business - Toronto Estate Law Blog

Client (and lawyer) Satisfaction

Hull and Hull LLP — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:00:49 -0500

Client satisfaction is a tricky maze to navigate. In some ways, we are most successful as lawyers when clients on both sides are equally dissatisfied. The object of the game is to settle on a solution that is fair to all concerned. This necessarily means that no one side is going to get the key to the city and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

That said, we risk great lawyer dissatisfaction if our clients do not refer us to others or come back when the need arises.

In "Three Secrets to Effective Communication" Walter Bristow, a US lawyer who practises estates law (amongst other things) says that to convince people to act or buy a service we need to:

Involve them by asking questions, not simply tell them the law or what we think;
Motivate by telling an illustrative story that engages them and evokes their curiosity; and
Use analogies to turn the abstract into something tangible - he gives an example of how to explain a trust as akin to a warehouse with trustees as security guards

Most people make decisions based on emotion. Advertisers already know this - I'll bet you've seen an ad or two with kittens or babies in them. How, then, do we constructively harness this knowledge with a view to providing client satisfaction and excellent service in the legal industry? At the end of the day, it is not how a client does, but how he or she feels that will determine the level of satisfaction and the number of referrals sent our way. Since clients are usually human, this just might have very little to do with the relative degree of success in court.

So, the next time you get a phone call or e-mail from a client, try responding just a little quicker than usual and make someone's day!

Sharon Davis

Sharon Davis - Click here for more information on Sharon Davis.

What Should be (but isn't always) Obvious

Hull and Hull LLP — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 05:00:00 -0500

When browsing through any bookstore, I must confess that my eyes often glaze over when passing through the business section. In a contest with all of the other offerings out there, the history of a business dynasty or an insider's account of a trading scandal can seem, well, dry. So, it was a bit of a surprise that I found myself ordering from Chapters a little book called "The Obvious: All You Need to Know in Business. Period." by James Dale. Dale is the former CEO of an advertising agency and now is a business consultant. His book came to my attention when it was profiled in the Globe & Mail's Report on Business a few weeks back. Unlike other comparable offerings, this book appealed to me as a service provider. From the standpoint of the legal profession, particularly those of us in private practice, the advice, while (as the title implies) somewhat obvious, is worth pondering. A survey of some of the titles of Dale's chapters give a glimpse of his thesis: "Work is a Verb" (sad but true)... "Listen More Than You Talk"(very tough for anyone who loves the sound of their own voice!)..."Every Job is Sales"..."Simple is Better Than Complicated"..."Less is More"..."Say What You Mean"..."Energy--The Unfair Edge"...and my favourite, "Imagine You Worked for You"--what better way to improve the workplace? Lawyers are inherently conflicted: while they are expected to have a superior command of the English language and advocate aggressively on behalf of their clients, many will acknowledge that the most respected in their profession are those who are plain-spoken and reasonable in demeanour. Not surprisingly, it appears from Dale's experience that these traits are commonly respected across the spectrum of business.

Have a great day,

David

Seth Godin on the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast

Hull and Hull LLP — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 00:40:39 -0500

During Duct Tape Marketing's August 16 2006 podcast, the host, John Jantsch, interviewed Seth Godin, who has just published a new book, Small is the New Big, which is essentially a compliation of Seth's popular blogs.

The theme of this book is that big used to matter. Working for big companies used to be enviable, as big companies could defeat small companies with large marketing and advertising budgets. People were obsessed over the economies of scale and no one ever talked about economies of little.

However, Seth's view is that when treat people with respect and as individuals, you have the flexibility to react to different changes and circumstances, in a sense you are acting small.

Seth points out that it doesn't matter if you are a big or small businesses, rather he is saying that businesses must focus on how they act, and the way that they operate in their own economic environment. When you act small, you can eventually become big.

Therefore, Seth expresses that in his experience there does not seem to be any core relationship between the size of the business and how the business acts.

