by Robin Dicks | Sep 20, 2023 | Uncategorized
It’s very noticeable that we’re seeing some increasingly common and important themes from feedback given by clients of professional services firms. Hugely abbreviated, the key needs are these: Better project management Better communication of progress and status More use of technology to allow self service and ‘close to real-time’ information updates Client contacts of firms are under pressure to achieve speed, and efficiency. Firms that don’t get this are going to lose...
by Robin Dicks | Jul 5, 2017 | Robin's Blog
A recent analysis conducted by Lexis Nexis and Cambridge University’s Judge Business School made for somewhat disturbing reading. The results suggest that even across the biggest clients of firms, key contacts believe their relationship partners and firms serving them have only a superficial knowledge of their business. The report notes that “All clients were uniformly of the opinion that not only do the law firms not provide relationship services, in many cases they do not seem to see the need.” This is causing some clients to look elsewhere for advice. Given this is a substantive risk to firm revenue, the authors recommend that firms stop focusing predominantly on a transactional approach to key clients and instead instil “a sense of partnership where the client feels valued and protected.” Do you know how clients view their relationship with your...
by Robin Dicks | Sep 16, 2016 | Robin's Blog
Brexit means uncertainty. Should leaders, marketers and other heads try and ignore it, in the hope that it will go away? Should they plan on the basis of an outcome they hope will happen? Or should they give in to the uncertainty and not plan at all? Should they promote hard, or accept reduced budgets? Or should they rethink where they can really add value – click here for some thoughts on how leaders can really respond positively to the challenge and help build the firm’s performance. I’ll talk about the role of scenario planning also in a future...
by Robin Dicks | Nov 3, 2015 | Robin's Blog
Here’s a real-life story about a firm which has recently rebranded with a new visual identity, and lots of messaging about client focus and responsiveness. So what happens when you ring someone? The phone rings… And rings… And rings… No acknowledgement or voice messaging system “kicks in”. This happens if you call a direct line or the switchboard. It’s not just a “one-off” as this has been the experience of a contact of mine on three separate occasions. I’ve no idea how much the “rebranding” cost. But the firm isn’t meeting minimum expectations on this. Maybe some of the budget should have gone on the phone system and making sure staff understand the significance of responding. As I sometimes say –could this be happening in your firm? And if so, how much business might you be...
by Robin Dicks | Jun 29, 2015 | Robin's Blog
Cross-selling, or as I prefer it to be terms, co-operative selling or successfully extending relationships with clients, requires a number of things to be in place. Fee earners need to be able to answer 5 questions with a “yes”. The link here to the Co-operative selling image shows you what these questions...
