In this part of the program, we're gonna be looking at working with other people, both within your firm clients, outside your firm, suppliers, barristers, whoever it is that you have to be dealing with and looking at how we can improve some of our communications. So working with others, of course, is going to be important even for sole practitioners. So let's get straight into this and look at working internally with other people within the firm, uh building those professional relationships upon which your success uh is so important. And again, with data law, we've provided communication in the workplace as the key text to explore the key program to explore, to think about what can we do to improve things in terms of communications. And I don't know any organization that I've met over the last 40 years that would say we've got our internal communications sorted so very important. It is too. So let's have a look. Um Now if I asked you a simple question, um is there such thing as difficult people? I suppose most people will put their hands up to the difficult people. Well, I've got news for you. There's no such thing as difficult people. But their behavior might be. You see, if you stop and analyze it, there's absolutely nothing you could do about other people's character. There values their thoughts, their ideas, their inner feelings. You can't do anything about that and neither should you try because it's just not gonna get you anywhere. All it will do is ruffle yours and possibly their feathers too. So, what we have to do is to accept that what we have to deal with is behaviors. So within the workbook, there's a little um picture you can have a look at on page 46 working with other people and this is this three concentric circles, uh picture that I've got there. And uh even if you haven't got that picture to hand, then just think about these three concentric circles because right in the middle of you and me are our core values. Those are things that we developed as infants by our relationship with people that were parents, carers, older siblings, whatever it might be even younger siblings. And by the time we got to about five, it's often said, show me the five year old, I'll show you the adult. And what it means is that people end up uh moving through to their uh older childhood and into adulthood with those core values about what's right and what's wrong, what works. So, of course, the only thing that will improve these and change these impish these add to them is our own personal experience, but they're deep within us and there's not something that you can easily get hold of unless you happen to be a psychiatrist or something like that. So those are the core values and how do we know where they are, what they're doing or they get expressed out on the next layer, rather like the layers of an onion. And that is a set of attitudes or beliefs, attitudes to youths with green hair or whatever, it might be our beliefs about ourselves, about others, about uh the world around us. And in most organizations, in most regular organized societies, uh these things we keep in particular control and all we can recognize in other people are a set of behaviors. Now that is fairly straightforward. So this is what you see, you see the behaviors outside of the onion and it's those behaviors that we have to deal with. So when you look at ourselves coming up with our own set of behaviors coming into contact with other people's set of behaviors, then I'll uh is there congruence with the behaviors? Do they fit in with what we want or indeed, uh is there some dissonance, some uh conflict that can occur because their behaviors are not the sort of behaviors that I think are appropriate and let's face it, you'll meet people in all walks of life who feel that their sets of behaviors are appropriate are perfectly appropriate. And they will do what they want to do. But don't you dare try and do the same thing back to them because they have a set of behaviors which are ok for them to have, but not for you to have. And that's really where the conflict arises. So think about your work colleagues and it is likely that most of the time most people get it as in, they buy into the ethos or culture, if you will of your firm and the cultural aspects of firm are very, very important. And if you're a leader of a team uh senior in an organization, then the way we do things around here as a way of explaining what culture is, is fundamental. And you want to recruit people who buy into that culture, uh that service mentality that all good professional service firms will have and those sets behaviors of course, are very, very important to the brand that being the name of your business. So what happens then if things go awry? Well, there's a number of things that we can do to deal with the behaviors and one of them of course, is not to personalize it. It's a bit like saying to a child, you're a very naughty boy, you're a very naughty girl. Well, you're labeling the individual as being naughty rather than saying what you did was very unkind. What you did was very naughty. And therefore we need to separate out the behaviors and not personalize it. So when you're in a difficult situation with somebody else, uh then there's a number of things that one has to do in order to try and resolve the problem. A very simple model and what I've got here, um and it's uh again on page 4647 a lot of dialogue in the notes for you. But let me take you through uh what is called the four A model. So dealing with difficult behaviors, when you see a difficult behavior is to stop and assess what's going on to assess the situation, what happened, what happened before, what happened, what's likely to happen afterwards, ask questions at this stage to assess what's going on. It sounds like you have got very angry with something. What was it that I did specifically that made you angry and so forth? But it was assess the situation because if you just jump to your first, uh, knee jerk reaction that so called, um, where's the book? Here we go. Um, the thinking, fast, thinking slow, the quick response is, ah, I'll deal with it this way. Bang conflict. So take some time to engage other parts of the mind to think about what is going on and then analyze it. Now, assessing the situation is what's actually happening, in fact and what did happen or what would happen and so forth. But analyze it in such a way that you become better aware of the cults of what's going on. Better aware of what reaction you can give to help resolve the situation. So, analyzing it, look at the bigger picture, look at what's going on and see whether or not there's something happening outside of work that's affecting somebody in work. And my former colleague, John Wilmshurst, he always said, well, if people aren't taking work home, then please will they not bring home into work? And