ABSTRACT
It is vitally important for business and the bottom line that a firm should develop a culture and ethos that encourages people to come forward with ideas and suggestions in the confidence that they will be listened to. Lawyers have been prone to be dismissive about things and ideas that have not been done before. This is an inherent weakness for a business in a changing market economy. New ideas can first be tried out on a limited basis. If it’s a disaster, no great harm will have been done. If it works, then there will be scope for more extensive use. For example, a suggestion might be made by the members of staff as follows:
These are all simple and obvious things in client care but may be easily overlooked by those who see the firm only from the inside or who have stopped ‘seeing’ it at all anymore. The point in doing these things is to show that the firm thinks about and pays attention to the little things as well as the big things. No matter how wonderfully you are able to conduct the first interview and get the relationship off to a flying start, no matter how brilliant your legal advice, drafting or forensic skills, if your client has been kept waiting in a grubby reception area that has made no concession to human comfort, then you will be starting off with a disadvantage. If after conducting a brilliant first meeting, your client visits your unlit toilets (who is responsible for replacing light fittings?), or gets lost trying to find the lift, or has not been offered a coffee all morning, his impression of the
firm will be affected, if not tarnished, by these impressions, impressions of which you may remain blissfully unaware.
