What Clients Want ...

…from design firms (and law firms too?).  Absolutely great tips.  Here are the first three (out of ten):

1. Keep the Principal Involved.  "It feels like bait-and-switch when you start out dealing with the president of the company and end up working on a day-to-day basis with someone fresh out of college," Grant says. Be up-front with clients about who will be responsible for the project, and bring that person to the new-business presentation. And no matter who's in charge of the day-to-day work, make sure you, as principal, are meaningfully involved in the account at all times.

2. Communicate Effectively.  "A client should never, ever have to call your office to ask where you are on the project," Grant says. Establish protocols for client communications; develop standardized tools such as memo formats, e-mail bulletins and status reports.

3. Be Easy to Work With.  The most lethal six words in a conversation with your client? "We don't do it that way." If your client wants invoices twice a month and your office manager usually generates them only once, change your system. If they want status reports in two copies, one in pink and one in goldenrod, get to Kinko's for that colored paper.

Thanks to Signal vs. Noise for the tip.

Women-owned Businesses as Clients

An interesting bit from Michele Miller’s Wonderbranding:

Article says women-owned construction companies grew 30 percent from 1998 to 2004, according to a study by the Center for Women's Business Research.

I’d guess that stat is not that far off for other kinds of businesses in traditionally male-dominated industries.  What are you doing to capture that business?

As an aside, anyone know if there are many women-owned law firms?

Printable CEO Revisited

Dave Seah posts an update on his Printable CEO project, something I blogged about before.  The more I think about it, the more intrigued I am by his productivity hack.  The main thing I’d change is to make the “maintaining old relationship” category worth more than one point.  Imagine if employees (especially law firm associates) were graded on his scale instead of the sheer number of hours they bill.  Would it work?

Save My Ass for Clients

Ran across a new service titled, seriously, "Save My Ass" that sends flowers to your significant other on predetermined dates.  Why not try this for your best clients on their birthdays?

Serve the Young

The guys at Cutting Through talk about this article from the Guardian in their blog post Habits of the Young:

The implication of all this that isn’t mentioned in the article is that within the space of the next 10 years, this generation of the ultrawired are going to be joining the workforce. Their expectations of what technology can deliver will be radically different to us old farts - so while we’re going whoopies over the lastest Outlook plugin, they are going to be conducting business over blogs and IM. Where does that leave the corporate IT function?

Or the legal industry?  What resources has your firm devoted to learning how to better serve the “ultrawired” and technologically savvy?  These young people are going to be running their own companies (or their parents’) within the next decade.  This is something I want to talk about at BlawgThink.

Lawyers are the Devil('s Advocate)

One of the reasons I think people hate/distrust lawyers is that we are constantly telling our clients why they shouldn’t do what they want to do.  As lawyers, we are expected to protect our clients and warn them about the potential consequences of their business or personal decisions

Kathy Sierra has another outstanding post titled Death by Devil’s Advocate deconstructing the role of “Devil’s Advocate” and agreeing with IDEO’s Tom Kelly, who says the "devil's advocate may be the biggest innovation killer in America today."  And who plays the devil’s advocate role better than lawyers?  We can’t help it.  It’s built into our professional DNA.

Before we kill off  another client innovation, think about Kathy’s advice:

… whether playing devil's advocate, angel of optimism, or any other persona, I believe the emphasis should be on offering solutions, not just criticism. Yes it's true that one can know something is wrong without knowing how to fix it, but if people tried to adopt the perspective that "I'm going to try to always include possible alternatives and solutions when I critcize", it might make meetings a little more bearable.

Lawyerless Law - The Future is Now

Lawyers, are you trying to figure out how to better serve your business clients?  It may be too late.  They don’t think they need you anymore. Check out this post by Paul Allen:

Many entrepreneurs can't afford to pay $200-300 per hour for legal help, especially with simple things like incorporating and simple contracts.

Don’t laugh, CPA’s.  You’re next.

Watch Out for the Monkey and Shark Forest!

My daughter and I were playing today in our apartment, and as I approached the couch, she warned me to “Watch out for the monkey and shark forest.”  Not certain about what she was referring to, I sat down on the couch and she screamed at me to get out of the “forest” because the monkeys and sharks were in there.  Instead of arguing with her (and risking a two-year old moment), I immediately complied and thanked her for saving me.  We continued to play, and when I sat down on the couch five minutes later, everything was fine in her world.

