Telling retail
Bernard Savage, director at Tenandahalf and speaker at LPM 2019 conferences, discusses what lessons law firms can learn from retail.
It’s often said that things come full circle in life. After spending the first 10 years of my career at Procter & Gamble in the 1990s, working with Boots, Asda and the Co-op, I’ve spent much time in more recent years advising law firms to do what savvy retailers do.
Here are five lessons I believe law firms can learn from retailers:
1 Understand that a brand is more than a logo. A brand is what your clients say about your firm when you are not in the room.
2 Retailers understand their customers because they invest regularly in research. This requires more than just sending questionnaires to clients after a case is completed.
3 New product development is valued. How many law firms are truly innovative? How can you be innovative if you are not actively listening to clients and don’t have people accountable for piloting new initiatives?
4 Leaders walk in their customers’ shoes by visiting stores and experiencing what their customers experience.
5 Care is taken to create a positive impression front of house. Can your clients have confidence in the quality of your legal work if your reception is untidy and not in tune with your brand identity?
Based on these lessons, I recommend firms take the following three actions:
1 Invest in third-party client listening programmes
2 Get more informal face time with clients outside of open matters
3 Tidy up your reception!
If this piques your interest, please let me know.
This article was first published in the September 2019 issue of LPM ‘Seeds of change‘.
