Client service excellence lies at the heart of the Ashbrooke Law philosophy. An integral part of this is demystifying legal processes and providing legal services on a level that clients can properly understand and appreciate.
Working with a lawyer shouldn’t be painful or confusing. I will draw the line at saying it should be enjoyable or fun as I know many of you will stop reading this article at such an outlandish claim but it should not be agonising.
Personally, I have spent a number of years working towards overcoming the lawyer ‘stereotype’ and those with whom I have worked will hopefully agree that to a degree I have achieved that (in a positive way). When it comes to good client service and what clients should expect from their lawyer, I have a number of firm beliefs. There are too many of these to include in one article but significantly for this one, they certainly include delivering on the promises you make.
I first learned this lesson the hard way in year 10 at high school. My lesson’s name was Nicola Watson.
Nicola Watson was by far the most attractive young lady at my secondary school. I was a big fan of hers (as were most of the boys in my school) and decided that I wanted to take her out (in the dating rather than mafia sense).
Here it becomes important to understand context. Please rely on my LinkedIn profile picture if you do not trust what I am about to say. I am rather ‘ordinary’ when it comes to anaesthetics. I wasn’t in Nicola’s league so when keen to date by far the best-looking girl at my school, I recognised that something more than my looks was going to be necessary to kick that goal. That something more was Tom Cruise with lashings popcorn.
Around this time, Top Gun was the big cinematic draw. Nicola, along with most of the girls in my year, were keen on all things ‘Brat Pack’ and this meant Tom. Multiplex cinemas were still new in my part of the world and there I saw my opportunity. With a clear game plan and a confidence that has stayed with me throughout my career, I made my approach. Although I can no longer remember the precise words I used, I can recall the general nature of my invite. It went something like:
‘Top Gun is starting at the cinema this week. I thought you might like to see it. With me. I can pick you up tomorrow night. We can do the whole popcorn and large fizzy drinks thing. It’s all on me. My treat.’
To cut to the chase. Yes, she said, and the date was on. The date was on.
The problem with my strategy, however, was that it was founded very much on good old-fashioned bribery. To overcome the gulf between Nicola and I in the ‘looks’ stakes, I had ‘buy’ her agreement to go out with me with the promise of delivering high-end services. She had been successfully pitched to with opportunity to visit the newly opened cinema, and with the promise of a giant carton of popcorn and bucketfuls of a beverage of her choice. Now I look back on it; this may even have been my first attempt at a value proposition. It was certainly my first experience of the problems caused by cash flow failings.
At the time Multiplex cinemas were a revolution to the movie going population. Going to the cinema had been re-invented. Multiplexes were modern, stylish and consequently much more expensive than the fleapit to which I was previously acquainted and importantly, upon which I had planned the pricing structure for the evening. The budget that I had turned out to be sufficient to pay for entry for the two of us, but insufficient to pay for the ‘treats’ that I had offered on top.
Because of this, I was forced to fail on the delivery of the refreshment promises that I had made as part of my offer thus making it appear to Nicola that I had misled her into agreeing to go out with me. The mood of the night never recovered from ‘my mouth writing cheques that my wallet couldn’t cash’ (seriously that is close enough) and after Goose had died, Maverick had saved the day and the closing credits played, Nicola and I went our separate ways, never to go out again.
My purpose for sharing this cautionary tale is as a reminder of the perils of failing to deliver on professionally on promises. It only has to be once that you do so and trust is soon lost. If lawyers or other professional services providers wish to promise the earth to potential clients, then they have to be prepared to deliver the earth to those clients otherwise, they will be held to account.
And why shouldn’t this be the case? If contracts are awarded on the basis of promises made, then those making those promises should expect to be challenged if they do not deliver on those promises. Time and time again, within my profession I have witnessed lawyers failing to deliver on claims that they have made. Often claims they should have known they couldn’t deliver.
Sometimes, these failings can be something as simple as setting an unrealistic deadline and then missing it. A former colleague took great pride in committing to all her clients that they ‘would have it the next day’, regardless of what it was, and more often than not whether the clients wanted it or needed it, the next day. Frequently she missed her self-imposed deadlines and found herself regularly being chased about overdue work making her appear unprofessional.
Alternatively, and frequently in my profession, it can be the failure to manage cost expectations. Issues regarding legal costs are the cause of most complaints against lawyers. The reality, however, is that such criticisms are often richly deserved. I have worked with lawyers who have simply been incapable of having an upfront discussion with the clients about how much a project will cost. If it is not fixed fee work (and those who know me will know that I believe that it should almost always be) then it is crucial that a lawyer can accurately assess what a job will cost and be able to articulate that with a client.
I have also worked with others who have been unable to work within the agreed budget despite strict instructions and parameters. If the client is given a cost to complete a project, then this should be honoured. It seems to me that far too often as professionals we invest significant amounts of time developing networks, establishing connections and attempting to leverage work from those connections. During this period, we are correctly focused on demonstrating our value proposition and persuading clients and the referrers of work why they should trust us. And yet what we often fail to do is recognise that this trust is the essential component of the service equation and lose it foolishly through providing poor client service.
In short, always deliver on those promises and buy that popcorn. Always buy the popcorn.