Verbatim: What Clients Say
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Walk the Talk in 2010
Cisco Systems CEO John T.
Chambers told The New York Times (August 2) that his team had to push
him to use Web 2.0 technologies. They told him: "John, if you don't do
it our company won't learn how to do this. It won't be built into our
DNA for the way we interface with customers, our employees. The top has
to walk the talk."
Your law firm's brochures and Web site
state, in so many words, that your attorneys are dedicated to meeting
client needs and to providing the highest quality service, but is your
firm's leadership walking the talk? Is your firm asking clients to
evaluate your firm and its attorneys' performance, and really listening
to what they are saying?
Protect client relationships
As
you plan your 2010 budget it would make sound fiscal sense to allocate
resources for implementing client service interviews, a cost-effective
means of protecting as well as strengthening client relationships in a
turbulent time for the legal marketplace. According to the
Altman Weil 2009 Chief Legal Officer's Survey, corporate law
departments plan to reduce the number of outside law firms over the
coming year. Forty percent of the respondents indicated that less work would go to law firms this year, up from 26 percent last year.
"Most
chief legal officers are skeptical that law firm attorneys are
committed to changing the way they deliver legal services," according
to Strategies' (the Legal Marketing Association's magazine) report on
the CLO Survey.
"It's time to talk to your clients," writes Editor in Chief Aric Press in the August issue of The American Lawyer.You
can either be part of their deliberations and process, or you can be
surprised by their conclusions. I'd vote for the former."
Your firm's future is at stake
Listen to what the vice president of a major petroleum company said in a Strategic Client Interview:
"I have a lot of respect for the firm that they're doing this. It means
that the firm is smart enough to say, We want to stay in business for
the next 30 years."
Verbatim is published
electronically by JKS & Company LLC/Strategic Client Interviews.
For more information on Strategic Client Interviews, contact Joyce K.
Smiley at 561-775-9755, or jsmiley@jkscompany.com. On the web at jkscompany.com.
Copyright 2009 JKS & Company LLC. All rights reserved.
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email: jsmiley@jkscompany.com
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