the [non]billable hour

Resolve to Measure What Your Clients Treasure

I doubt that if you asked your clients what they buy from you that they'd answer, "Time."  Yet because (many of) you sell time to them, it is often the only thing that you measure with any rigor.

In 2010, Resolve to Measure What Your Clients Treasure.  Start by asking every client this question:

"How will you measure your satisfaction with us as we serve you?" 

Don't settle for an answer that depends completely on the end result.  Instead, press for answers like "By always keeping me up to date," and "Returning my phone calls promptly."

Once you've identified at least two things most of your clients want from you, begin to measure how well you're doing them.  Your clients already are.

Resolve to Know Your Best Clients Better

Now that you've identified your worst clients, fired them, and stopped taking more like them, you can now focus your time and energy on building your practice doing the kinds of things you like to do for clients that you enjoy serving.

And the first step to take is to get to know your best clients better.  Identify your seven favorite clients, past or present.  Take them to lunch or dinner in person (or over the phone) and get to know them. 

Make your time together about them. Tell them they're one of your favorite all-time clients and you wanted to catch up.  Learn about their plans for the new year and the challenges they're facing.  Talk about their family and hobbies.  Find out about the charities they care about and the professional organizations they belong to. 

But don't stop there.  The more you know about your clients, the better you'll be able to serve them.  A great list of things to could/should know about your clients is the "Mackay 66" (pdf download here).

And at the end of each conversation, don't forget to ask:

How do I find more clients like you?

Client Worthiness Index

In my last Resolution (on trusting your gut), I mentioned the new LexThink Client Worthiness Index (CWI).  I only included a link to the pdf version of it in that post.  Here's a pic of what it looks like, if you're interested.

Resolve to Trust Your Gut

Every time you interview a potential client, you have a "gut" feeling on whether they will be a good client or a bad one.  Unfortunately, too many lawyers ignore our gut, and end up paying for it in the end.

Today's resolution is to Trust Your Gut.  Don't ignore those uneasy feelings you (or your staff) have about potential clients.  Instead, pay attention to them, and trust yourself to differentiate good clients from bad.

To help you trust your gut better, I've created a LexThink Client Worthiness Index Worksheet (links to .pdf) for you to use every time you interview a potential client.  Fill in the blanks (and ask your staff to help) after your meeting, and you'll come up with a "Client Worthiness" number between 1-100.  Do your best to take clients scoring 75 or better, and you'll weed out the bad ones before it is too late.

Resolve to Fire Better

 

In yesterday's resolution I encouraged you to understand what makes your bad clients bad, and avoid taking any more like them.  But what do you do with the terrible clients that are already on your books?  Fire them!

Sounds easy, but the reason so many lawyers continue to serve clients they shouldn't is that it is uncomfortable/awkward/difficult/etc. to let those bad clients go -- especially early in the relationship when we know the client is a difficult one, but promise ourselves they'll improve.  Sound familiar?

So today's resolution is an easy one:  Resolve to Fire Better.  Start by reviewing the ethics rules in your jurisdiction regarding termination of the attorney-client relationship, and then:

1. Add a "Client Expectations" section to your retainer agreement that sets out the kinds of things you expect from your clients and the things they're prohibited from doing (like belittling your staff, constantly canceling appointments, etc.).
   
2. Draft three form letters (first warning, stern reminder, and "You're Fired!") that you can pull out on a moment's notice and use with minimal modification when clients deserve one.
3. Write a script of the what you'll say when you tell the client they're fired.
4. Practice your script!  Difficult conversations become less so when you're accustomed to having them.

Once you've cleaned out your waiting room, you'll be able to start focusing on the clients you love to serve, and on building your practice to serve them better.  More on that in tomorrow's resolution.

(Thanks to Julie A. Fleming, who's comment on yesterday's post contained some great advice on firing clients.)

Resolve to Understand Your Worst Clients

Admit it, you have clients you hate.  Whether they're not paying you, always coming up with excuses for not following your advice, or belittling your staff, your worst clients don't deserve your best work and probably aren't getting it anyway.  Their work is the last you do, and their calls are the last you return.  You wake up worried about their file, but then find a myriad of excuses to avoid touching it all day.  Your worst clients sap your energy and take the fun out of practicing law.

So, in 2010, I challenge you to resolve to understand your worst clients better.  This isn't about liking them, but about avoiding more like them.  Here's how:

1.  Identify your 10 worst clients (past and present).

2.  List at least three things they all share in common -- things like the warning signals you ignored when they hired you, the kind of problems they asked you to solve, or even the type of lawyer on the other side of the case.

3.  Title the list: "Types of Clients and Cases I'll Never Take Again."

4.  Review the list before every potential client interview, and think twice before taking on another "worst" client.

Once you've resolved to understand the kinds of clients you hate to serve, you can start building your practice around serving the clients you love.

Resolutions are Back!

In the first few years of this blog, every December, I'd share one "resolution" each day of the month (here are the ones from 2004, 2005 and 2006).  The purpose of the posts was to give my readers a handful of things they could implement in the coming year to make their practices better.  I skipped 2007, and did a single Ten Resolutions for Lawyers post last year.

Since one of my resolutions for 2010 is to write more, I figured this was a good time to get the series running again.  Between today and the end of the year, look for 31 "Resolutions" focused on identifying your best clients and serving them better.  Some you've seen before on this blog, and some are new.  I hope you enjoy them all.

Does Your Firm Know Customer Math?

Jackie Huba has a great Q and A with Jeanne Bliss, the author of "I Love You More Than My Dog": Five Decisions That Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad."  There's a lot of meat in the interview (and probably in the book as well), but the real nugget is this reminder to pay more attention to serving existing customers than to pursuing new ones:

Q:  Do companies need to be customer-driven to grow?

A: Companies forget that customers keep them in business.  Customers who love companies grow them.  To understand this, think of customer math -- a rigorous way to track incoming customers by volume and value and then reconcile that number with the lost customers in that same period, comparing incoming and outgoing customer volume and value.  The ‘aha moment’ comes when the math reveals that company marketing dollars are spent replacing customers lost rather than growing the business with the addition of new customers.  In essence, many companies are running in place. I believe in elevating customers as the asset of the business.  That means creating a competency for rigor around a) identifying and getting rid of those things driving customers away; and then b) getting really great at specific things that create a distinct memory and impression about a company and its people.  We forget the fact that it’s the creation of those memories that we make on purpose or accidentally through our operations decisions or policy choices that connect or repel us from customers.

More on this in a few weeks...

Keep Your Clients Healthy

John Jantsch, of Duct Tape Marketing, tweeted this "killer retail traffic strategy" that could work for law firms:

hook up with RN and offer flu shots in your store or business.

Could you offer a free flu-shot to your clients?  Especially if combined with a legal check-up, too?

Ask Your Clients What Surprised Them

Paul Graham collects some sage advice from the founders of startups he's helped fund.  Preparing for a talk, he sent emails to all the founders and asked them "what surprised them about starting a startup?" According to Paul, asking what surprised them amounted to "asking what I got wrong, because if I'd explained things well enough, nothing should have surprised them."

This is a very powerful question that should be on every lawyers post-matter client survey:

What surprised you the most?

Like Paul, you're asking your clients in a polite way about the things you got wrong (or that they think you did because you didn't communicate well).  And I'm quite certain you'll get powerful, surprising and sometimes harshly critical responses -- which are just the types of feedback you can use to eliminate surprises in the future for you and for your clients.