Voice of the Client: Assumptions Can Kill You

The world is a complex place. To effectuate our navigating through it, we all make simplifying assumptions ' many of them formed more or less subconsciously and many without the benefit of deeper research or more rigorous thinking.

If we're wrong in any of these assumptions, the outcomes of our resulting actions might be, for example, relatively benign (“Surely, the line for lunch at the deli won't be too long”), cause some moderate harm (“No problem, I've got enough gas to get home”) or be near fatal (“I'm certain our wedding anniversary is next week, not today).

In our roles as client-serving professionals ' lawyers, accountants or management consultants ' we also make assumptions with regard to our clients, including their needs, their preferences and the advice we give them. Many of these assumptions about our clients are likely to be valid and result in good or, at least, non-injurious outcomes. Nevertheless, the point of this article is: Shouldn't we be more deliberate and questioning about the assumptions we make about clients ' in order to ensure that we don't end up with self-inflicted client relations issues?

Ask the Questions

What is the magnitude of the chasm between reality ' investigated, verified, analyzed and understood ' and any one of the key assumptions you've made about a client, such as might be based on old news, hearsay, supposition or out-of-date paradigms ?

Following are some examples:

“What does general counsel want?” I believe this is the most dangerous intellectual pursuit on which a client-handling partner can embark. Why? It assumes that the general counsel of your key client has similar needs and preferences to general counsels, in general. Don't assume. Instead, ask your client's general counsel, specifically, what he/she wants from you and your firm.

“I've talked to our key contact and I haven't heard any complaints.” The relationship between a law firm and its client is a many-splendored thing. For example, a general counsel often doesn't know about all of the relevant opinions that other persons in his/her organization might have about your firm. The law department might be able to provide only part of the story, so input from the business-side executives is also needed. For example, dissatisfaction might be brewing deep down at the lower levels of the client's organization or with executives with whom you don't have regular contact, but nevertheless are important buyers of the firm's services. When I conduct a client satisfaction and loyalty assessment at a key client of a law firm, I often interview eight to 10 or more individuals ' those that comprise the key touch points in the relationship. This eliminates assumptions and ensures that small engagement problems can be identified and fixed before they escalate into larger relationship issues.

“We have competitors at that client, but we're in the driver's seat.” I'm certain that these famous last words have been spoken by many a responsible partner regarding a key client of a law firm. Certainly, on the list of the most lethal assumptions a professional can make about his/her client, competitors' activities rank near the top. However, getting actionable feedback from a client about a firm's competitors requires the right setting and some conversational finesse. When talking about competitors, the information that needs to be extracted cannot be superficial, but requires deep diving into such issues as: on what matters are the competitor firms working; which partners are involved; how well are they performing compared to your lawyers and firm; what is the methodology employed for selecting providers and parceling out available work; is an important executive's bother-in-law or next door neighbor a partner in a competitor firm?

“We have a client team assigned.” This might be one of the most misleading assumptions ever made in a law firm. The whole notion of “client teams” is, in many firms, still at the experimental stage. While it's usually clear who is the named responsible partner, various silos of lawyers from different practice groups working on the same client are often engaged in just doing their own thing. Further, each of these silos might be operating under their own set of disparate or even conflicting assumptions.

“Key executives won't want to be interviewed for their feedback nor have the time.” This assumption ranks up there with other common misconceptions (that is, false assumptions), “Unless our competitors are doing it, we don't have to” and “These interviews are for problem clients only.” Acting on these aforementioned assumptions leads to, ironically, no action at all ' and leaves the client partner and the firm dependent on partial and/or out-of-date information.

“The Responsible Partner should conduct the feedback interviews.” Of course, the firm's responsible partner and, for that matter, any partner or associate on the account, should have their ears tuned for feedback and, in appropriate situations, initiate the conversations. However, it's been found that the candor quotient with regard to feedback is higher when there are more degrees of independence between the interviewer to the person being interviewed. For this reason, an independent third party often works well. Where a “client visitation” is conducted by the firm's chair/MP or another senior lawyer, such meetings are not ideal for drawing out all the available intelligence. Additionally, because they are busy lawyers, rarely do these firm members take the time to fully document the results of the interviews ' a necessary step if the resulting action plans are to be implemented over a multiple-year period.

“We know what's good for that client.” Wrong again. To addresses what buyers want and how to give it to them, there's a new movement in Corporate America called Customer Experience Management. Some companies have formed separate departments to address this function, and placed special focus on the company's B2B Enterprise Clients, the moniker for the largest dollar accounts. The resulting action programs include those such as Voice of the Client, Client Satisfaction & Loyalty Assessments, Key Account Management, Employee Engagement and Customer Data Analytics. The goal is customer-insightful decisions, defined by Bruce Temkin, a customer experience visionary, as the result of “infusing a deep, relevant understanding of customers across an organization that affects how employees make decisions.” Think about that in terms of how your firm might serve its key clients based on facts acquired from the clients. Please, with no assumptions.

Bruce D. Heintz heads Heintz Consulting LLC. Reach him at 781-891-6850 or via e-mail at [email protected].

The world is a complex place. To effectuate our navigating through it, we all make simplifying assumptions ' many of them formed more or less subconsciously and many without the benefit of deeper research or more rigorous thinking.

If we're wrong in any of these assumptions, the outcomes of our resulting actions might be, for example, relatively benign (“Surely, the line for lunch at the deli won't be too long”), cause some moderate harm (“No problem, I've got enough gas to get home”) or be near fatal (“I'm certain our wedding anniversary is next week, not today).

In our roles as client-serving professionals ' lawyers, accountants or management consultants ' we also make assumptions with regard to our clients, including their needs, their preferences and the advice we give them. Many of these assumptions about our clients are likely to be valid and result in good or, at least, non-injurious outcomes. Nevertheless, the point of this article is: Shouldn't we be more deliberate and questioning about the assumptions we make about clients ' in order to ensure that we don't end up with self-inflicted client relations issues?

Ask the Questions

What is the magnitude of the chasm between reality ' investigated, verified, analyzed and understood ' and any one of the key assumptions you've made about a client, such as might be based on old news, hearsay, supposition or out-of-date paradigms ?

Following are some examples:

“What does general counsel want?” I believe this is the most dangerous intellectual pursuit on which a client-handling partner can embark. Why? It assumes that the general counsel of your key client has similar needs and preferences to general counsels, in general. Don't assume. Instead, ask your client's general counsel, specifically, what he/she wants from you and your firm.

“I've talked to our key contact and I haven't heard any complaints.” The relationship between a law firm and its client is a many-splendored thing. For example, a general counsel often doesn't know about all of the relevant opinions that other persons in his/her organization might have about your firm. The law department might be able to provide only part of the story, so input from the business-side executives is also needed. For example, dissatisfaction might be brewing deep down at the lower levels of the client's organization or with executives with whom you don't have regular contact, but nevertheless are important buyers of the firm's services. When I conduct a client satisfaction and loyalty assessment at a key client of a law firm, I often interview eight to 10 or more individuals ' those that comprise the key touch points in the relationship. This eliminates assumptions and ensures that small engagement problems can be identified and fixed before they escalate into larger relationship issues.

“We have competitors at that client, but we're in the driver's seat.” I'm certain that these famous last words have been spoken by many a responsible partner regarding a key client of a law firm. Certainly, on the list of the most lethal assumptions a professional can make about his/her client, competitors' activities rank near the top. However, getting actionable feedback from a client about a firm's competitors requires the right setting and some conversational finesse. When talking about competitors, the information that needs to be extracted cannot be superficial, but requires deep diving into such issues as: on what matters are the competitor firms working; which partners are involved; how well are they performing compared to your lawyers and firm; what is the methodology employed for selecting providers and parceling out available work; is an important executive's bother-in-law or next door neighbor a partner in a competitor firm?

“We have a client team assigned.” This might be one of the most misleading assumptions ever made in a law firm. The whole notion of “client teams” is, in many firms, still at the experimental stage. While it's usually clear who is the named responsible partner, various silos of lawyers from different practice groups working on the same client are often engaged in just doing their own thing. Further, each of these silos might be operating under their own set of disparate or even conflicting assumptions.

“Key executives won't want to be interviewed for their feedback nor have the time.” This assumption ranks up there with other common misconceptions (that is, false assumptions), “Unless our competitors are doing it, we don't have to” and “These interviews are for problem clients only.” Acting on these aforementioned assumptions leads to, ironically, no action at all ' and leaves the client partner and the firm dependent on partial and/or out-of-date information.

“The Responsible Partner should conduct the feedback interviews.” Of course, the firm's responsible partner and, for that matter, any partner or associate on the account, should have their ears tuned for feedback and, in appropriate situations, initiate the conversations. However, it's been found that the candor quotient with regard to feedback is higher when there are more degrees of independence between the interviewer to the person being interviewed. For this reason, an independent third party often works well. Where a “client visitation” is conducted by the firm's chair/MP or another senior lawyer, such meetings are not ideal for drawing out all the available intelligence. Additionally, because they are busy lawyers, rarely do these firm members take the time to fully document the results of the interviews ' a necessary step if the resulting action plans are to be implemented over a multiple-year period.

“We know what's good for that client.” Wrong again. To addresses what buyers want and how to give it to them, there's a new movement in Corporate America called Customer Experience Management. Some companies have formed separate departments to address this function, and placed special focus on the company's B2B Enterprise Clients, the moniker for the largest dollar accounts. The resulting action programs include those such as Voice of the Client, Client Satisfaction & Loyalty Assessments, Key Account Management, Employee Engagement and Customer Data Analytics. The goal is customer-insightful decisions, defined by Bruce Temkin, a customer experience visionary, as the result of “infusing a deep, relevant understanding of customers across an organization that affects how employees make decisions.” Think about that in terms of how your firm might serve its key clients based on facts acquired from the clients. Please, with no assumptions.

Bruce D. Heintz heads Heintz Consulting LLC. Reach him at 781-891-6850 or via e-mail at [email protected].