It’s not just one thing. It’s everything—the total package.
The BTI Client Service All-Stars deliver better client service than everyone else. Their secret? They care about all things and everything client facing. For the first time, clients note total client experience as one of the top traits separating a BTI Client Service All-Star from the rest. The All-Stars are delivering a superior end-to-end experience, and this will set the new standard moving forward.
Clients single out the following practices, protocols, behaviors, and interactions separating their BTI Client Service All-Star from all others:
- Using both formal and informal communications to keep a continuing stream of dialog around legal and non-legal issues.
- Advising clients on budgets and deadlines—before clients ask.
- Talking about how to improve their performance.
- Cutting to the chase.
- Posing and answering billing questions—before clients ask.
- Knowing and behaving as though there is a continuing stream of needs and business.
- Writing RFPs for clients who are forced to put work out to bid.
- Helping with things outside of clients’ legal work (managing bosses, career counsel, helping with personal and family matters).
- Making themselves accessible—even when they are not.
- Communicating new insights in a manner which makes clients feel special, like they are the first to be learning.
- Sharing new ideas, thoughts, and insights and asking clients for their opinions.
- Invoicing on a timely basis.
- Educating themselves about clients’ business on a frequent, regular, and systematic basis, and discussing this insight with clients. They also build this insight into their legal counsel.
- Using assistants and associates to ensure clients know their whereabouts and the status of deliverables.
- Designing and sharing back-up communication plans to manage communication when they are hard to reach.
Don’t worry about delivering on all these actions. Start with a few. Even a couple is fine. But start if you haven’t—and add more once you work these into your normal routine. The more you add the easier these behaviors become. And, they not only get easier—they create more billable hours and boost productivity. You become more efficient, create demand for you and your firm, and deliver world-class client service—the trifecta of developing new and continuing business.
MBR
(Based on BTI research conducted on a rolling basis between February 2017 and January 2018. BTI conducted more than 350 independent, individual interviews with top legal decision makers at large organizations with $1 billion or more in revenue.)