Finding Differentiators in Law Firms

True and Meaningful Differentiators

Clients struggle to distinguish between most law firms on the market. They all seem to have strong pedigrees, excellent subject area experience and skilled lawyers delivering quality products in terms of technical features.

However, firms do differ substantially in terms of the quality of their service delivery, i.e., the experience the client has with the firm. For this reason, client service is regarded as a differentiator. In fact, many argue that it is one of the most important differentiators for a law firm (Bilwas, 2016).

Before a law firm promotes such a differentiator to its clients and targets, it is important to ensure that the differentiator is meaningful by checking to see if it possesses the following characteristics:

·         The differentiator is verifiably true

·         The differentiator is deemed important by your target client segments

·         The differentiator can be proven via concrete measurements.

We believe that to best identify true, important and provable differentiators, law firms must thoroughly understand their clients’ needs and perceptions of their services.

Our Solution - Client Surveys and Interviews

Evelaw provides law firms with the tools, techniques and support to identify true and meaningful differentiators. Due to our work experience as lawyers, we not only understand the nature of legal services, but also the considerable differences among service delivery processes.

With our tools, law firms can identify the gaps in their service management processes and uncover discrepancies between their service offerings and their clients’ expectations. Our clients rely on these tools in order to follow a systematic approach to identifying true and meaningful differentiators by first measuring the firm’s performance on service quality with (i) client surveys and (ii) client interviews.

Evelaw is a pioneer in conducting client surveys and in-person interviews for law firms in the CEE Region. Our experience and knowledge gives us the insight to translate survey and interview results into a valuable and concrete action plan.

Client Surveys

We are deeply convinced that a survey of client needs and perceptions is the most cost-effective marketing and management tool available for law firms.

Surveys can help your firm address the following fundamental needs:

·         assess present client satisfaction and identify follow-on selling opportunities

·         identify value enhancing and/or specific new business development opportunities

·         uncover information that may help to refine your firm’s business strategy

·         prepare or refine ongoing marketing strategy based on clients’ needs and perceptions; and

·         assess problem areas with new practice areas.

Client Interviews

While law firms can rely on surveys to obtain quantitative data about client perceptions, they should not miss out on the opportunity to also search for qualitative data from clients. For this purpose, our firm clients rely on us to assist them with in-person interviews of key clients. During these interviews, we can obtain a deeper, more-detailed understanding of how clients perceive their law firms. Such an understanding oftentimes reveals unexpected, yet powerful differentiators for the firms.

Firm Results

When law firms follow the above dual approach, they are oftentimes surprised by how easy it is to stand out from the crowd by letting their clients do most of the work (i.e. telling the firms about how they are meaningfully different). More importantly, the client feedback provides an added benefit in empowering the firms to deliver the most important thing in business: client-defined value.

References

Bliwas, J. (2016) "Legalbusinessworld|Home." LegalBusinessWorld|Home. N.p., 2016.

Carr J. and Mathewson F. (1990), "The Economics of Law Firms: A Study in the Legal Organization of the Firm," The Journal of Law and Economics 33, no. 2 (Oct., 1990): 307-330.

Gaffney, N. (2016) “Adding Value To Client Relationships | ABA Law Practice Today." ABA Law Practice Today. N.p., 2016.

Nelson, R. L. (1985) “Ideology, Practice, And Professional Autonomy: Social Values And Client Relationships In The Large Law Firm." Stanford Law Review 37.2 (1985): 503.