I think that's probably quite good, you know, things go on in our lives that are challenging and we don't always have to bring those into work to upset the uh the culture of the organization by ao of whinge. I mean, it happens from time to time. Uh life happens but analyze the situation. So what's going on and then take some decisions about where you would like it to go. So think yourself said, OK, this has made me feel sad. I would like to know whether or not I have done something that's made you feel particularly sad. Let me understand what's going on and then aim for some particular conclusion as to where it should be. Um I think assertiveness is very, very powerful. I think aggression is inappropriate. And I think uh um being meek and mild is also so assertion is a lot better than arrogance. Uh arrogance is a village north of assertion and uh Meek is a long way south. So what are we gonna do uh with this well, think about these things and bring them all together to say, ok, this is the way forward because you've assessed the situation as to what it is, what external, what the situation is analyzed, why it may have occurred where it may be going and why, and then decide what would be most appropriate for the benefit of the continued working relationship. The continued uh service of clients that your firm has its strong reputation for and said, OK, this is the way forward. So I hope that's useful um to slow down a little bit the immediate reaction to. All right. Well, then now that boof and the conflict and uh reacting immediately to those itinerant behaviors that you'll meet from time to time and take a more measured slower approach. It takes effort, it takes time, but very often it's better to sort it out once and for all in a proper professional fashion than it would be to keep fighting fires when they occur. So, ok, that's dealing with difficult behavior. Let's then think about something else that's very much embedded in the communications program. Uh and something that I've explored, I'm not a practitioner of this, but let me explain what it is, how you could use it. Now, neuro linguistic programming doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. But N LP, capital letters of course, is well known in coaching circles in sporting circles and is being used quite a lot in communication to help understand what people uh have as their preferred way of thinking. So let's go through it. Neuro this uh uh uh has office application to neurology to the science of the brain or thinking neuro linguistic is words. Now uh I am English, I was born into an English family. I speak English. English is my mother tongue. And I think in English, I dream in English. I'm not having a dialogue in any other language. I have tried uh manfully to learn French. I travel to France quite a bit, but I wouldn't say that. I think in French, I do think in English, I have to convert what I'm thinking in English and turn it into French words and try and put that into a language there. You may have a different um origin, a different other term and you will recognize that you have thoughts in particular languages. If you're brought up in a multi-language environment, uh perhaps parents speaking different languages uh or whatever, then great. I think there's a great benefit. Your thinking will be related to the words that you use. And that's really what it's all about is thinking preferences in a language because that does the programming, it programs behaviors. OK? And that's what we're looking at here. So taking you through it very quickly, um just to get the feel for what it's all about is being able to relate one's thinking to the senses and the five core senses of um sight, sound, touch, uh smell, taste and so forth are uh related to neuro linguistic programming. The most common ones of course are sight, sound and touch. And there's also uh a thinking which is called uh digital. It deals with logic and numerical thinking. Let me take you through and illustrate what I mean. Um This is the, the power of N LP is that if you listen very carefully to what people are saying and the words they're using, you will be able to tap into their thinking preferences. And once you tap into their thinking preferences, you can use forms of language that they will more quickly understand. Let's show you an example. See when I said there, let me show you an example because that's visual words that have some sort of image or sight uh relative to it. So when you're in conversation with people trying to explain something and they say to you, I don't, I don't see what you mean. I don't see the point. That's not very clear to me, you'd be muddying the waters. All those phrases allude to a visual preference because they're using language that relates to the way they'd like to receive information. So think about those uh because it's very, very uh important to be able to track that. And some people will have a strong preference in that area. It may be that they have more than one preference. In other words, they're fairly similar in a couple of areas. And that's really what the com skills communication skills workshop is doing is giving you a simple test to uncover your own thinking preferences. But just by being aware of it, you can uh get a clearer idea of the sorts of things that look like to you. You see, I've just used all those phrases for visual um references. So that's one of them in no particular order. Another one of them is auditory. So I don't think it sounds like to you. Does it sound confusing? Um Does it ring a bell? Uh Those sorts of things are very powerful uh tools that you can use for those sort of um auditory manners of speaking, turning a deaf ear word for word, it's on the tip of my tongue. Those sorts of uh auditory sounds loud and clear on the same wavelength. Uh that's unheard of all of those things are auditory and being able to spot that in somebody else's conversation means that you'll be able to recognize what their thinking preferences are and begin to use those. Now, I work with people um who do have subtly different thinking preferences and uh I will definitely use, let me uh ask you to uh could I, could I ask you just to have a look at this email? Does it breed? OK to you? Um Does it uh look right and so on and so forth? I use those visual clues to somebody else who I know has got a strong auditory preference. I said to have a, uh, a read of this email. Uh, does it sound right? Am I expressing myself properly? Um, how's that going to be received? All those sorts of, uh, auditory sound clues. Now, the other strong uh sense, we have a sense of touch, the kinesthetic and this is, um, the feeling, the touching uh uh equivalents. And what do the, what sort of language clues can you expect to find with a kinesthetic approach? Well, you have to take the rough with the smooth, uh it has to feel