An Increased Focus on Improving Client Satisfaction Is Your Formula for Success
By Jim Calloway, Director, OBA Management Assistance Program

So, who is the most important person in your office?

In a large firm, this question may invoke thoughts of the founding partner or managing partner. The staff in the solo practitioner’s office may believe the most important person to be the lawyer, while the lawyer may think of the office manager or the employee who makes sure that the bills go out each month. The new lawyer, brimming with confidence and excitement about law practice, may think (but, hopefully, would not say) “it’s me.”

But no matter what size of law firm is involved, the most important people are the clients. For without the clients, there really is no private law practice. (Yes, I know that many of you reading this column immediately answered this question correctly.)

During the recent New Lawyer Experience program, I discussed with those setting up new law practices how important it is for clients to be satisfied with how they are treated by the lawyer and the lawyer’s office, even if they may not be satisfied with the result in their legal matter. After all, in litigation, for example, there are winners and losers. Hopefully all law firm personnel understand that a commitment to excellent client service and communication is an integral part of operations of the successful 21st century law firm.

But there’s a bit more involved than just doing great work and having great client communications. Generally speaking, we are satisfied when our expectations are met and dissatisfied when our expectations are violated.

So with every new engagement, some time should be devoted to ascertaining both the client’s expectations with the substantive legal work at hand and making sure that the client has reasonable expectations about the process and the law firm’s methods of operations. It is certainly no secret that some legal matters take some time to complete. The client should understand after the initial engagement what a reasonable time frame is and what types of contingencies might cause that time frame to be even longer.

Over 10 years ago, I wrote an article titled “Form Letters You and Your Clients will Love” (69 OBJ 802 - March 7, 1998). You can find the article online at http://tinyurl.com/26jv5a. With the benefit of hindsight, I might have given the article a different title, but I still believe in the content.  The main premise of the article is that one should develop forms and reusable standard language to facilitate client communication just as carefully as the firm develops checklists and forms to help accomplish substantive work.

Today I would like to point you to some resources to assist with that. Some time ago, practicePRO, the law practice assistance division of the Canadian lawyers’ professional indemnity insurance provider LawPRO, published a feature on dealing with difficult clients. It is online at www.practicepro.ca/practice/DifficultClients.asp. I encourage you to review this Web feature. In addition to the paper “Dealing with the Difficult Client,” by Canadian lawyer (now judge) Carole Curtis, there are two documents that are available for download for readers to use in creating their own similar documents. These include a billing information document and an administrative information document. Both of these documents are to be given to each client at the establishment of the attorney-client relationship. You probably do not want to use these forms verbatim, but they can serve as great guides in drafting similar documents for your firm.

It is important for the law office staff to understand that while they are employed by the law firm, they work for the clients. If there are no clients to pay attorney’s fees, there will soon be no jobs at the law firm. This is an important concept. Sometimes, during particularly stressful matters, even the lawyers need to be reminded of this basic concept.

The Ten Commandments of Good Client Relations is a good reminder of this. The Queensberry Law Society of Australia is credited for originally distributing these commandments. However, a similar Ten Commandments relating to patients can be found on the walls of some doctor’s offices in Oklahoma. After reading the commandments in the attached sidebar, you can download a copy suitable for framing and posting in your law office lobby or break room at http://tinyurl.com/nz4y8.

We all know who is really vital for our law offices to prosper, but hanging a reminder on the wall cannot hurt.

The Ten Commandments of Good Client Relationships

1.  Clients are the most important people in our practice — in person, by mail or by phone.

2. Clients are not dependent on us. We are dependent on them.

3. Clients are not an interruption of our work. They are the purpose of it.

4. Clients do us a favor when they call. We are not doing them a favor by serving them.

5. Clients are a part of our business. Do not treat them as outsiders.

6. Clients are not “statistics.” They are flesh-and-blood human beings with feelings and emotions like our own.

7. Clients are not people to argue or match wits with. Nobody ever won an argument with a client.

8. Clients are people who bring us their wants. It is our job to meet those wants.

9. Clients are the lifeblood of this practice.

10. Clients are deserving of the most courteous and attentive treatment we can give them.

Originally published in the Oklahoma Bar Journal Oct. 11, 2008 - Vol. 79; No.26.