Knowledge Arbitrage for Attorneys
Writing about 10 ways to get more ideas, Rajesh Setty shares a gem that should be in every lawyer’s toolbox:
4. Harness the power of association
The more you associate things the faster you will get new ideas. Knowledge arbitrage is one way of associating things. Here is a simple way to develop your association muscle. List all the people that are close to you in your network. Also list their current projects and interests - basically list what matters most to these people. Once you have this data handy, whenever you meet a new person, see if there is a match in the interests of the new person and one of your earlier contacts in your network. If there is a mutual gain possible, connect these two people without expecting a gain.
The hidden benefit from the above mentioned approach: The more you do this, the higher the chances that the power of reciprocation will kick in and more people will be introduced to you. The more new people in your life, more fresh perspectives they will bring into your life. In turn, more new ideas will flow in.
This is one of the best ways to keep your existing clients happy and to get more. Can you go though your client list and compile your clients’ current projects and interests? Do you collect this information in your intake process? You should.
Technorati Tags: knowledge, networking, relationships
Sketch a Solution with Clients
Ever have a client that’s has a problem you are struggling to solve? Here’s a tip from Noise Between Stations that could help:
When you’re trying to solve a problem and you’re stuck it’s because you’re trying to solve it in your head. Just as you can do simple calculations in your head but need a calculator for everything else, you can’t solve tough business problems in your head.
When you draw, build, write, or use something that is physical, your physical senses help you understand more about the situation. You more fully understand the problem than if you only thought about it. Financial analysts do this by writing calculations on the back of a napkin or playing with numbers in a spreadsheet. Designers do this by sketching on paper or carving foam in the shape of a product. Engineers do it by combining parts they have on hand to make something new.
…
It’s important to ignore how well you’re doing what you’re doing, because that will distract you from accomplishing the goal. This may go against our usual inclinations to do things “right.” We’re taught to think things through and carefully design a solution. But when you’re stuck we need to overcome this tendency. Free your mind from all the rules you normally follow. Pick up the pencil and just sketch.
You might even use techniques you know to be incorrect because they help you move more quickly. This is good. The are only two guidelines here:
1. Do it quickly
2. Create something tangible
I can’t recommend this tactic enough. When I was mediating custody disputes, I used huge easel-sized 3M Post-It notes to sketch out custody scenarios with my clients. I’d draw a month’s worth of days in a grid, and would give each client their own big Post-it to diagram their ideal custody situation. Often times, once the parents got up and put marker to paper, they broke out of their mindset that a reasonable custody arrangement couldn’t be negotiated.
If you have an office or meeting room, take down some of your diplomas and expensive art work and instead throw up some big Post-it notes (or a whiteboard) on the wall and see how many more client problems you’ll solve.
TheirSpace - Understanding How Children Use the Internet
If you want to understand how children today use the web (primarily MySpace), and the implications for professional service providers (or just for parents), read Danah Boyd’s paper, titled Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace.
How to Geek Out with your Technology Clients
Lawyers could learn a thing or two about communicating with clients from this explanation on the Stake Ventures blog: Why the LLC is the Ruby on Rails of legal entities.
Client Experience Matters
Found this article (via Digg) titled Why Features Don’t Matter Anymore: The New Laws of Digital Technology. In the author’s words, “user experience (along with a strong brand, and clever marketing) is much more important for the success of a device then technical specifications.” There is much to be learned here for all service providers as well, so I encourage you to read the entire article with that in mind. Here are the author’s 10 fundamental rules (read the article for his explanation):
1) More features isn't better, it's worse.
2) You can't make things easier by adding to them.
3) Confusion is the ultimate deal-breaker.
4) Style matters
5) Only features that provide a good user experience will be used.
6) Any feature that requires learning will only be adopted by a small fraction of users.
7) Unused features are not only useless, they can slow you down and diminish ease of use.
8) Users do not want to think about technology: what really counts is what it does for them.
9) Forget about the killer feature. Welcome to the age of the killer user-experience.