The point?  There are many things your clients are afraid of.  Even though some of those things may sound absurd to you, acknowledge them just the same, because they are very real to your clients.  If the issues are truly insignificant or unimportant, you’ll get points both for understanding them and for making them go away.

On Being Remarkable

Zane Safrit shares some remarkablisms.  As always, Zane is right on the mark.

Advise vs. Serve

Via AdPulp comes this link to Neil French’s Communication Arts Column.  The best piece:

Next time you see the agency credentials PowerPoint, strike out every “serve” you see, and substitute “advise.” You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes to your own self-worth, for a start.

Take a look at your marketing materials and try this change yourself.  I think you’ll notice a positive change.

An Idea for BIG Client Problems

There is no reason a law firm (or other professional services business) can't adopt this idea for a great client with a big problem:

A group of Lodge members gathers at some predetermined time and place, usually with computers in tow. After everyone gets set up, the group comes up with a basic game idea. This process is usually limited to a fixed amount of time. The group then sets out to create said game as fast as possible. This can involve code, sound, art, map design, game design, even limited tools development, depending on the makeup of the participants. It requires a fair amount of expertise on the part of each individual, a lot of caffeine, and a huge effort towards teamwork, coordination, and communication.

After a predetermined amount of time has passed (8 hours, 24 hours, even 48 hours) and a large amount of Chinese food has been consumed, game production finally comes to a stop and the group steps back to see what it is they've created -- or failed to create, in some cases.

Think about how amazing it would be to tell your client, “We are going to bring the entire resources of this firm to bear upon your issue for one day.”  Since lawyers are in Saturdays a lot anyway, how about setting aside one Saturday per month for this kind of focused problem-solving?  I’ll bet your client would appreciate it — and be willing to pay you extra as well.

Waiting in Line

Howard Mann (at Dig Tank) writes about Waiting in Line and asks:

How much effort does it really take to focus on that most important moment when your customers are about to pay you? Why would anything else come first?

Are there any times when your customers are waiting in line to use your product or service? If there is, the most important big idea/innovation for you to execute this year would be to fix it.

WiFi Waiting Rooms, Continued

I received a comment from Jay Ruane to my post WiFi While Your Customers Wait.  I liked it so much, I thought I’d share:

We have been promoting the wifi access for a year. Better than giving away television to watch, develop a powerpoint presentation that can play on a loop in your waiting area and allow that to serve as an additional way for people to learn about your services, silently "sell" you and then use those same language in your client meeting, to reinforce the message.

Take a look at Jay’s Firm Web Site.  Not only does he promote his office’s available WiFi, but the site uses a blog to post updates.  Well done!

WiFi While Your Customers Wait

Christopher Carfi pointed me to a great article from Noel Franus titled Building the Better Guest Experience.  Noel suggests four small things that could make a big difference for your customers:

• Provide a comfortable space. A couch or coffee table is the first step you can take in shifting the mood from annoyed to relaxed. (Relaxed customers usually shell out more money than annoyed ones.) Investment: $2,000 (furniture).
• Do you have any coffee? A little java goes a long way toward making customers feel like valued guests. Get a decent coffeemaker and good beans. Or outsource the opportunity to a local brandofcoffeebucks that people know and enjoy. Investment: $1,000 per year (coffeemaker and supply).
• Dish up the fishwrap. For less than a buck a day, you can give them something to read or watch while they pass the time. Newspapers and magazines can keep those rambunctious customers under control. Investment: $100 per year (daily news and magazines).
• Nothing but net. Most people are missing out on work while they're in the store. Give them wi-fi, give them access to information, give them back their productivity, give them back their time. Investment: $700 per year (wireless router and high-speed Internet).

Noel continues:

If you're responsible for your customers' happiness, chances are you have an opportunity to create your own best-imaginable, rich experiences that need not cost an arm and a leg.  Whatever you do, don't just sit there with limited-profit space, focused on today's numbers rather than tomorrow's viability. Providing memorable moments will help your brand become one that customers truly appreciate. With an investment this tiny, there's so little to lose.

I think Noel is right on.  How many doctor’s offices (and lawyers offices and accountants offices …) have you been stuck in for longer than you expected to be?   If you knew there was WiFi (or at least a desk to work on) the wait wouldn’t have been so memorable. 

