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In law school, you learn about torts, contracts, and evidence. As the cliché goes, you learn to think like a lawyer. But here's what you don't learn about:
Client service.
And lawyers run into more problems with bad client service than they do with torts, contracts, or evidence problems.
There are plenty of great books on client service — a couple of excellent ones are in the booklist on the right: Raving Fans and Re-Imagine! (That's Tom Peters's exclamation point, not mine.) But most lawyers are busy reading cases and contracts, and don't have time to add client-service books to their reading lists.
As a timesaving alternative (since you're already reading this), I thought I'd start a series of occasional posts highlighting real-world examples of excellent client service. Not surprisingly, most of these examples are from outside the legal world. (Does this make them extralegal? And while we're on the subject, why doesn't extralegal mean outlaw? But I digress.)
Here then, for your consideration, is the first installment of "Geniuses of Service":
Genius: Meredith & Grew — a Boston-based commercial-real-estate company.
Story: Our law firm just moved to a new, much-larger office on Boston's Beacon Hill. Moving offices is always disruptive, but our move went smoothly. This was thanks to the exceptional client service we got from our broker, Meredith & Grew. Even though our new office was still small compared to the rest of the commercial market, our brokers — Roger Breslin and Michael McElaney — treated us as if we were their biggest client (we're not, by a wide margin).
Although it was a smaller deal, it proved tricky because of a very tight schedule driven by the need to quickly sublet our old space. Every time a problem arose, Roger and Mike were immediately on hand to solve it. We got voicemails and emails from them early in the morning and late in the evening — it was as if they were working on our move at all hours of the day.
They showed us nearly every available space in town that met our requirements, but they never tried to "sell" us on a space. After they found us the ideal spot, they worked tirelessly to make sure the deal went through. And they kept at it, even when it seemed like it wasn't going to happen. Once we were all moved in, they treated our firm to a top-notch steak dinner that probably cost as much as the fee they earned.
But the thing that stood out the most was how they managed to make us their client in the first place. In April 2005 — nearly a year and a half before we entered the real-estate market — Roger got in touch with me to offer some market information about our old building and neighborhood. For free. Didn't try to sell me anything. Didn't hassle me. Impressed with this approach, I met with Roger and Mike and learned a lot of valuable information. It didn't seem to matter to them that we were a small firm, or that we weren't in the market just then. Instead of trying to sell me something or convince me how good they were, they simply came to my office with one goal:
To be of value.
And they were. Over the next year, they kept in touch. No pestering; just reminding me that they were there and that they could help when we needed it. And when we finally did, guess who we called?
The lesson for lawyers (and any service professional) is that you can go farther by showing a prospect how you can be of value to them than by trying to sell them on how good you are. We should keep that in mind.
