« Heroic, not-good news. | Main | Redux: "Ease-of-Use Awards" For Law Firms? »
March 19, 2008
Clients v. Employees: Are we asking enough of ourselves on client service?
Here's a fine post on an important subject: Clients or Team Members - Which Comes First? at Innovative Practice Management. Obviously, for WAC?, the client is first. Employees and "team members", while key, can't ever be put ahead of the client. And I get all the Stephen Covey peace-and-love stuff about employees. My firm just believes that good employees buy into customer service in the first two weeks--or they don't--and there is rarely anything you can do to "teach" a client service mindset. Lots of very intelligent staff people and associates in the market are very happy going through business life without a client-focus. The answer is to avoid them or get rid of them right away. My question: is the standard in our profession for client service and actual delivery of legal services high enough in the first place? And do we ever even meet it? The marketplace has become much more employee-friendly in the last 20 years. But what about clients and customers? My take is that on CS, we're still in the dark ages, and mediocre is the best we can do. The key is employees. Are we asking ourselves and them to do enough--and policing it?
Posted by JD Hull at March 19, 2008 12:49 PM
Comments
You've inspired me. Tomorrow is going to be client appreciation day. I will not yell at any clients, no matter what. Well, at least in the morning. Before 10. In person. If they bring me coffee. And a donut. With jelly.
Posted by: shg at March 18, 2008 02:08 PM
Criminal defense lawyers are excepted from many WAC? principles--and for good reasons.
Posted by: Dan Hull at March 19, 2008 06:06 PM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)