10) Less is difficult, that's why less is more
Technorati Tags: client+service, experience, marketing
Great Client Brainstorming Tip
I ran across this great tip on brainstorming a better career on the Achieve-It! blog:
Take a pad of paper and write down at the top your objective in question form. Then, simply list out 20 answers to your question.
For example, in this case, you would write “What should I be doing with my time and life?” Then stay seated for a half hour to an hour coming up with answers to that question. The key to this exercise is coming up with 20 answers - don’t quit until you have 20 answers.
Take this tip, and at your next client meeting take 30 minutes for you and your client to both complete the exercise, answering the question “What is a successful outcome of this case” or something similar. Trade answer sheets and discuss.
I wish I’d thought of this for my mediation practice. Imagine having each side do the exercise and then giving their answers to the mediator
ROI through the client's eyes
I’m completing my “Beyond ROI” presentation for ABA’s Techshow and have come up with a theme I like a lot. Let me know if you like it too:
The only “Return on Investment” that matters is the return your customers receive on their investment in you.
Thirty-Nine Cents per Happy Client
Are you including self-addressed stamped envelopes when you send your bills to your clients? You should be.
You Are Your Customer List - Ron Baker
You Are Your Customer List by guest blogger Ron Baker
You're really not in business to make a profit, but you're in business to render a service that is so good people are willing to pay a profit in recognition of what you're doing for them. – Stanley Marcus (1905-2002)
The purpose of your firm is to add to your customer's wealth. By focusing on what customers really buy-expectations-and how important it is to exceed them, you will be well on your way to continuously delivering on that purpose at an increasing rate each day.
Your firm's value proposition is a combination of price, quality and service, which come together to create a unique offering for your customer in order to offer a superior alternative in comparison to your competition.
Since the 1980s, the Total Quality Management movement arose as a way for firms to increase their quality, moving towards a Six Sigma, or zero defects, standard. The flaws in this strategy for an professional firm are obvious, since to err is human and rather than focusing on zero defects, I propose a zero defections standard, along with an effective customer complaint recovery strategy.
The most successful firms in the world today turn away more customers than they accept because they have a rigorous pre-qualifying process and they understand that, ultimately, bad customers drive out good customers.
In my last post, I suggested the metaphor of your firm's fixed capacity as a Boeing 777 airplane, in conjunction with the concept of the Adaptive Capacity Model, in order to segment your customer base by the value they place on your offerings. I believe The Firm of the Future is just as diligent in forecasting this capacity-in terms of its yield and load factors-as the airlines are today.
Customers will continue to patronize businesses where they are invited and remain where they are appreciated. Your firm will get the customer behavior it rewards. Customer loyalty is worth rewarding.
Of course, that does not imply you need to accept all customers, or keep low-valued customers within your firm. Since you cannot be all things to all people, it is important to work with only those individuals and businesses you enjoy and who have personalities you get along with.
In surveys conducted by David Maister, he found professionals spend between 55% and 80% of their time working with people they are either indifferent about, or just don't like. Why do professionals do this? As Maister pointed out in his book True Professionalism:
Supposedly, professionals are among society's most bright, educated, and elite members--people who are supposed to have more career choices than anyone else. Yet they seem to be willing to accept a work life made up largely of "I can tolerate it" work and clients, and they feel that they cannot safely do anything about all that.
The fact is, you can do something about it, and you do have a choice of whom you work with and whom you accept as a customer. There is no justifiable reason for accepting--or retaining--customers whom you or your team members personally do not like. Toxic customers can have a negative effect on team member morale, which will ultimately have a deleterious effect on the firm's wealth-creating ability.
If, on the other hand, you work with people you enjoy, not only will you do better work, be a more effective marketer, cross-sell more services, and attract like-kind customers, you will be a better professional and have a better quality of life.
Indeed, you are your customer list. How does that make you feel?