right. It may be a bit hard, a bit cold, all those sorts of things to do with the senses of uh the body, senses, fingertips and so on and so forth. I can't put my finger on it. I can't grab hold of that. So again, if I was asking somebody to have a look at an email, um uh then you'd say this is what I'm saying. Does that feel right to you? Do you think that would ruffle any feathers? Do you think it will, somebody will bite back uh on this? Uh And those expressions will be much, much easier for somebody with strong kinesthetic approach to be able to deal with that. Now, I have to say that none of the above are me. Um And I meet a lot of professional people who actually have a very strong digital logic thought to it and let's face it. Most professions are dealing with facts, the facts of numbers, the facts of words, the facts of legislation, the facts of, um, legal process and so on and so forth. And therefore, uh, those sorts of professions like, uh, the ones I've mentioned or indeed, medicine, veterinary, medicine, pharmaceuticals and so forth does attract people who have a very logical way of thinking. So digital, of course, is very, very important and uh it is non sensory based. It doesn't mean to say that in sensitive people, it just means that they're um um non sensory based. So if you was asking somebody to have a look at an email, uh it said that does this make sense to you? Uh is this accurate? Um Do you think somebody will understand what's being said? Does this add up all those sorts of things sometimes using number clues sometimes um to do with uh knowledge or uh memory or uh cognitive functions? Thinking preferences will be very, very powerful. So there you have it, there are four there are uh guidance notes there and if that picture interest that you may feel that exploring it in a little bit more detail will allow you. I've used it very much as a sports coach. Uh 16 years, I was coaching uh Children um primary secondary school uh in team games, rugby, particularly and in athletics, track and field and understanding what Children were saying, and how they were saying it allowed me to tap in to the uh individual. Certainly, when it came to uh track and field is to think it through and you'll see many, many athletes are concentrating on what they're doing. They're talking it through in their mind, they're using their own particular language preferences to do that. And that's exactly what a coach does is to use their same language preferences to enable them to um to picture as a visual picture what it will feel like winning the event, whatever the event might not might be or the sound of the crowd or the feeling of elation or the time or the height or the distance or whatever it was, the people are trying to actually achieve. So a bit of fun with that uh very powerful and also very very useful, which brings us then from dealing with people in the firm to dealing with people outside the firm. So not only do we have to get on with people at work, we also have to get on with our clients. So managing the current relationship, of course, is very important. It's similar in terms of the things we've talked about in managing the uh relationship with work colleagues. But this time they're external and there are some subtle differences. I think the best way of managing the client relationship is to put yourself into their shoes. So that's what we're going to look at here. Is managing that client relationship, keeping customers on board. So um client care, I think as a team approach, yes, you will do it as an individual, but then it needs the support of support staff. So in this section, I will also be talking about that, helping uh manage the client relationship through other people as well. So I don't know if you've ever bought legal services, but uh there's a number of different emotions going on with buyers of legal services, depending whether they're buying corporate matters, they're buying family matters or personal matters. But there are a common thread of issues that clients of yours will be going through. And obviously they all differ in, in certain things. Don't. The first thing to recognize is that they may be uh insecure in a variety of ways. I am looking at conveyancing. So I've got three quotes and which one do I go with? I, I'm a client of an estate agent. So gosh, you know, have I chosen the right estate agent with the other two have been better so that insecurity is there. And then when we move through, I said, ok, they feel a bit threatened. Um it's their area of responsibility if they are the uh the um head of the household, for example, or the senior person in their business engaging you and therefore, um they may know stuff in their own world, they don't know things in your world. So that threatened there is that they may have made the wrong choices and so forth and therefore what risks are they having? Well, it's a personal risk. It may be. They're spending their employer's money or indeed they are spending their own money or indeed legal aid. It may be a personal risk for a whole variety of different issues that have to do with the problems that they find themselves in personal risk of personal freedom. Uh housing, family matters, childcare matters, a whole variety of personal risks there. I remember that they didn't have the problem before, but they do have the problem now. And very often you may be engaged rather when they've got to the end of a particular tether, they're rather impatient and therefore everybody wants it now. I don't want conveyancing now, but as soon as the house is being sold and that's progressing, I'll then want it very, very quickly. But before we have an offer, it may be a week or two, a month or 26 months or two. But when it happens, Mike and me, I need to happen and farm. The other thing we have to recognize, of course, when carers comes round is worried, um worried that you're going to suggest changes to their situation that they're not able to deal with. Very easily, not a holiday, not hope with. Uh And that worry will be uh uh uh ever present, but of course, nobody likes to feel this exposed they will be exposed, um, whoever they hire to help them with their problem, uh, they're gonna have to let you know more things about them and let's face it. Even on a very hot day, we would rather cover up. And in fact, getting out the sun is probably a good thing. So this exposure is something that worries them and therefore they feel ignorant, ignorant in that they have got themselves into a problem uh that they wouldn't have had if they had known what to avoid or what to do or what not to do. And they don't, that's not a feeling they like it doesn't matter who they are uh whatever um place on the spectrum of society they happen to be, they don't like to feel uh stupid in one guise or another. And therefore the next emotion was very