“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen”
In the past year we’ve learned to distinguish the essential from the superfluous and to study a new approach increasingly oriented to business but with a strong "socially responsible" vocation. Chiomenti’s Morini gives us a perspective from her Rome base.
The pandemic has led to a sudden change in approach to both current and potential clients.
Business strategies have suffered severe setbacks but, at the same time, they’ve also undergone a strong shake-up that, with the help of new digital channels, has made it possible to maintain relationships with clients and to take new paths towards developing profit.
In these difficult times, the virtual dimension has allowed us to enter the homes of our interlocutors, who are sometimes surprised in unusual guises. We got to know them better and often observed them in contexts very different from the professional sphere, and this allowed us to acquire greater awareness of their habits than we ever imagined.
Pre-pandemic meetings were necessarily tied to "compressed schedules" that required moves in addition to the meeting times. The current “time economy” has granted to both parties, client and professional, to save a great deal of time, now devoted to the “study of listening”. This priceless benefit has therefore been to listen more carefully, surely the secret to a successful relationship.
The health emergency has changed the concept of time in a positive way. The difficulties caused by the total lack of physical encounters, which were often replaced with long virtual meetings, combined with the fact of dealing with increasingly demanding and informed clients, has pushed the legal profession to change the focus of its energies, meaning it is no longer exclusively on consulting but rather also on studying and profiling clients.
The pandemic and the ongoing changes have therefore only confirmed the need to entrust the communication strategy to consultants that are trained and able to support the firm's vision.
However, it is important to distinguish that which is still handled by the professional, the legal consultancy phase, from what can be delegated as a communication activity dedicated to the target to which it refers.
The preliminary client presentation phase represents the most delicate moment, together with the final analysis and follow up phase. Now is the time to get to know them (if prospective), listen to them, understand their needs, analyse their objectives, and support them in their most strategic choices.
Clients will only place their trust in a company if they are convinced that they have found the solution to their problem. The response will then have to meet their expectations and satisfy their initial request. Then it is essential to focus attention and sufficient time on the listening phase.
If it is profitable, the meeting will be as precious for the client as it will be for the professional, who will thus have acquired new tools to calibrate their activities and expand on any critical issues.
The relationship is definitively consolidated in the final follow-up phase. This last step, if faced with reporting and analytics tools, will be even more useful in terms of qualitative analysis of the client relationship and quantitative analysis of the actual return in terms of business.
The aim for the professional is to acquire valuable data and information about the work done to implement in future activities, while for the client it is an additional moment for paying attention to the initial request and the result then achieved (expectations -v - reality).
The roles can therefore be reversed and engaging with the client becomes a key to growth for professionals, whose approach will be increasingly open and available for new ideas for their legal consultant activities.
The listening strategy therefore has a double value and usefulness. All the activities of the supporting communication consultants remain on the side-lines of the two phases just mentioned.
These activities are part of the more general communication strategy mentioned above, the objective of which is to follow the client, guaranteeing presence and coverage for the topics of interest, especially in the phases following the assignment of tasks.
“Clients will only place their trust in a company if they are convinced they have found the solution to their problem. The response will then have to meet their expectations and satisfy their initial request. Then it is essential to focus attention and sufficient time on the listening phase.”
For this reason, on the communication side, it is necessary to identify the most suitable channels for conveying contents and messages, in preparation for giving continuity to the activity already carried out by the professional. The main channel for this is undoubtedly the industry of events, which was heavily put to the test during the first months of the pandemic but has also now been strengthened by the advent of new technological means that have revolutionised its organization and methods.
The mechanics of events have changed and become even more fundamental today within the process of ensuring client loyalty, fostering moments of encounter, and listening that have strengthened relationships, making them solid and long-lasting in many cases.
The elements of this include rethinking events according to the client's requirements, analysing the topics of greatest interest, choosing high-level speakers, fostering moments of interaction and discussion during the talks and, finally, creating networking opportunities.
The client will thus acquire new knowledge and work tools while the professional will acquire new feedback to offer a service that is ever closer to their expectations.
The world of social media is also integrated into the framework of the line of communication adopted. Current techniques such as "Social Media Listening" or "Customer Relationship Management" provide fundamental support for studying communication plans dedicated to the Client.
In the first case, it is a question of studying the reference sector, the client's requirements, and competitors’ approaches. Social media profiles often represent a showcase which clients investigate even before choosing their consultant.
CRM is a useful tool for putting into practice what has been learned from studying social networks and thus offering the client customised solutions and contents that are as close as possible to their requirements (marketing emails, invitations to events and business communications).
The activities of communication consultants must then be supported by the business intelligence, a precious source of information and data useful for building a strategic plan as close to the target as possible.
In conclusion, the current countless opportunities for virtual meetings – which often go beyond the need – demonstrate that the recent pandemic has only exacerbated the necessity for listening, especially in contexts where, in the pre-pandemic times, face-to-face meetings were essential.
In this unprecedented time, the challenge for professionals and consultants has been and continues to be searching for new ways to support clients, or reaching them if they are prospective, offering continuous assistance as well as new content of interest.
The lesson to learn therefore tells us that, especially in the past two years, client relationships are based on legal consulting but cannot be separated from a durable and structured communication strategy.
As Sir Winston Churchill said: “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”