Baker's Law: Bad Customers Drive Out Good Customers - Ron Baker
Baker's Law: Bad Customers Drive Out Good Customers by guest blogger Ron Baker
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,…
-Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
Whenever anyone quoted those immortal words from the Declaration of Independence — all men are created equal — Federalist Fisher Ames, an ardent opponent of Thomas Jefferson and a superb congressional orator, would retort: "And differ greatly in the sequel."
While Fisher's admonishment might not be the best way to administer a country's laws — where all should be treated equally — it is profound when it comes to understanding no two customers are equal. A German Proverb teaches, "He who seeks equality should go to a cemetery."
Maximum vs. Optimal Capacity
All firms have a theoretical maximum capacity and a theoretical optimal capacity. From a strategy perspective, it is essential to see how that capacity is being allocated to each customer segment. Your maximum capacity is the total number of customers you firm can adequately service, while the optimal capacity is the point at which customers can be served adequately while maintaining your competitive advantage and pricing integrity.
Insuring a proper amount of capacity is allocated to various customer segments, while offering a differentiating value proposition within each segment, is an essential element of implementing value pricing strategies. It also prevents bad customers--those who are not willing to pay for the value you deliver--from crowding out good customers.
The Adaptive Capacity Model
Think of your firm as a Boeing 777 airplane, similar to the one below:
When United Airlines places a Boeing 777 in service, it adds a certain capacity to its fleet. However, it goes one step further, by dividing up that marginal capacity into five segments:
A. First class
B. Business class
C. Full fare coach
D. Coach
F. Leisure, Priceline.com, and Bereavement fares
The airlines — and hotels, cruise lines, golf courses, car rental agencies, and other industries with fixed capacity — are adept at managing and predicting their adaptive capacity to maximize profitability.
Lessons from Yield Management
The airlines understand it is the last-minute customer who values the seat the most and hence they reserve a portion of each plane's capacity for their best customers. They do this even at the risk the plane will take off with some of those high price seats empty — and that revenue can never be recaptured since they cannot inventory seats.
Why do they take that risk? Because the rewards of reserving capacity for price insensitive customers comprise the majority of their profits.
Airlines allocate only so many seats to coach, leisure, Priceline.com (or bereavement) seats, which they offer well in advance of the flight. However, no airline adds capacity in order to accommodate these customers.
This point is noteworthy, as too many firms will, in fact, add capacity — or reallocate capacity from higher-valued customers — in order to serve low-valued customers. This is the equivalent of the airlines putting the upper deck in the back of the plane rather than the front.
Furthermore, many companies will turn away high-value, last minute work from its best customers because it is operating near maximum capacity, usually at the low-end of the value curve for price sensitive customers. This is common during peak seasons; the lost profit opportunities are incalculable.
Many worry about running below optimal capacity and cut their prices in order to attract work, especially in downturns or slow cycles. This strategy is fine, but you must understand the tradeoff you're making. Usually, that capacity could be better utilized selling more valued services to your first-class and business-class customers, who are less price sensitive than new customers.
This way, the firm does not cut its price and degrade its pricing integrity in order to attract price sensitive customers, sending a signal into the marketplace it is willing to engage in this strategy and affecting the perception of its value proposition.
The conventional wisdom is you have to be at maximum capacity — where demand exceeds supply — to raise prices. But since when do you have to wait to be fully booked to demand a premium price? Do not confuse working harder (supply-side capacity) with working smarter (demand-side pricing).
Prices are determined by value created for the customer, not the internal capacity constraints of your firm.
How much fixed capacity are you allocating to each customer class? What will be the criteria you use to ascertain where in your airplane each customer sits?
By viewing your firm as an airplane with a fixed amount of seats, you will begin to adapt your capacity to those customers who appreciate-and are willing to pay for-your value proposition.
Technorati Tags: ron+baker, pricing, law+firm, economics, value
Why Customer, Not Client? - Ron Baker
Why Customer, Not Client? by guest blogger Ron Baker
Customers are people; consumers are statistics.
--Stanley Marcus [1905-2002], Quest for the Best
Stanley Marcus was the son of one of the founders of Neiman-Marcus. I believe he understood customer service better than almost anyone, and I have learned many things from his books.
