(Saltar navegación e ir al contenido)
Gestión del despacho
6 de Junio de 2008EL RINCÓN DE HILDEBRANDT
Have You Hugged Your Clients Today?, by Terri Pepper Gavulic and Blane R. Prescott
The General Counsel of a large company once said, “I feel like I should fire my primary outside firm every six months, because in those first six months they seem to prize our relationship and treat me like a King.
Estratégicamente el hacer crecer las importantes relaciones con los clientes está lleno de beneficios
After that I feel like yesterday’s news and the partners seem more interested in getting new clients than in my business. Maybe by firing them every six months I could always get that new client level of interest and attention.” Within law firms, while there are often Herculean efforts to acquire new clients, there is typically no equal focus on enforcing systems and behaviors that then manage these critical relationships. Often, existing clients are left up to individuals and the vagaries of ego, insecurity about relationships, and desire for control/security. It is rare for firms to systematically implement client maintenance and management programs institutionally. As a result, clients consistently say that their law firms:
- Don’t seem to know them or understand their issues or industries very well;
- Aren’t familiar with their full variety of legal needs;
- Aren’t offering practical, commercial advice that fits their real world experiences; and
- Seem to make little effort to get the full variety of available legal work.
Not surprisingly, we hear feedback from clients such as, “Don’t take us for granted. Just because we’ve always been a client doesn’t mean we always will be.” Clients are not selecting or retaining their lawyers because of any one factor, such as fees, but rather on numerous factors that impact value. For example, in interviews clients closely equate the cost of legal services with their perception of the value they are receiving with comments such as, “It’s not the cost, it’s whether you perceive you’re getting value for the cost.” Experience shows that if a client doesn’t perceive great value from their relationship with outside counsel they begin focusing more on the cost of the services and start treating their law firm as an undifferentiated commodity.
Ver lista articulos Hildebrandt
 |
Blane R. Prescott Mr. Prescott was a Partner and a member of the Executive Committee of Hildebrandt International for 12 years before becoming Managing Director of Latham & Watkins, a 1,500-lawyer international law firm. He rejoined Hildebrandt International 2002 and is based in the San Francisco office.
E-mail: rprescott@hildebrandt.com |
 |
Terri Pepper Gavulic More than eleven years of Terri's 28-year career were spent as an in-house law firm client services and marketing specialist. She has pioneered many initiatives in the law firm environment, which shaped her personal philosophy about how professional service firms can have successful relationships with their clients. That philosophy is to understand each client so deeply that the delivery of professional services is completely aligned with the client’s business goals. Ms. Gavulic’s commitment to these beliefs has enabled her to be a change agent and coach at every level, from Boards of Directors and management committees, to practice groups, client teams, industry teams, and marketing teams, as well as individual attorneys and their staff. Additionally, it has gained her industry recognition and she is a sought after speaker at conferences and other forums. Client relationship strategies (such as feedback and client teams), sales and business development training, strategic marketing planning and positioning, and marketing staffing and support analyses are particular areas of expertise for Ms. Gavulic. Prior to her legal marketing tenure, Ms. Gavulic worked on Wall Street as a manager of IPOs; in the non-profit sector, serving as Director of Marketing and Director of Development for the National Kidney Foundation of Georgia; as Director of Marketing for a national real estate franchise organization; and in a public relations agency. Presently she is studying for her MBA at the Warrington College of Business of the University of Florida.
E-mail: tpgavulic@hildebrandt.com |
Sin comentarios
Compartir:
