Voice of the Client: Hearing the Voice of the Client

For the last decade, law firms have been touting that they are client-centered. They say they design their practice offerings around client needs, rather than spending their time focusing on the wares the firm has on hand to sell. While we generally agree that is the case, we also believe that there are still untapped opportunities to bring the "voice of the client" to additional aspects of the firm and improve the overall client experience.

Listening carefully to clients, whether by inviting them to serve as panelists or speakers, creating advisory boards to engage them, or through monitoring client feedback (to name a few), can help in a myriad of ways. While it may help the firm to uncover troubling and unknown issues in the client-firm relationship, it can also help firms develop a more responsive and targeted range of offerings to serve their clients' future needs.

Invite Clients as Speakers

While firms often have an annual meeting or retreat where a partner invites a client to speak at a tropical paradise, there is much to gain by thinking about this in a more systematic way. By having clients speak before the firm, it accomplishes a number of things. It helps the firm, its lawyers and other professional staff understand more about the client and their particular needs and desires. For example, our anecdotal data tells us that associates tend to align with and be more responsive to, the clients where they have developed some type of personal relationship. It becomes much easier for an associate to advocate and care about a client once they've met them face to face. In addition, it provides the client with the platform to inform the firm in more intimate terms, whether it's to help outline the organization's plans, dreams, or overall ethos. It shouldn't go unnoticed that it is flattering even to the headiest client when they are viewed as important enough to be invited into the fold of the firm.

Create Events that Focus on Clients

Rather than waiting to invite a client to speak at an annual partner retreat or an alumni party, consider creating events to focus on spotlighting the client. This may mean gathering a group of clients to discuss the impact COVID-19 has on their legal department, or inviting a client to the firm to talk about a case they worked with the firm to win. Build the event around them, rather than waiting for the opportunities to arise. This small but critical change in perspective can reap significant rewards as the clients become of the center of the firm's focus.

Client Surveys

In an unsteady economy, it's even more essential to remain close to your clients. Though brand loyalty can help retain clients, it may not serve as strong enough of a reason for clients to remain with a firm. A systematic client survey program, which includes a professional surveyor and a mechanism in place for follow-up, is essential, now more than ever. It's crucial that the results be analyzed not only individually, so that feedback can be given to the client's legal team at the firm, but also viewed in the aggregate. Aggregated client survey results can provide a fulsome picture of how the firm is perceived by its clients and at the same time, uncover opportunities for new capabilities and highlight areas for improvement.

Create an Advisory Board

Bringing clients together for an annual meeting, either based on their specific industry or their geography, can be a useful activity. Not only can you use the advisory board to test out ideas and gain input regarding the firm, but you allow clients the opportunity to network with one another.

Write Interesting Case Studies

Once a matter is completed or a case is resolved, it's important to memorialize the content and outcome in an engaging story-telling format. Include quotes from the client and the partners, and consider using the piece for the firm's intranet or newsletter (with the proper permissions). Firms find that this is helpful for many reasons. Not only does it help celebrate the work of the firm and the client and give kudos to the team that handled the matter, but it helps to frame the depth of the firm in a way that makes it easy for potential prospects to understand. By having this material in an easy to access format, it also allows for new client team members, including lawyers and staff, to know more about the client and shorten their own learning curve.

By paying closer attention to the voice of the client, through surveys, events and memorializing cases and matters, it will help lead us to true client-centricity.

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Deborah Farone is a strategy marketing advisor to law firms, a law school and retreat lecturer, and the author of the best-seller, "Best Practices in Law Firm Business Development and Marketing." In 2017, after serving as the long-time CMO of Cravath and Debevoise & Plimpton, she launched her own consulting practice, Farone Advisors LLC, where she advises law and other professional service firms on marketing strategy, training and development. She can be reached at [email protected] or connect with her on LinkedIn @deborahfarone. Mike Mellor is the Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer at Pryor Cashman, a 180+ attorney firm with offices in NYC, LA and Miami.