One of his favorite sayings was: "No 'market'--or 'consumer'--ever purchased anything in one of my stores, but a lot of customers came in and bought things and made me a rich man."
Words mean things. The words we use and the language we adopt, as a firm and as a profession, take on certain meanings over time. They become part of our culture, the way we do things.
When I began researching the Total Quality Service (TQS) and customer loyalty movements in the late 1980s, it struck me how many organizations have tried to call their customers something other than a customer.
The word client, when you look at its etymology, is an inappropriate word to describe the relationship between a professional and the person he or she serves in today's marketplace. Client is derived from the Latin word cliens, which is a follower, retainer, one who follows his patron. In other words, a person dependent on another, as for protection or patronage.
According to my Dictionary, "among the ancient Romans a client was a citizen who placed himself under the protection of a patrician, who was called his patron; a master who had freed his slave, and retained some rights over him after his emancipation; a dependent; one under the protection or patronage of another." Are these the type of images you want to project?
The Problem with the Contemporary Meaning
I realize words change in meaning, and they adopt contemporary usage and generally accepted definitions, and client is no exception. The Dictionary also describes client as "a person or company for whom a lawyer, accountant, advertising agency, etc. is acting; loosely, a customer; a person served by a social agency."
But visit any governmental agency that dispenses aid to individuals, and you will soon discover they too use the word client. A social worker may have clients but I do not believe this describes the relationship we have (or want) with our customers.
What has happened to the word customer, and why do so many businesses attempt to describe the people they serve as something else? After all, customer is derived from the word custom, which is something done regularly. Therefore, a customer is a person who buys, especially one who buys regularly.
Why is it when you see the doctor, you're a "patient," when you board an airplane, a "passenger;" when you get into a taxi, a "fare;" to your utility company, a "ratepayer;" to your insurance company, a "policyholder;" and to a newsletter, a "subscriber."
What's going on here? Why not call customers what they are? Why do businesses develop a special terminology to describe what is, in essence, a commercial transaction? It is as if professionals believe we are not subject to the laws of supply and demand along with everyone else.
Partially, it's arrogance, a way for us to feel superior about ourselves relative to our customers. After all, one doesn't "sell" to a client; one doesn't pander in the marketplace with non-professional advertising to attract clients; rather they rush to seek us out for our expertise, experience, guidance, etc. Does this sound like the current environment in which we operate?
The customer is sovereign, period. We may not like it, we may wax nostalgic for the good old days when customers lined up like passive sheep to be fleeced, but those days are gone, forever. Professionals can no longer place themselves above the "crass marketplace." We must participate in it, and we must differentiate ourselves from the competition if we are to succeed.
Walt Disney insisted his customers be called "guests." His attitude, which still permeates the entire culture of all Disney theme parks, is that the role of employees ("Cast Members") is to entertain the guests and show them a good time. The words used to describe the people served by a business are a good indication of the attitude of the firm.
I'm not suggesting if you change your vernacular you will automatically instill a culture committed to the customer. Far from it. But the words you use to describe the people you serve says an enormous amount about the attitude of your firm--and it is the attitude and actions of your people that ultimately determine your firm's culture.
I don't expect many professionals to adopt the word customer. And that's a good thing, for you. After all, you're reading this Blog for the purpose of differentiating yourself from the competition, because competition really is conformity. Start referring to your clients as customers, and you will discover it has a salutary effect on your attitude, firm culture, customer loyalty and respect, and ultimately, your bottom line.
Technorati Tags: ron+baker, client+service, customer+service
The Firm of the Past - Ron Baker
Nothing stops an organization faster than people who believe that the way they worked yesterday is the best way to work tomorrow. To succeed, not only do your people have to change the way they act, they’ve got to change the way they think about the past.
