Client Retention Services
High quality work is the best marketing tool available to build long term client retention. But it is not just work on a specific engagement. Rather outside law firms are measured on how successful they are at understanding what drives clients crazy and what in house counsel believe are the best methods of building great client relationships.
Honestly assessing what you do best, and what retention efforts need work, may assist you in overcoming a critical dichotomy between how outside counsel grade law firm performance and how the law firms see themselves. Consider the 2007 Inside Counsel survey of 500 senior in house counsels who gave 19% of their outside law firms an “A” for overall performance. Not surprisingly, 62% of the outside firms gave themselves an “A.”
Let’s start with the negatives first, “What Drives Clients Crazy” according to a recent BTI Consulting Group study:
- - Decisions without authorization
- - Non-responsive to requests for changes in billing
- - Failure to respond to requests for help with additional practice areas
- - Capacity bound partners
- - Apparent disregard for client’s budget
- - Boring pitches that talk about firms, not clients
- - Not replacing a relationship partner with bad chemistry
- - “Groundhog Day Syndrome.
Train your attorneys to avoid these. Conduct a special “engagement operational review” on a regularly scheduled basis. If you identify one of these problem areas as occurring in the engagement, fix it and fix it fast. Frequent client communication which includes updates on the assignment as well as a check on your team’s performance, will instill confidence, provide an early warning on developing problems and enhance client retention.
Let’s now examine those positive tactics identified by in house counsel as contributing the most to client retention. In the same BTI Consulting Group survey, there is an identification of “Activities to Develop Superior Client Relationships.” On a scale which ranks each tactic in its importance and rarity in the marketplace, the scarcest and most desired tool is “understanding the client’s business.”
- - “They want you to know about them.
- - “They don’t care how many offices you have.
- - “They don’t care where you went to law school.”
Other factors identified by the 1,200 in house counsel surveyed by BTI are important client retention factors including:
- - Client focus
- - Providing value for the dollar
- - Commitment to help
Surprisingly, they see components such as quality, legal service skills, keeping clients informed, handling problems as very important but also abundant in the market. Nothing illustrates better the 19% - 62% dichotomy since most law firms tend to compete on the basis of their firm’s numbers, locations, available skills, etc. But to be retained, and retained long term, concentration must be placed on the big 4: understanding the client’s business; providing true client focus; clearly demonstrating value for each dollar invested by the corporation; and an ongoing commitment to help.
Winning a client’s work, may not be as large a challenge as delivering the highest quality work and keeping up with the client’s business. This combination spells client retention.
