The Gazette 1993

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N A G E M

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GAZETTE

JUNE 1993

Quality Management in the Office - Ten Tips for Immediate Results

or indeed other professionals such as accountants who can deal with their business. They will want the business done quickly and efficiently and the first point of contact is the telephone. Statistics show that if the phone rings more than three times a client will begin to become irritable and wonder is there anyone there to answer. A client who knows that their call will be answered quickly is unlikely to form this impression and is more likely to place the call to that office rather than another firm. 2. See clients immediately when they call in. We have a competition in our office with a prize for fee- earners who attend to their appointments the quickest. This avoids clients (particularly new clients) thinking that they are likely to be waiting for hours before they see their solicitor. show that clients expect calls to be returned within three hours and not the next day. If you are detained in court and cannot return calls ask your secretary to phone to say that you were detained and you will call them at a specific time on the following day. 4. Copy correspondence. In theory we should always send copy correspondence between ourselves and another solicitor on to our Í client but this sometimes brings an unnecessary query from the client on receipt of the letter. Stamp the 3. Returning phone calls. Statistics

| by Brian O'Reilly*

The management of a law practice is unique. It demands special considera- tions not found in any other profession or business. There is, however, one significant area in which we share common problems with other professions, business and industry and that is in dealing with people and in particular with clients. j Over the past ten years the quality i service revolution has completely I changed business. Large multinational companies have become more user- : friendly and have been running their j businesses like small organisations focused firmly on their customers. | Equally, small businesses have grown by ! adopting the philosophy of a customer centred approach as the driving force behind them and they have prospered. The modern service culture was bom in 1982 when Tom Peters wrote "In Search of Excellence". This publication, j in true MBA fashion, concentrated on a number of large organisations and how they worked. The service culture, how- j ever, really took off in 1984 when the same Tom Peters co-wrote "Passion for Excellence " when he undertook the study of how businesses of any size could give a greater level of service and grow whilst at the same time maintain- ing the approach of a smaller organisation. Jan Carlsen of SAS Airlines made the ! definitive quotation on improving quality service when he said, "We do not seek to improve one or two things by 1000% - we seek to improve 1,000 by 1 or 2%," and it is on this basis that | all organisations which have prospered i in the past ten years have achieved their aims through simply being better at | what they do. There are significant lessons to be learned in this area by the i legal profession, and in particular by small practices. What is important is i that perception of quality should be

Brian O 'Reilly

satisfied equally with actual quality.

Most practitioners believe they give good service - where the problem lies probably is in poor perception of service and a poor perception can be equally as destructive as poor delivery. The problem is that, in truth, clients cannot really know whether or not they have, in technical terms, engaged a good solicitor. All they have is the belief that if you are answering their phone calls, replying to correspondence and are visibly pursuing their affairs on their behalf, then you must be a good practitioner. There are hundreds of ways in which a practitioner can improve the quality and the perceived quality of client service. I am listing my ten favourites which can be implemented immediately by any practitioner and which can achieve a real and measurable improvement in quality which will be perceived by the client. 1. Telephone. Never let the phone ring into your office more than three times. Clients are becoming more sophisticated and are likely to be aware of a wide choice of solicitors

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copy to the client "for your file only - no action by you necessary".

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5. Error-free correspondence. Jan í Carlsen, quoted earlier, believed ; that it was essential to have his

aeroplanes spotlessly clean because if his customers found coffee stains on the carpets, they would make the unfair assumption that the airline

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