––John Madonna, former Chairman, KPMG International
<!--D(["mb"," Revenue \u003d People Power x Efficiency x Hourly RateIn Greek language, analyze means “unloosen, separate into parts,” which we will proceed to do with this theory to expose its many weaknesses.First, since most firms have a relatively high contribution margin (revenue less direct labor costs), it gives them a false sense that any revenue is good. This in turn leads them to accept customers who are not as valuable to the firm as others, since marginally valuable customers take up a firm’s precious capacity, and keep it from reserving capacity for its most valuable customers.Second, the way most firms were built in the last century was by leveraging people, literally building a pyramid structure. As technology came on the scene––and especially when the computer hit the desktop––the pyramids began to flatten and firms started to leverage technology. Most firms, however, will put revenue before capacity, always playing catch-up to the workflow and customer demand, and working their people at full tilt. Most other businesses––think of FedEx, Intel, etc.––will put capacity before revenue.This constant full capacity utilization seriously hinders a firm’s ability to attract top talent, valuable customers and cross-sell additional services to existing customers, not to mention innovate. It also makes the partners and firm leaders believe the way to prosperity is to leverage people, and worse, billable hours. What David Maister calls the donkey strategy––prosperity by carrying a heavier load.Third, most firms focus on efficiency by measuring such things as utilization rates and billable hours. Yet, if you study statistics going back at least fifty years, you’d find utilization rates and billable hours are within a very tight range.",1]);//-->Revenue = People Power x Efficiency x Hourly Rate
\n",0]);D(["ce"]);//-->mind, not matter. Where ideas and knowledge––what economists term human capital––comprise 75% of any nation’s, or law firm’s wealth-creating ability.
Technorati Tags: ron+baker, timesheets, billable+hour, efficiency
Will All Our Future Clients be Stupider?
Walter Koschnitzke points out a new study that should be scaring the heck out of all professional service providers:
According to a study funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, more than half to students at four-year colleges — and at least 75 percent at two-year colleges — lack the literacy to handle real-life tasks such as understanding credit card offers. (Yahoo story)
The study finds that students fail to lock in key skills — no matter their field of study. They cannot interpret an exercise and blood pressure table, understand the arguments of newspaper editorials, compare credit card offers with different interest rates and annual fees or summarize results of a survey about parental involvement in school.
If you don’t take this advice, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Not blogging yet? Your clients may expect it.
Still looking for a reason to blog? In this post from the Work Better Weblog titled, Wanted – Real Estate Agents to Blog the author explains why he wants his next real estate agent to have a blog:
This is what I’m looking for in the next real estate agent I work with:
- A weblog that’s about 60% ‘business’ - properties, housing market, interest rates, mortgage stuff. With the rest of it more personal and hopefully completely off topic. Ideally, some posts will cross both sides - likes restaurants and events in the neighborhoods they really like.
- Yes, the weblog needs to have an RSS feed filled with photos so I can automatically stay up-to-date on the home sales in the area.
- I’d also like an iCal calendar available, so open houses can be loaded into my things-to-do this weekend.
These 3 items help me build a relationship with an agent, on my terms and without the risk of spam and unwanted phone calls. While at the same time, building the agent’s reputation, credibility, and network.
You’ve been warned. ;-)
If you want a serious meeting, hand out toys.
Kirsten Osolind, back to blogging at Re:Invention, offers several guidelines for team meetings. Some good stuff, and my favorite is the title of this post. Welcome back to blogging, Kirsten!
Technorati Tags: facilitation, meetings, fun
Get on the Same Level as Your Clients
Jack Vinson shares a suggestion from Sylvie Noel for laypeople communicating with experts:
[I]f you want to understand your local expert, tell her how much you already know about the subject. That way, she can adjust her vocabulary to your needs.
Good advice for starting out a new relationship with a client. Have them tell you how much they know about the subject first.