common and that is that they are, they will be skeptical. Um I've had situations where I've engaged, I don't know, a conveyancer before and he did a very poor job and I bought a house that didn't have planning permission for the extension. And when I came to sell it four years later, he had retired and while we could have followed up with tail end insurance and all the other things, the upshot of it was the missed the, the purchase of the house we were after and had to rent three years. So the whole thing uh gave me a little bit once bitten, twice shy. Therefore, what else does a buyer feel? Well, you feel very concerned, very concerned, um, that it'll take you too much time to understand what the problem is. If they're paying for it, that that time will run up some costs. Um, they're concerned that they feel their situation is special. I don't care. Uh, when I had a road accident that you have 300 cases to deal with mine was the most important to me. My conveyancing will be the most important to me. And I don't care that you've got 50 60 102 100 other files that you're dealing with. And therefore the last emotion of all of this is this one suspicion. They're gonna be suspicious that what you say may be suiting you, but not necessarily suiting me. Uh, I, I know about personal injury who have read about that in the paper. Oh, yes. Where your fees are going to come from? Oh, yes. So I'm suspicious about all these things and will I get no win? No fee? Yeah. Yeah. What's all that about? Um, and so forth and therefore I'm suspicious that you may, um, use technical jargon. I was sitting in the waiting area of a law firm and a couple came out, I took it to be mother and daughter, daughter looked to be in her twenties or early thirties and she said to her mother, I took it to be, oh, I don't understand what all this decree, absolute decree nes or whatever it was. I don't know what's going on and they're just trying to run up some costs by making it all sound very technical, you know. So um in short, um the buyer wants to know that you will deal with them in a way that they want to be dealt with that is at the end of the day, the bottom line. So with that in mind, uh it's worth exploring those. The, the notes are on page 57 of the workbook. Uh but it is quite interesting to explore. I beg your pardon? 51 I've read my own writing of the workbook. But then the other thing, I think that's really quite interesting and so fundamental to the client relationship and so fundamental to the activities that you as a professional need to consider in the process of buying. So how do customers buy? What's the process that they go? Now, there are tens of thousands of law firms throughout the country and do forgive me that I don't know yours. Well, let's think about the process of, I've never heard of you right the way through to, I've engaged you for a particular matter that I want you to sort out for me. And this process is actually very, very cool. It doesn't matter whether you're buying a tube of toothpaste from a supermarket or you're buying a new vehicle for the family from a uh your chosen dealership in the center of the large town near you. It's the same process, step wise, it's the speed that the changes be between the beginning and the end and the number of people involved will change from beginning to end. And that's worth bearing in mind as I take you through the process. And on page 52 this process is uh written out for you and therefore you can think about and take notes on the sorts of things that need to be done to move people from the one stage to the next and the next and the next. Because if any link in that chain in that continuum between I've never heard of you, right the way through to buying you or giving the problem to you that you can now sort out for them. It will be a very, very similar process, but you'll recognize the sorts of things that you need to do in order to take people to the next stage. There is one caveat here, of course, is that the process that criminal defense lawyer uh lawyers face will be subtly different. Of course, from those who have freedom of choice. So what I'm looking at here, when clients buy your services, they have a certain freedom of choice as to who they engage rather than as it may be. For example, if the duty solicitor or somebody locally that does the sort of work that they do under legal aid. So let's have a look at the process and track it. So it doesn't change whether one's buying a pair of shoes or buying legal services. An example I gave, uh, will be there. So let's bear that in mind as we go through. The first thing is, I don't know who you are never heard of. You don't know what you do. How do you take people from a position of unaware? Never heard of you through to a stage of being aware? I know of you. Well, clearly, uh having a good web page may be important, but even the law society, uh the regulations already more accurately um In their survey said that there is more often than not some activity that proceeds than looking at your web page. Something may start the process off before a web page is seen. We'll have a look at this uh in something in a moment too called moment truth. So what are you going to do to get people to with it? Maybe some other form of advertising is needed. It may be that you need to use and I'm looking at my list here for, we're going to be using it. Uh Maybe it's about having social media present, maybe it's Facebook, maybe it's linked in for business use, maybe it's some sponsorship, maybe it's direct mail, maybe it's um uh writing blogs, maybe it's um using some other device to get people to your um web page to start off with and once they see that or they pick the phone up and call you, then people move to the next stage are now aware. I know who you are. I know what you do. But so what, so you're a law firm and you do a whole raft of services? Well, ok, I'm aware of that, but the next stage of course, is quite important. Well, am I interested? Why would I be interested? Now? I happen to live in the middle of the country near Banbury and I'm sure there are, I know there are I work with them some excellent conveyances in Newcastle and exeter. But for some reason or other people feel that was quite as convenient as having something more locally uh because the local firm has sent us some documents and asked them to come in and sign something. So dropping by for whatever it is. Yes, we could do it electronically. But it just seems to me they want to have a personal uh conversation, which I think would be nice too. Then am I interested? Well, I'm not interested if you happen to be an extra or you happen to be in Newcastle because I'm bang in the middle between, but then they've got to be interest. So the interest may be that they've got a problem with you solve and maybe it's something that they need to