We are witnessing a crucial moment in the development of professional firms. They are aware of their need to gain size and competitiveness within the legal market in which they operate and begin to resort to proposals and more than service providers, so it is necessary at this time to stop to see the specific needs and objectives that they have to meet in the customer section.
The treatment, the relationship with the client is, for all those firms that see themselves as small and medium-sized legal services companies, not only an objective but an important strategy where their development and professional treatment to date has been rather scarce.
The truth is that you have to take into account the economic relevance that each client has for the professional office. It can be said that not all have the same importance and therefore it is necessary to establish criteria for classification and treatment of them.
It is difficult within the office to see a client as someone to whom a certain strategy can or should be applied, but the truth is that within a company's own conception this has a certain logic, since it is part of the marketing policy from the firm and said generic treatment to the whole is gradually personalized depending on the type of client we are addressing.
On the other hand, the offices provide services which places us in the intangible, unlike other product companies, and thus the relationship and the way of establishing not only commercial relationships but also loyalty to our clients drastically change the rest of the companies of mass consumption, to mention that section.
As previously indicated, the relationship that can be given to clients within professional firms requires that they follow a guide, a why and why things are being done.
Later we will have to know what type of clients we will be dealing with, what services we will offer them and how we will be able to retain them. Taking into account these premises, the relationship established from them may bring us not only loyal customers but also satisfied customers, which in a branch like ours, providing legal services, will be the best publicity we can get.
Regarding classification criteria, we can classify our clients with a number of premises: by business volume, by activity, by relationship, by profitability, by location, etc.
Based on them, we can later deal with them, and thus define our sales strategies. All this, in addition to setting a pattern of treatment and relationship with clients in order to develop our corporate business objectives, will allow us to have a greater and more controlled approach and to know even more their needs and how to satisfy them. The information that is collected is very important for its later use.
Clients and technology...
Today technology has implemented programs and systems that make it easier for us to classify customers and provide them with a better service on our part. The existence of a good database in the service company with clear profitability criteria and its use within a treatment program and customer relations such as CRM enables professional work and good results in terms of business strategy in this commercial field which is essential for business development.
The creation and development of CRM (Costumer Relationship Management) is still difficult for many companies because it means a clear orientation towards the client, which many times encounters many resistance.
In our professional services sector, specifically in the legal sector, the same thing happens, but with even greater resistance, since the commercial and customer-oriented culture is still very scarce. Professionals are often heard saying "I am very uncommercial", when what is essential in it are their skills in public relations and closeness and dealing with the clients with whom they are going to have to interact. You have to lose your fear of the customer and of course, there are guidelines and tools that facilitate this path, such as CRM and other tools that inform us about it and its possibilities with them.
A good segmentation of clients is totally essential if we want to apply a good commercial and marketing policy well, since this results in high quality in terms of dealing with and business forecasting with them.
The CRM tool essentially seeks to parameterize the company's database and establish clear criteria for working with them, even reaching -it is desirable- to give them personalized treatment and services. So if we do not forget that we are service providers, this way in which we serve them and sell our services, in turn entails that in passing we retain them, within a more personalized treatment, depending on the degree or importance of the same.
Finally, we have to indicate that CRM is not only a work tool or one more relationship management program between the client and the company, but that the concept is broader since it is more of a corporate philosophy in which It is mainly about understanding the client, knowing him and being able to detect all his needs, putting aside papers, notes and replacing them with information within a computer.
It is important to bear in mind that for a good result in the implementation of a Costumer Relationship Management it is necessary that other parts of the company are involved. Not only should the responsibility be left to the IT department, but also in its implementation as well as in the analysis of results, all those parts of the company that deal with clients must intervene, since they can provide much more data that allows us to reach to continue knowing our markets.
On the other hand, if the entire management of the company does not accept this new orientation, its results will always be more limited.
A Final Reflection...
The relationship that we have as offices with our clients must have a primary purpose, to retain them, because a loyal client will be a regular client and will be our best reference with the market. The relationship of fidelity is something that should not be neglected or relaxed in your care.
Everything is part of a more structured process within an efficient comprehensive management of a so-called goodwill that is in the end what provides us with sufficient resources to survive and to develop as a company, using the tools that every day we go providing customer service and making the most of it.