The Best Business Advice for Professionals

Tom Asacker, guest blogging for Fast Company’s Blogjam shares this tremendous insight into building a business:

Today the game is all about going deep, with highly relevant products and services and particularly information, into a unique subculture. Forget about things like reach and frequency. The future of branding is collaboration with -- and for -- a passionate subculture of like-minded people. It's no longer wise to be famous for fifteen minutes. Mass market celebrity is fleeting. Instead, become famous to fifteen people.

I think Tom is right on here.  Because small-firm lawyers, architects, accountants, and other professional service providers will never be able to serve the mass market anyway, it is important for them to take Tom’s advice to heart.  Identify 15 people/businesses you want to serve.  Now, how can you be famous to them? 

Tip Tips

Lawyers, like waiters and waitresses, are in the service business.  For several research-proven ways servers can increase tips, download and read this great booklet (pdf) from Dr. Michael Lynn, a Cornell School of Hotel Administration Professor.  It is really a fascinating read, and even if you aren’t going to take any of the ideas and apply them to your practice, make sure you print out the booklet and give it to every waiter and waitress you know.  They’ll thank you for it.

Just a quick idea for all you legal software companies.

Every time a telephone call comes in to a law firm, start a timer that shows how much time has elapsed from the time the call came in and from when it was first “seen” by the lawyer to which it was directed.  After a certain time period elapses (say 24 hours) the senior partner — or the Client Service Officer — gets notified of all the unreturned calls in the office.  The calls are returned by the firm, even if to say, “Sorry we haven’t gotten back to you sooner.  We are waiting on XYZ and will touch base with you on a __________.”  The lawyers who don’t return calls are required to explain why, and the call-returned ratio is one of the factors used to determine compensation.

Hire more female lawyers

From Autoblog comes a pointer to this article in the U.K.’s News.Telegraph about ways automobile manufacturers and dealers are making their showrooms more “female friendly.”  The obvious solution?  Employ more women:

"We are now actively trying to recruit more female staff," said [Honda]spokesman Paul Ormond. "It is important to treat women with the respect they deserve and not to make stupid remarks, patronise them or talk down to them. . . . Mr Ormond said female sales staff tended to be seen as more honest, more inclined to be realistic and less flamboyant than male counterparts.

According to the article, Ford has a women’s product panel that “mystery shops” for cars in the company’s showrooms. 

"When we first started, our initial findings were disastrous," said Angela Savage, the chairman of the panel. "But things have moved on. In the early 1990s, I don't think anyone realised quite how much influence females had in the purchase of the family car, or the spending power that the independent women had. Car dealerships are much better nowadays."

Are lawyers’ offices?

MINI Musical Marketing Magic

Cheskin’s Terri Ducay just bought a MINI:

I knew this car was different the minute I entered the showroom. The environment was hip, stylish and informative. What was emphasized was not so much the car, but me and how I'd experience driving the car. For example, there was a "Test Drive Accessory" display that offered a variety of music CD’s to play during the drive. The music ranged from Soul, Blues, Rock, etc. How brilliant I thought, music is critical to my experience while driving but I don't carry my CDs with me when looking for a car. I picked The Rolling Stones ‘Hot Stuff’ and was on my way.

Though a MINI is not on my shopping list (can’t get the golf clubs in the back, don’t ya know) I absolutely LOVE the music idea.  Why not keep a selection of CD’s in your waiting room and if your clients must wait, let them listen to their choice of music.

Serve the Rich

Roy H. Williams shares 5 Tips for Reaching the Rich on Entrepreneur.com.  Though Williams is talking about getting your “product” in the hands of the rich, much of his advice makes sense for service providers as well.  His five tips (read the article for explanations) are:

1. Hang out in their hangouts.

2. Become useful to them.

3. Put your product where they can see it.

4. Target through copy.

5. Pull, don't push. 

At the end of the article, Williams suggests that selling to the rich isn’t as important today as it once was:

Today a middle-income office manager may save her money to buy a single luxury item, like a Chanel jacket, the same one worn by a wealthy woman who has a dozen others like it in her $2.5 million house. While it may feel good to have the truly rich woman as a customer, you don't want to lose sight of the fact that for every one of her, there are at least 250 of those middle-income managers anxious to buy that same Chanel jacket.

Remember that last sentence.  Are you better off in the long run working your tail off to land that one huge client, or looking at ways to become indispensable to small yet growing businesses?