be aware of some other stage. But just because uh uh That's interesting. You do conveyancing. I'm still not sure whether I would uh want to use you. So you need to move me to a stage where I'm convinced that it is worth um picking the phone up. I'm convinced it's worth filling in that um landing page form to contact you by asking a question or something. I need to be convinced about this. And when I have a dialogue with you, I need to explore conviction and how do I know what constitutes a chalk well done? Well, is it the price are the cheapest that I can get? Or if I'm buying a commodity like sugar, I want to buy it cheap as I can. Uh We grow a lot of soft fruit. Um We use that a lot for um salads and desserts during the summer and towards the end of the summer, any extra we have left over. Um Well, still coming at the end of the season, we will jam. So we buy sugar and sugary sugar is sugar. And therefore, if it's cheaper in Morrisons this week or cheaper in um in Tesco's or Sainsbury's or any of the other supermarkets, then we'll probably go there and buy 5 kg Abit. But are you therefore selling a commodity? If your conveyancing is a commodity? And I think it is, then I, I will buy the cheapest. Personally, I don't think conveyancing is a commodity. Therefore, it's something else that I'll need to look at that will convince me that you are the one to do. Maybe it's, that's all you do. Maybe you are local. Maybe you have, um, uh, a long history of doing all these things lead to conviction. And then the saying, ok, do I want that? Yes, I do want that. I want the personal service. I want the responsiveness. I want the, uh, develop a, a relationship with somebody, whatever it might be. Then if that's the case, I'll take action. So there we are pair of summer shoes. Uh, well, I'm unaware until I go down the high street. What shoe shops there are there? I'm now aware of which shoe shops I go into. Well, and see the style I like. That's interesting. What's my conviction? Try it on? I tried it on my foot. Yes, that's the right size. I like that. I'm not going to fall up steps wearing them. And, uh, the action is, here's my credit card. Now, I said the speed will change. Uh, I'm able to buy shoes really quite quickly. I'm able to buy toothpaste even faster. Ah, toothpaste. I've bathroom cupboards empty. I'm in the supermarket. I need my usual brand. I've got my brand in the basket done. Ok. Oh, while we're shopping here's something called Arm and Hammer. Now that sounds what my dentist will have when it, when she's trying to sort my teeth out and arm and hammer. It's a toothpaste. Interesting. I'm now aware of that. Um, I've, oh, yes. Bicarbonate. Oh, that sounds good. British Dentist. Yeah, I like that design. I'll try it action in the, um, trolley. Now, that, of course, is an item, maybe one or 2. Uh, then that decision can be made fairly quickly, the bigger the decision that I'll make, the more people involved when he's buying a new vehicle for the family, there's two of us involved. my wife and I when it comes to my Children, when they were younger, they were involved in the decision ah as to which vehicle we would have because they need to make sure they fit in it and that sort of thing. So the bigger the decision, the longer the process will take, the different stages are needed and the more people may be involved if the risk is particularly big. So I've got through that fairly quickly. But now you understand the process uh and everybody is slightly different whether there happens to be personal injury or it happens to be conveyancing or it happens to be uh other particular services. You can look at this general process and say, what are you going to do to take people through it? And do remember that very, very good direct marketing, direct mail uh will follow pretty much the same process because when that's achieved, then people are actually taking uh uh the effort to engage you to understanding that is fundamental to getting clients in the first place. But then of course, remember that each of these stages is a mot a moment of truth. And there's a number of moments of truth that are worth remembering as you're trying to sort out. How do we get people on board? The first one of these is uh nothing's happened yet. I don't know who you are. I don't know of your existence, but I will search you out. Yes, search engines are very powerful and often somebody says go and look for and when we were looking at conveyancing, it was the estate agent who said uh ok, well, we uh when we moved from where we were to where we are, we used a solicitor 17 years ago. Uh but that's a bit distant from where we are now. So 17 years later, uh we need to find a new firm and the agent put us forward. So search online, found the number uh contacted, made the phone call. Uh and the search was done. Zero moment of truth. There nothing's happened. But now I'm searching, I'm then going to go to that first moment of truth from the firm point of view. I found you. I have now found you. How easy was it to find your phone number? How easy was it to respond? But I have seen law firms web pages that I've got to make maybe half a dozen clicks before I find either the phone number of the appropriate office or indeed the method of contacting. So remember that it is an important moment of truth and that will then lead to the next moment to the second moment of truth. That is that the phone is answered. And I phoned the phone we're going to be using. Um, the phone was answered not too quickly because it makes it sound like they've got nothing else going on and not too slowly. So it was about four rings. And I spoke to a delightful lady who said, I'll put you through to Jonathan. And uh and I got through to him directly. He interrupted what he was doing, took the call, he told me he wouldn't get back to me for so many hours, which is understandable because he was engaged in other matters. But he did get back to me time for the next morning, email landed and everything was so it obviously worked quite hard to engage and that was good. And then of course, the ultimate moment of truth will be when we work with him. And as we talk to other people, when you start to sell a house, other other people will say, oh, we're thinking of selling, who do you use? The ultimate moment of truth is that I would share that. So the degree to which you can engage people, uh the degree to which you will get people to remain is absolutely fundamental. So I am going to finish off this section with a, a couple of things that I think are quite important, that first one of which is to look at client satisfaction and loyalty. Now, client loyalty is something that's not often looked at. I think in commercial business to business relationships, clearly it is. But I think if private client work legal aid, then there are different parameters in