One of the significant changes over the past short while, in Seth's view, is that people will now seek out information that they think is either important or interesting to them. As there are more alternatives, people are pickier about what they will participate in. He notes that the minute that you treat the client or consumer like a cog in the wheel, you will find your customer/client immediately looking at another competitive alternative.

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Markets are of course the trading of cash and goods and marketing is the art of telling a story people want to hear and believe. Now with the advent of interactive social media, we are beyond the constraints of focus groups and other relatively inexact resources, and when your story (i.e. marketing) is sent out, it is considered, reviewed, commented on, often in a much broader and more interactive framework, mainly blogging and podcasting.

The challenge is to first craft a story that is authentic and real and then release it to the appropriate business environment, a group of people that want to hear it and have an ability to understand it.

In the process of telling your story/marketing, Seth points out that the story must be clear enough that it can be clearly understood. No one will spread your story/product to friends, if they don't understand it.

Seth uses the example of his own father's business which builds cribs for infants in hospitals. Although his business was growing big, his father had to think outside of the normal business parameters, as his cribs were so well built they were almost indestructible. Brainstorming, he went to one of the nurses at hospital who was a client, and asked her to imagine the perfect infant hospital bed. Those nurses gave his father a comprehensive input which resulted in a $10,000 crib.

This crib however had all the recent technological advancements built in, and while very expensive, the nurses using the bed were so impressed that they became its enthusiastic spokespersons and essentially its most successful salespersons.

The result is that this incredible infant crib has become his father's number one product line.

Seth demonstrated that it is a tremendous asset for businesses to think small and admit at times that you do not have all the answers.

All the best,

Ian and Suzana

Marketing Online Live - The Final Five of the Ten Commandments of Business Podcasting - Part III

Hull and Hull LLP — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 00:24:59 -0500

During the Marketing Online Live podcast #39, the hosts, Paul Colligan and Alex Mandossian, went on to provide us with the final three commandments of business podcasting.

Number Eight: Thou shalt Have a Monetization Strategy. This extends beyond the scope of Number Six, which discusses global strategies and focuses on the requirement to eventually truly monetize your podcasts. This monetization strategy could be something such as the book strategy, or simply ensure that your core audience is receiving helpful and relevant information and then throw out the possibility that you can be eventually retained to provide your services.

In our specific case, the obvious model is to assist estate lawyers in the process of their day-to-day practice with a view to being available to provide services beyond that which come naturally to the audience, such as litigation support.

Number Nine: Thou Shalt Consume the Best. The two speakers remind us that there is, of course, some prioritization that needs to happen in the context of podcast listening. You may listen to many hours of podcasting, you must ensure you are consuming the best of that podcast, and also ensure that you too are on top of the best in what is going on. We already follow this practice in our daily lives, as most of us naturally want to watch the Olympics not the local regional finalists, just as we watch Tiger Woods, and not the 100th place PGA Tour Leader.

Number Ten: Thou Shalt Live the Freedom Lifestyle. By following the Ten Commandments, you can ultimately end up in this last commandment.

We really hope that this series on business podcasting best practice has been helpful and as always please send us your comments and questions, we would love to get your feedback on both our blogposts and podcasts.

All the best,

Ian and Suzana

Marketing Online Live - Business Podcasting Part II

Hull and Hull LLP — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 00:52:03 -0500

During the Marketing Online Live podcast #39, the hosts discussed the final five commandments of business podcasting.

Number Six: Thou shalt go in with a strategy. As we were told, strategy acts as the hinges that open the doors to great business opportunities. The hosts provided us with a four-part breakdown on the question of strategy: strategize, monetize, residualize, and capitalize.

Never Seven: Thou shalt teach consumption. As podcasters, we need to get better at teaching people how to access and use our new venue. Adding easy access to the podcasts by clicking on the play button on your webpage is an illustration of how to assist the non-techy users to embrace podcasting. A great example is Proctor & Gamble, one of the best consumer companies in the world. who doubled their sales in shampoo by simply adding the word "repeat" to the back of their shampoo bottles.

In our next blog, we will talk about the final three commandments.

All the best,

Suzana and Ian