Prepared and presented by Ben McConnellPrincipal

Ant’s Eye View

-- A.N. Whitehead

“The major advances in civilization are processes

that all but wreck the societies in which they

occur.”

Producing effects on the actions, behaviors or opinions of others

Influence:

Circumference

Your firm

Circumference

Your firm

Your clients

Circumference

Circumference

Your firm

Your potential clients

Your clients

Circumference

Your firm

Your potential clients

Your clients

Is powered by creating a community of clients who recommend you to friends, family and colleagues

Radius of influence:

1. Recommendations from friends

2. Other peoples’ opinions online

3. Company website

4. Editorial content (news articles)

5. Brand sponsorships

Source: Nielsen Online Global Consumer Study, April 2009

Most trusted advertising:

The ROI PlaybookClient Experience Management For Law

Firms

“The biggest cause of serious error in this business is a failure of

communication.”

-- Finn O’Sullivan of McNamara/Salvia, a structural engineering firm

Communication: The next innovation

for law firms

Communication: What Americans want

from law firms

Area % Rating

Educate the public about how to handle common legal problems 81% 7.8

Do a better job of communicating with their clients 80% 7.8

Do a better job of policing and regulating themselves 78% 7.7

Do a better job of explaining their fees to their clients 69% 7.3

Do more public service and pro-bono work 63% 6.8

Lower their fees 57% 6.8

Be more selective about the cases they take 46% 5.9

Change the way they advertise 45% 5.8

Stop advertising 27% 4.3

Source: LJS survey, 2002. Survey participants were asked to rate each area on a 1-9 point scale where 9 meant “very important” and

1 meant “not so important.”

Build a community of referrers

1. Focus on education, not advertising.

2. Communicate with your community regularly.

3. Put someone in charge as community

facilitator.

4. Find ways to have your community meet in

person.

5. Participating with your community is

marketing.

Knowing who’s referring you and track it.

Phone calls.

Emails.

Newsletters.

Events.

Invitations on Facebook.

Build a community through:

Client experience:How to define and improve it

Know your moments of truth:

• The way a client first learns of your firm

• The first interaction with a firm representative

• The first interaction with an attorney

• The acceptance or declination call

• The response to various questions or pressing

issues

Moments of truth mapFirst interaction

Evangelistic

Efficient

Average

Functional

Second interactio

n

Could be better

Disappointing

Third interaction

Fourth interaction

Fifth interaction

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

Good word of mouth

No word of mouth

Angering

Poor word of mouth

Client experience:Create standards of service

SafetyThe safety of guests is the

primary concern

CourtesyEvery guest treated as if

they were a top VIP

ShowDisney is about a seamless

performance

EfficiencyFocus on improving all

aspects of service

Client experience:Survey clients to understand

their experience

Ask 2 questions:

Question: How likely are you to recommend us to friends, family or colleagues?

Answer: (1-10 scale)

Ask 2 questions:

Question: Can you tell us why?

Answer: (Fill in the blank)

Purpose: It defines, and drives, everything

Discovery (the new)

IBM, Sony, Intel, Virgin

Excellence(the beautiful)

Apple, BMW,The Economist

Altruism(the helpful)

Red Cross, Nordstrom, HP

Heroism(the effective)

Microsoft, Ford, ExxonMobil

Six key points about purpose

1. It is based on well-established moral ideas.

2. It advances both competitiveness and morality.

3. It relates people to plans and relates leaders to

colleagues.

4. It cannot be chosen quickly or on an ad hoc basis; it

has to be discovered.

5. It is a paradox. It will boost profits, but only if it is

pursued for its own sake.

6. It is a matter of a firm’s life or death. Its presence can

transform a firm, and its loss can destroy an institution.

“Failing to make sure that everyone knows what you stand for and why – that can

come right back and ambush you much sooner than you realize. We should have

developed a precise mission statement, or something along those lines.

It’s easy for me to do that now.”

-- John Peterman, on the rise and fall of J. Peterman Co, which grew to $19 million in sales in three years,

then went bankrupt.

Values: Codify your culture

Client experience: It’s a direct reflection of a

law firm’s culture

1. Keep it simple.

2. Make it global.

3. Make it measureable.

4. Train and coach.

5. Solicit feedback and ideas from the

team.

6. Recognize and reward performance.

Build your firm’s culture

Client experience: A form of insurance against

malpractice claims

Area of law Cases % of total

Personal injury - plaintiff 8,730 21.56%

Real estate 8,119 20.05%

Family law 4,181 10.33%

Estate, trust, probate 3,919 9.68%

Collection, bankruptcy 2,945 7.27%

Criminal 2,055 5.08%

Corporate/business 2,001 4.94%

Commercial law 1,901 4.70%

Personal injury – defense 1,186 2.93%

International law 829 2.05%

Lawsuits against law firms, 2007

Source: American Bar Association

The client experience pyramid

Purpose

Values

Training

Day-to-day client experience

Evaluate and communicate

Adapt, additional training