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The Legal Sector Client Experience Conference 2018 : The One at the Zoo

Legal Sector Client Experience Conference 2018In November I attended the Legal Sector Client Experience Conference at Bristol Zoo organised by Clare Fanner of Find Get Grow. It was the first conference I have attended where the Health & Safety announcement at the beginning included that if there was an animal related incident we were all to remain within the conference room! Thankfully the only ‘animal’ related incident of the day was the Conscious Solutions’ orange dog going missing at the end of the day (but that is quite a common occurrence).

Orange Dog at Bristol ZooHaving a conference for lawyers entirely dedicated to client experience is unusual but probably a much needed day of education for most. Especially so given some of the statistics revealed at the event from a survey carried out by customer experience specialists insight6. For example of the 70 law firms that were mystery shopped:-

Calling Back
75% of law firms called back after the client left a message

The speed of returning calls
42% within 3 hours
33% between 3 hours to one day
25% never received a call back

Follow up
Only 7% received a follow up call or e-mail within 5 working days of speaking to an expert

The following is a summary of the event taken, on the most part, from the tweets I tweeted at the time:-

Clients changed our brand and our perspective – why & how? – insight6, Jonathan Winchester & Rhian Huxtable

If something goes wrong with customer service it is a great opportunity to turn things around

Service can only be provided by people not by machines.

How employee ownership improves client service – Stephens Scown, Christian Wilson

You need to look outside the legal sector for good client service examples.

You need to record and celebrate when someone goes the extra mile.

You should engage with clients in a way that supports them e.g. Stephens Scown’s campaign to get people to pay more for milk to help the firm’s dairy farming clients.

Say thank you.

Love where you live.

Focus on client service and people.

Empowering the workforce to live & breathe a culture of client-centricity – Moneypenny, Claire Smith

Recruit for attitude over skill set

No appraisals just wow chats. What’s your wow moment and ouch moment.

Make people feel secure. “There’s no team without trust.” Paul Santagata, Head of Industry, Google. It is okay to make mistakes.

Give back. Blend work and home.

Interest free loans for staff when their chips are down.

“The best customer service is if the customer doesn’t need to talk to you. It just works.” Jeff Bezos, Amazon.

Go the extra mile.

Be available.

Live chat is the fastest growing means of cummunication. I thought, hopefully, with humans and not chatbots (e.g. LawDroid and Billy Bot)!

Do simple things. Make it personal. Answer the phone and say who you are. Use the client’s name back to them.

A client experience programme for YOUR law firm – insight6, Rhian Huxtable, Craig Hawthorn, Richard Knight & Mel Evans

Use smaply.com  to map the customer journey.

First stage of the client journey is knowing the type of client you will be dealing with.

Customer Experience v Customer Journey – Conscious Solutions, Rich Dibbins

Heat mapping using heat-map.co will let you know where your clients are going on your website pages.

Google Analytics tell you what pages are being bounced, how long are they spending on each page?

Most popular pages on any law firm website are the profile pages.

First mistake: Not being mobile friendly.

Second mistake: Asking for too many details on a contact form.

Third mistake: Too much info or bamboozling. But need plenty of content.

Fourth mistake: Not responding to bogus reviews on social media. Responding is customer service 101.

Chatbots are not there to replace lawyers. But to help. Although in my view If that is automated chatbots (e.g. LawDroid and Billy Bot) then yes… help!

You want a low bounce rate on your website and new visitors to be higher than return visitors.

Show us the money. Why you can’t aford to ignore CX – Find Get Grow, Clare Fanner & Third Bounce, Alex Barr

3% of turnover (excluding staff costs) is the average law firm marketing spend. i.e. You would spend 3% of turnover in cash on marketing activities but that 3% would not include your staff costs on marketing which would be on top of the 3%.

25% of opportunities are lost at the outset.

How what you do and say impacts others. An inspiring and unforgettable personal story. – Richard McCann

Richard McCann has a story that you have to hear to believe. I would not do it justice by trying to summarise it here. I suggest you read his books: Just a Boy and The Boy Grows Up.

His message is that you need not just an ‘I can’ attitude but you need an ‘I will’ and an ‘I did’.

Richard was a highlight in a very informative day on client service in law firms. A day that I was able to take choice parts from and use in a seminar on client service at my own law firm, Inksters, in December.

And at the very end of the day I was able to visit the animals in the zoo. That was an added value and memorable customer experience of attending this particular conference!

Bristol Zoo - Legal Sector Client Experience Conference 2018

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