The Nature of Great Customer Service
In a global economy with an ever-increasing amount of competition, you have to make sure that your law firm stands out. Of course, it’s easy to think that the service you provide to your clients is enough to make sure that they will remain lifelong clients to your firm. However, it’s important to keep in mind that clients have options. So, what can you do to ensure that your clients are loyal to your firm? Make sure that your customer service is more than good or adequate. Make sure that your customer service is great.
What Is Great Customer Service?
The nature of great customer service can be found in two basic premises. First, great customer service is customer focused. You and your team aren’t just there to send out bills and collect money. You and your team are in place to help your clients solve a problem. American Express published an article that highlights the seven components of great customer service while also featuring some companies that exhibit these qualities. Here’s how you can implement those tips into your law firm.
Friendly, Helpful Team Members
If you think back to law office management class or any CLE that mentioned total quality management, then you’ll remember just how important it is that everyone in your law firm be onboard. Great customer service doesn’t just happen because your receptionist is nice to someone on the phone. Great customer service happens because of the commitment from everyone on your team. It means that everyone has the client’s best interest in mind, and they work together as such.
Happy clients make referrals and they come back to your law firm in the future.
Customer Focused Training
The goal of customer focused training is to meet the needs of the customers. It’s important to note that this isn’t what you think needs to be done to meet the needs of the customer. The only way you can find out the needs of your clients and what they consider quality is to actually talk to them. One of the easiest ways that you can make your clients happy is to train your staff (and yourself) to return all calls within one business day. Now, for more complex legal situations, calling with an answer in one business day may be impossible. However, picking up the phone and let the client know that you’re still researching the matter can go a long way to keeping clients happy.
Customer focused training is about more than providing answers. It’s also about knowing how to appropriately respond to your clients when they are upset, angry, or scared. It’s about interpersonal communication and knowing how to appropriately speak with your client in an effort to calm them down. An increase in emotional intelligence will also make you a better supervising attorney. You can read more about how these skills affects your law firm by checking out this article on Entrepreneur.com.
Training Isn’t a One Time Event
Training to provide quality service to clients isn’t a one-time CLE or seminar. It’s not reserved for just the first week on the job for new team members. The nature of great customer service means that you and your team are always training to provide the care that your clients want and need. It’s also about you as a leader continuously learning how to inspire and motivate your team to provide great service to your clients.
Great Customer Service as a Goal
Business goals generally align with ideas such as make more money and become a trusted expert. One goal that is rarely mentioned by business owners (regardless of whether they are attorneys or a professional in any industry) is providing great customer service. Providing great customer service is an integral goal because it helps you meet your other goals. How can you make more money if your clients aren’t happy? Great customer service keeps your clients happy. How can you become a trusted expert if you aren’t in demand? You won’t be in demand if your clients go and seek services from other providers because they don’t like the service they received from your firm.
As a law firm, great customer service starts with you: the attorney. If you respect your clients and treat them as if they matter, your employees will notice and they will model your behavior. It’s more than being nice. It’s about being helpful. It’s about providing answers.
Treat Your Team Members Well
As the leader of the law firm, you’re modeling great customer service in more than just how you treat your clients. After all, often you meet with your clients behind closed doors. The only way your employees know if the client is happy or not will most likely be the next time the client calls or if they are yelling in the office. You can encourage great customer service by treating your employees well. It’s the golden rule: treat others as you would want to be treated. It’s not just about clients. Your staff probably interacts with clients more often than you. When you hire the right employees and treat them well, they’re happier at work. Happy employees are engaged. They want to be there and they want to help.
When you show that you value your employees, you model great customer service principles to them.
Learn More About Customer Service
You can learn more about customer service by reading our post on how customer service is a dying art (and what you can do about it). If you’re a solo attorney and need help getting your customer service from good to great, give us a call. Clients A.R.M. understands that you’re busy and it can be hard to meet the demands of your business. We provide customer service for law offices of any size. Our service is second to none. You’ll enjoy learning about the nature of customer service first hand, and we will interact with your clients with professionalism and expertise. Contact us today for a free review and find out how we can help you!
