The Gazette 1993

GAZETTE

N A G E M

JUNE 1993

Quality Management in the Office - Ten

Tips for Immediate Results

| 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

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

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.

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.

Returning phone calls.

Statistics

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.

Copy correspondence.

In theory we

should always send copy

correspondence between ourselves

and another solicitor on to our

client but this sometimes brings an

unnecessary query from the client

on receipt of the letter. Stamp the

copy to the client "for your file only

- no action by you necessary".

Error-free correspondence.

Jan

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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