both of those sectors as to whether there is loyalty to the firm and client satisfaction will have a relationship to that uh loyalty. So I was involved with a number of studies, one of which was called Fit for the Future by the law society uh quite a while ago, now, early turn of the century. And since then, because of our relationship with that, we've been very much involved in doing both staff and client audits on behalf of other firms. And it really is quite interesting. And I'm drawing here some information on one of the studies that we took with 3500 uh clients of law firms that would be able to exert a certain amount of choice over who they used. And it didn't include suspects of crime for obvious reasons. They are the parameters that are driving them to you and the loyalty will be handled by different parameters. So that wasn't part of this study. It was about free choice, people who were spending their own or their firms, their employers money in a commercial arrangement. And it really was quite interesting because there are great differences and I think it's very difficult sometimes to understand or think about loyalty. Now, when it comes to conveyancing, I used that as an example a moment or two ago is that we use somebody and we're very content with their services, but it was 17 years ago and we've moved. So I think if we had moved more closely or had had transactions more frequently, and I do do know that some people will move more frequently and some areas where stamp duty, land tax is much lower as a proportion of property values, then people will move because there isn't that taxation cost uh as part of the moving expense anyway, loyalty. How do we measure it? Well, I don't think it's very easy to measure when we talk about loyalty, but you will spot some uh errors in the basic way of assessing. But if those errors are with one group, they are the same errors with other groups of the comparator is really what I'm driving at because what we did was to look at client satisfaction on a scale between extremely unhappy through to extremely happy and identified different levels of loyalty for each of those. So let me just show you what I meant. We offered a group of people uh a question and this smiley group here uh was to say, OK, how do you feel about this? And this was for um nonlegal aid financed by the individual uh immigration work. OK? A few years ago when it was uh been deregulated from being legal aid. And here's the scale. So you can see on the left hand side of the screen, somebody's very unhappy with the services scoring zero. Somebody is hap unhappy two is ambivalent fairly in the middle somewhere. The group who picked three on this scale were happy with what the services and the very happy were scoring for. So what we did and this was 3500 clients of law firms, not just immigration, but firms across a whole variety of different uh commercial and private matters. Now, you would argue that um when I tell you that the way the loyalty was measured has its flaws, you see what we said was that ok, you've had the services of firm A let's imagine the firm opened up right next door to firm A offering exactly the same sort of work that you've had from firm. A. So let's call this firm. B same number of people, same charging rates, same experience. The the only difference is is that it is a different firm, but they are in almost identical location next door to each other on the high street, for example, slightly um uh fictitious because that doesn't often happen, clearly may happen uh in some areas but doesn't often happen. And we were asking people, would you stay with your existing supplier or would you try another firm? So you can see that loyalty here. There's a little bit of, well, that's not a very good way of saying, are you loyal or not? But what does matter is that whichever of these five groups we asked it was the same question. So the comparator is most important. So let's have a look. We had a number of people who ticked various boxes and guess what? The average, the mean of all the 3500 clients were. This is just a couple of years ago from where you're listening to this recording now. Well, the average was 2.3 and they were sort of ok about it. They certainly weren't very, very happy and the service parameters were lower than high street bank tellers on a different study we were involved with for one of the high street banks. So you could argue, well, they won't be particularly happy because let's face it. The sort of work that you do for clients isn't always at the fun end of life. Uh, moving House is stressful, matrimonial are stressful. Uh, commercial matters can be stressful. They've got big assets, big mergers acquisitions, big contracts, big deals. All those things are particularly stressful bereavement. You know, the whole range personal injury, catastrophic injury, road accidents, you know, there are all those, um, unfortunate events in life that, that do happen to people from time to time. And, uh, one does need the services of a professional to deal with the issue. So, ok, that's a common thread. And I haven't included legal aid, of course, which I think obviously it'll be particularly stressful. So, here you are with a degree of satisfaction that's fairly close to ambivalent and certainly not happy. If not three or more, it's two more. So that may concern a few. But what was interesting, there were those who ticked zero. I was very unhappy and here's the reason why, now, what would the loyalty be of this group of people? Um, would you expect it to be, uh, zero, no loyalty or would you expect them to remain 100% loyal? Um, but I can tell you that the loyalty was 5%. That's very low. Of course. But still one in 20 were loyal were still loyal to the firm that they were very unhappy with the service they got. Now what's going on there. So I was involved in the study and, uh, made one or two of the phone calls and I phoned people who had responded with very unhappy in terms of service and said, um, could you explain why and wh wh why that you've said that you, that you would take, yes, you would return. And they said, well, they were bad but they were at least predictably bad. They did give, excuse my language, they did give crap service, but at least you knew it was going to be crap. You know, they didn't disappoint and, um, that was really weird that one in 20 people didn't think like that. But there we are, that's the nature of, uh, o of it. I said, well, the other reason for remaining low and they said, well, you might go next door but they were just as bad better, the devil, you know, sort of thing. And I think it's a really bit un, you clearly, 9 to 5% would have said, said that they would go elsewhere. Whether they went to B and stayed with b uh, is, uh, uh, not part of the questioning but those who were unhappy. Well, you get any