By Patrick J. McKenna and Michael J. Anderson
RainToday.com Note: This is part two of a three-part series. In part one, McKenna and Anderson put you to the test, as they did for their own firm, to see how you stacked up on client service. Now, they describe the first two of four steps towards improving your firm's client service.
Step One: Gather Intelligence
We subscribe to the view that you really can’t understand how to solidify your relationship, enhance your service offering, or even get more and better business from any client, until you truly understand that client. Thus, client knowledge is critical to the effective building of relationships and to learning how you might differentiate yourself from competitive firms.
This sounds like a rather obvious and even trite observation, but it is a self-evident fact that many professionals today have at best a superficial understanding of the dynamics of their client and its industry. To our astonishment, a number of the client teams that we have come across do little to no in-depth research on the client company. It’s almost as if the professionals share a view that if you have to resort to doing research, it is a tacit admission that you don’t know your client.
In discussions with attorneys, we have found a great deal of variability in the levels of client knowledge. Some have a very deep knowledge and understanding of their client--what we would refer to as client insight. Other attorneys think they know their client, but the client does not. Still, others know about their clients, without truly knowing the intricacies of their particular company.
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