Of course, we know our clients - don’t we?
This last year has given us all cause to think about our business, our colleagues and our clients. And one thing has become crystal clear - it’s vitally important to take time to talk and listen to how everyone has been affected, says Radcliffe Chambers’ Fiona Fitzgerald.
Over the past 17 months (and counting) conversations with clients have been more personal than usual, covering everything from the monotony of lockdown to the stresses of balancing home working with home schooling. People have also been eager to talk frankly about where the market is going. In a time of uncertainty, empathy and a willingness to share experiences were valuable characteristics.
We know clients appreciated our broad view of the legal market - a product of our unique position as a barristers’ chambers, with a client base made up of other legal services organisations.
Many wanted to understand whether their experiences were unusual, or whether other firms faced similar issues and challenges. Without breaching confidence, we could tell them - for example -that finance and private client were buoyant, but that insolvency was steady.
We shared our learnings from these conversations internally too, but we also wondered what made clients instruct us - or indeed not instruct us - during these times. What better way to find this out than to ask?
We started by collaborating with The Lawyer magazine on a first-of-its-kind report on the changing role of the bar, based on a survey of private practice litigators and general counsel at some of the country’s biggest companies. Alongside this we implemented a client listening programme focused on in-depth conversations with individual clients to help us understand more.
I am very lucky to find myself surrounded by some fantastic people who care about our business. Their passion shines through in everything they do, so we were worried some clients might not feel comfortable giving constructive feedback to a member of our team for fear of disappointing them!
Whilst it is lovely to hear all the positives, we really wanted to understand the areas for improvement, so we took the view that it was better for someone outside of Radcliffe to talk to our clients and then give us their feedback, with a particular emphasis on areas for improvement.
Our ultimate goal was to learn how could we do better. Barristers are perfectionists by nature, so as an organization we are constantly striving for perfection! We were delighted to find our clients wanted us to engage with them in this way.
They wanted us to know how we were performing, and they weren’t afraid to tell us what was working and what was not. They gave us some helpful benchmarking about training other chambers were providing, they talked about their future plans and - on occasion -they told us where they saw us fitting into that plan. In effect, they helped us write our business plan for the year.
“In the legal sector, we often talk about working with the best people. That is all very well, but we also need to understand our clients at an organisational level and what it is they really need us to achieve for them. Only then can we go from providing great solutions to being brilliant”
We discovered clients thought our service is good and, on occasion, superb. We want it always to be superb, so we asked them what “superb” looks like. Now we have to deliver it. It was clear clients did not know everyone on our team but wanted to. We are creating opportunities for them to get to know us.
They wanted to build personal relationships with our fee earners. Many of our barristers are very much part of their clients’ teams but sometimes, we have to admit, we have been shyer than necessary, as we were worried about interrupting busy people. We have now increased personal contact.
Some clients did not know about out practice areas, so we created a communications campaign. It was invaluable that many of those interviewed shared their growth plans with us. Now we know how our business needs to develop to be ready to serve our clients ‘needs.
The proof, though, will be in keeping these new lines of communication open. If we do this exercise again next year, will we know what our clients think, or will we be surprised?
In the legal sector, we often talk about working with the best people: the cleverest, the most experienced, the most user-friendly. That is all very well, but we also need to understand our clients, at an organisational level, and what it is they really need us to achieve for them. Only then can we go from providing great solutions to being brilliant.
Doing things a little differently is an important part of our brand. We try to stand out from the crowd and differentiate our service. As always in business this is a work in progress, but the greatest compliment we received as part of the project was being told that we were the first chambers to ask one of our clients what they thought of us.
Of course, though it was nice to hear that our project marked us out from the crowd, what will really make the difference is implementing the initiatives our clients have suggested!