loyalty. Well, yes, you do. But this is one in eight. So, in fact, the loyalty has grown even though they're unhappy and pretty much the same reason. Well, I wasn't happy but I'll give them a second chance or better the devil, you know, or the next, uh, firm be next door probably just as bad because that's the way the profession, some would view it. Now, the important thing to note here is that those who are vivid in the middle of this range, you found that nearly four times as many, 44% against 12.5 would actually, um, remain with the firm. And what is interesting here. Uh, this is the phrase that came from one of the, uh, private firms we dealt with that said it was we're consistently, ok. And don't foul up our loyalty is a lot better than if somebody is slightly unhappy. And I think that is a really powerful message be consistently ok? And you will get a lot more in the sense. So, no, the zero defect sort of thing will be an absolute minimum that you'd expect and you'll maintain in the way that the study was run here. Uh a certain degree of loyalty. Now, clearly you want to improve on that. So do better than the mean of 2.3 and get it up to an average of three and the loyalty will go up from under a half to two thirds. So client service slightly better than the average if, if two is the average, slightly better than the average, get a three on this scale and you're going to improve to two thirds of people will feel content. So you can see big incremental increases in putting a smile on the face. People were being specific about what constituted good client care. I'm sure you know, a lot of those, it's not the purpose of this uh explanation here. But what I thought was really interesting is what percentage loyalty do you think you got when they were very, very happy doing cartwheels across your car park, having just paid your bill? So what loyalty have you got there? 100%? 98%? Well, it was 91% and that's pretty good. 91% but still 9% would move. And again, we investigated the 9% who said that they would not, um, stay with firm A that they ticked the box. I would go to FB and said, oh, we picked the phone up and said, I do notice on the, uh, feedback response. Um So me monkey that you said, uh, that you would go next door, not stay with the one that you were very happy with. Why was that? Yes, I was very happy in firm A but firm b you know, they could be better, I could get more, better service. So the degree of loyalty is not something you can rest on your laurels. So even if you get high satisfaction and therefore high loyalty, maybe they're 90% but there's still one in 10, if you've met 10 clients this week, then one in 10 of your very, very satisfied, the rotten. So and so's may goes well, go elsewhere because you never know it could be better. So therefore, for me, I think that being obsessive about clients is very important. So that wasn't in the notes. But I hope we found that interesting, very simple uh to uh summarize there a range of 0 to 45 spaces and you get a very low one in 20 at 01 in eight at one, but then 44% nearly half at two, that's two out of five. And then you're getting two out of three and then you're getting a nine out of 10. So, quite an interesting area for the explore on what is it for you? Do you know what kind of satisfaction you get? I don't mean end of matter surveys. That isn't how you should do it. There's other ways of doing it and that's what we do, help firms improve. So, let's have a look at, um, what it might mean to be obsessive about clients. Well, I think without a client, you've got nothing else to do. So, I think there's a number of things that you could do to be obsessive. And the first one of which is to have the right devices for listening as we just said, I think that the, uh, end of matter questionnaire isn't the only way of doing it, get it early in the process. Um, the right sort of way of doing it, those harmony meetings for commercial organizations. The, uh very quick card, like almost responses to private clients may be a appropriate, depending on the sort of work you're doing uh, in a sensitive and appropriate way, not overkill, not uh ti timely. And I think the survey monkey, we can do things very, very quickly and other software is available, of course. So get those devices uh for listening in the right way and then make sure you've got senior people actually doing something about it. There's a lot of good, um, uh and getting some measures without analysis and no analysis without action. So what action needs to be taken? And I have made sure that I don't have uh um delays in responding to clients. I will get work done in the timeline that I suggest I will be able to do it. And I think that's very important in today's faster consumer markets that we're in and make sure. And I have had people here, my, uh, one of my accounts, he said, oh, they're so disorganized at that. So and so and such and such. And I said, well, look, uh, our job is to make sure that we help them get organized that we become easy to deal with. And I too have, I was engaging a consultant to help us with some business development. And actually in the conversation said to him, oh, we'll get the punters to do so. And so meeting clients and he said, don't stop, don't ever call them that if you do it with me, you might do it in the wrong place. So it's very important that we have the right philosophy when it comes to clients throughout the firm. Now, here's a question, how much training have your client facing staff had in dealing with? I don't know, conflict dealing with, you know, they got the three A model. Do they know what that's all about when it comes to dealing with difficult clients, for example, or behaviors that might be difficult. So the right sort of training is very, very important. So managing the client facing function and getting the right training developed there, I think is absolutely crucial because they are a moment of truth. And as you know, we covered that a moment ago, there are those who win business within the work. Well, I think they're within the business and I think that that is a very important group of people because without them, then then you wouldn't have a future. So working on winning clients, maintaining clients, doing the extra mile is good for the brand. And if you want a firm with a decent brand, then getting clients to talk about it is one of the best ways of doing so more things to think about um those response mechanisms, you know, to make sure that things get done quickly. And I'm more than content to work over a weekend to get something done for the following week to free up a little bit more space and give me a better control of work life balance. For example, it's not work all the time. It's responding appropriately because there will be times that are quieter, there will be times that are busier and therefore if you promise to do something, then do it. And I think it's much better to under promise but over deliver, yes, I'll get that to you by the end of next week, but you deliver it on Wednesday next week, you know, and that is pretty good. Uh, because they get the idea that you are, um, keeping promises and doing better. And I think the senior people should calendar client focused events. If you're in a commercial organization dealing with some larger clients, then I think it's very important to set time aside to make sure that both parties are profiting from the relationship. It's something I found when I worked in London advertising agencies, I had a client that says, are you profiting from our relationship? And I was a bit young at the time, I wasn't quite sure I thought financially clearly, but I didn't want to say that. And what he was trying to say is, are you learning from working with us because I want my people to learn from you. So reflecting the client focus to make sure in commercial organizations that uh things are happening in the right way and let's face it. If you don't improve the quality of service, then somebody else will. And it's a very competitive market out there. I don't think it's worth doing that because if the client perceives you're slow, then you are slow and their perception is their reality. They do not know what's going on, they do not know and they probably don't care that you've got lots of other clients with greater concerns than theirs because theirs is the most important and those things become very, very important for the firm. And we could go on. Well, let's turn and have a look at support staff because I think they're very, very important and wouldn't survive without them. I realize it when I first set the business up 25 years ago, within a few months I knew that I could not do it entirely on my own because in moments of truth, they are representing the firm, they need to know the firm well, and they need to present the firm in the, I don't mean just they, they're neat and tidy and well groomed but their dialogue, their expressions and so on and so forth, uh are representing the firm in the right way. I have to say that I visited a lot of law firms and behind the large, they are pretty good. So it's important. But what about internal communications? I pitched up to see a um a managing partner, uh one firm in London. I arrived for two o'clock, I arrived a few minutes before and the lady at reception said, like, take a seat, sir, I'll just put a call through and five minutes past 10 minutes past, I eventually went back to the desk and said, I'm still waiting to see Mr Armstrong. Yes, I did phone. And what did he say? I left a voicemail and I said, well, has he got the message? Well, I don't know, I'm in reception and I thought, come on, you know, as it was Mr Armstrong was helping a colleague out, waiting for me to arrive and thought somebody was going to secretary was at lunch, not back from lunch or whatever. So, you know, internal communication is absolutely fundamental. So support staff need them to be there to make decisions on how to make the client's journey that much easier and then train them to be aware of uh opportunities, developing business because they are the ears of the firm as much as you are. Let me pick up on what they're talking about. The example I gave about the couple who came out to be mother and daughter, like the daughter was going to go through a matrimonial and she wasn't very clear about decree's absolute decree. Nice eyes. Uh reception heard that and reception made a quick call to the uh case worker. I said I just overheard, did you give them the leaflet? I think a quick call might be good when they get home or whatever it might have been. And that would have helped and they were ears of the firm. And I think that the um your reception staff need to be highly trained. Most of them are pretty good reinvesting in that is a great fit for them, makes them feel good. And that's what they are well worth doing because after all, they are very, very busy people. They are the, the life and soul of the firm t in the reception area because they're the first contact with the firm. So my article on client care uh which I think is worth exploring just for a moment. Uh You can read it, you can copy it, you can send it on. Um There are four key cornerstones of great client care, one of which is to understand clients and their business situation. So um uh look at the program that we've got with data law about the importance performance matrix. What are you uh aiming to do that is so important to win your business rather than just get you in the market for business. Just because you do conveyancing, you are in the market for my conveyancing matter coming up, but you won't win it unless you can do things that put you ahead of the competition. So understand those things. Um what's important. And secondly, how do you perform compared to the other lot? And it is interesting as um as a firm, my dad worked for a while ago. It's got uh 15 years ago, I now know has not a very good reputation when it comes to conveyancing. 00, interesting. So understand the client, the business, their situation and rather than purely the transaction, it's a bit more than that. Then get senior managers committed to uh taking action, for example, on training reception staff, if they haven't been trained, for example, to deal with response time to deal with it issues, to deal with all sorts of uh support functions. When dealing with, um, clients and their work and then everybody's on the same page when it comes to the internal service ethic is not too much effort. And I have heard senior people come down to reception and say, oh, I wouldn't want to do your job. Hillary, you know, that's, that's not really very helpful, is it? So, you know, the, that cons consensus an action on the service ethic. And my mantra would be if you're not serving a client, serve someone that is to support them so that they can meet the client's needs. And that's very, very central to business philosophy, I think. And let's also accept that one size did not fit all. I know case management systems are fundamental to get the volumes up. They know they're fundamental from a variety point of view. But the regular things you should automate the irregular things, you should human. In other words, have human deal with the un uh the, the exceptional thing well, by always automate the process, but if there is something, then don't just push people back down the automation funnel and there's a, as a shopper in retail, my goodness, don't you know this. So there are, that's my take on client care. I hope that's been useful. Uh It's clearly an element of communications because that is what I want to explore and then a little bit more detail than we've already done so on the program thus far.
Part 1