natural light or locations geographically remote from the rest of the firm.  While this can and is working for some firms, I believe it’s ideal to identify space that isn’t working for the landlord but is still desirable (as is often the case with retail space in this era) and re-purpose it for the benefit of landlord and tenant.

The floor plates of these floors are a generous 30,000 square feet and boast exceptionally high ceilings.  The building is a “wedding cake” design where the floors get progressively smaller as you go up in the building.  As such, the floors above each Fish floor were slightly smaller, so Nelson added skylights to maximize daylight in the space.

The Layout

Fish & Richardson engaged Scott Hierlinger with Nelson architects to design space that would be attractive to the employees and conducive to greater productivity.  Nelson’s design began with a very open floor plan with low profile workstations and few private offices.  Nelson then added 90 private workspaces (everything from phone booths to treadmill desks) where employees could go for focus time or small group collaboration.

Designers incorporated demountable walls throughout the space to allow for flexibility to change the layout as the law firm’s business demanded.  White noise and ceiling clouds were utilized to reduce sound distraction.  A mezzanine was installed on one wall to add some visual interest.  And a beautiful open interior stairwell was added to encourage interaction between the two floors.

The Furnishings

The conference and huddle areas vary greatly to accommodate different work style preferences.  There are rooms with soft seating and walls on only three sides as well as rooms with traditional conference tables, wall-mounted monitors and doors you can close.  There are rooms with side-by-side treadmill desks or high top tables or even lounge chairs.  All of these options get plenty of use according to Anderson.

How did Anderson and Fish implement this consolidation?

The change management began one year before the consolidation took place when Fish announced the plan and offered all affected employees relocation opportunities.  While many did not opt to relocate to Minneapolis, the net result of this advance notice was increased employee loyalty (even among those not relocating) and a willingness to help the firm train replacements and effectuate the plan.

Senior managers in each department were consulted throughout the design process and their feedback was incorporated in the final plan.

Did It Work?

Absolutely, but as Anderson says “the employees weren’t all sitting in a circle singing Kumbaya on the first day.”  It took some time for all of the employees to adjust to the new geography, location and floor plan. But now, staff retention has improved.  Firm metrics tracked by departments working in the space (such as days revenue outstanding) have improved.  And the cost savings is significant as the square feet per employee is a lean (especially for law firms) 250 and the rental rate is below market.

The Takeaways

(1) Look at non-traditional office space but with an eye to making it inviting and collaborative, rather than boring “call center” type space.

(2) Don’t be afraid to be honest with your employees about your plans.  They may appreciate and respect you for it, as Fish found to be the case.

(3) Give your employees workspace choice and daylight within the space.  Hierlinger’s philosophy sums it up well: “make workspaces experienced daily more enjoyable.”  If you do this well, your employees with reward you for it with their loyalty and productivity.

Good idea.  Good deal execution.  Good design.  Good implementation.

Kudos, Fish & Richardson and team!