Technorati Tags: client+service, attorney, client
As Our Clients See Us
In his promising new blog, Brian Ivanovick , gives some advice to small business people on dealing with their lawyers. I found his advice on billable time the most interesting:
Lawyers make their living by tracking something called billable hours. That means every interaction with the client is billed. If you just want an opinion about some non-legal facet of your deal - seek out the advice of friends and colleagues first. Your network should be able to give you some guidance when it comes to how to solve non-legal issues. As mentioned above, a mentor is another perfect place to turn. Treat your lawyer as a specialist - not as a sounding board. Remember that you’ll pay for literally every minute of their time.
When you’ve decided to enter a contract with another party, I would suggest that you come up with a detailed agreement in principle before you get the lawyers involved. Then employ your lawyer to codify your intentions in legal speak. A lawyer is absolutely necessary - but only involve them when you and the other party understand exactly what you want to accomplish.
Pretty sad that our predominant business model discourages our clients from talking to us, isn’t it? (BTW, I had some problems with the direct link to the post. It is broken, go to the blog and scroll down for the Lawyers and Contracts post.)
E-Mail Newsletter Do's and Don'ts
If you send out an e-mail newsletter (or even use e-mail for client communications), check out these Seven E-mail Landmines. One tip that’s made me rethink my e-mails is this one:
The top 145-200 pixels of an email's height are the most critical. Key information to include above the fold:
- Company logo and link to the home page
- The main call to action, plus a link to act on that call
- A visual that enhances the brand image
- A headline that encourages readers to read the rest of the message
From a design perspective, the most common mistake is to clutter this section with graphics. If stripped out or blocked, they negatively affect your message.
Benefits are in the Eye of the Beholder.
My friend Jim Logan (who still blogs at JSLogan) is now posting his great business advice to a new blog: Biz Informer. Great stuff from Jim, as always, and I highly recommend it. Here’s a bit of a taste, from his post If Your Market or Customer Doesn’t Care, You Can’t Call it a Benefit:
Assuming you’re not the only company on the planet that provides products and services similar to yours, what is it about your offering that’s unique? As with benefits you offer your customers, your uniqueness needs to be tied to things valued by your customer. Your uniqueness is your ‘orange’...your ‘orange’ as compared to other's ‘apple.’
Being different only counts to the extent your target customers acknowledge the difference as a benefit. For example, if your difference is that you support 1000+ color choices for your ‘widgets’ however, your target customers only buy or care about 4 basic colors, then your difference in having 1000+ color choices is of no benefit to your customer and has little to no market value.
Your difference shares space with your benefits as the ground you stand on to compete for your prospective customer’s business. The things you highlight as differences are the items you most want to compete on and are in effect ‘traps’ you set for your competition.
Look for difference in your offering that is tied to the use of your product and service. Your difference is your unfair advantage over your competitors. Another way to look at it is your benefits are what your customer gets from your products or services; your difference gives cause as to why your benefits and solution are unique.
Remember...Difference without benefit is of no value to your customer. Be sure to highlight difference that is recognized by your customers as benefits they are willing to pay for.
Take a look at your marketing materials. What “benefits” do you brag about. Do your customers really care?
Introduce your clients to blogs.
Not everyone “gets” blogging. If you’d like to introduce your clients to blogs, why not give them a pre-populated list of blogs that are relevant to them and their business area — heck, include some blogs that reflect their personal interests, favorite hobbies, sports teams, etc. Make sure it includes yours, of course. Here, from Steve Dembo, is a quick way to do it:
If you go into Bloglines, click on My Feeds and scroll down to the bottom of the left hand frame, you’ll see a link called “Tell a friend”. Clicking on it allows you to enter in a list of email addresses and to pick among blogs you currently subscribe to. It will send out an email with a link to bloglines that will allow someone to register a new account at bloglines prepopulated with your chosen blogs!
Wow, I wish I’d known about this the last few times I got people started on bloglines. MUCH easier than having them jump from place to place to place subscribing to blogs without really understanding what it’s all about yet.
It’s kind of like a personal gift that keeps on giving. It is like you are introducing your client to dozens of people that could directly help their businesses. That’s pretty powerful relationship building.
If you use this tip, though, at least promise me you’ll include the [non]billable hour in the list. ;-)