Putting Customers First

In Priceless: Turning Ordinary Products into Extraordinary Experiences, authors Diana LaSalle and Terry A. Britton look at how businesses can create value-adding experiences around any product or service. One of the companies they highlight is Deerpath Medical Associates in suburban Chicago

Every morning, Monday througth Saturday, its offices open at 7:00 A.M. For the next forty-five minutes, any patient can walk in and sign up to see a doctor that morning. . . . To handle the load, two or three doctors from the group are assigned each morning to see patients. . . . Because patients can easily access a physician six days a week, they are less likely to self-doctor or wait until a minor ailment becomes a serious illness. They are also less likely to jump ship for a group that doesn't offer such convenience.

In a later chapter, the authors cite Frederick F. Reichheld's book The Loyalty Effect, and his statistic that, "an increase in customer loyalty of just 5 percent can increase profitability 35 to 95 percent." Certainly a staggering statistic, and I've not read the book to know if Reichheld argues that the reverse is also true -- that is, does a 5 percent decrease in customer loyalty have as significant an impact upon profitability?

What lessons can lawyers take from Deerpath? How can we increase customer loyalty? Step one would be to return those telephone calls.