Holding onto your Key Client Relationships

There are clear signs of a more positive economic environment ahead. We all know of course that there is a time lag before things get better. Your key clients will remain under pressure for some time to reduce expenditure and ensure they are getting the very best value from their lawyers.

This pressure may lead many previously loyal and faithful clients to do the unthinkable: they may succumb to approaches from other firms to meet for a first date, just for a chat, nothing serious of course, there is after all no harm in looking.

These innocent chats could be the start of a serious relationship breakdown.

It is worth remembering that other firms approaching your key clients often demonstrate levels of keenness and enthusiasm that you do not. Your relationship is at that point which may best be described as ‘comfortable'. You've stopped making a real effort. No real romance anymore. Just a steady, ordinary everyday relationship. Nothing really good, nothing really bad, just nothing that really sets your client's heart racing!

Would they or wouldn't they?

So now's a good time to ask yourself the question: Are your key clients vulnerable to a little flirting with your competitors? Or even worse, would they go all the way and give work previously reserved for you to one of the those keen and attentive firms who are there to seduce your most important contacts?

Relationships can't last forever

Of course they can! In life those who have had the joy of celebrating silver or even golden anniversaries will always tell you that things were not always easy and that these milestones are only ever achieved by applying attention, energy and effort.

Four things to stop your key clients going on a date

There are four key things you need to do to keep your clients loyal and be able to look forward to a future of milestone anniversaries:

1 Manage current fee-earning work in a way that ‘delights' clients 

2 Defend client relationships from outside advances 

3 Develop the client relationship so the firm becomes ‘irreplaceable' 

4 Project manage the client relationship to build a position of trust

Who can resist a little flirting?

Managing the fee-earning work 

It used to be a common misconception that if you got the fee-earning work right, clients would stay loyal forever. Clients, however, have come to expect a high quality service as a given. It is no longer a differentiator. How well a firm performs in its fee-earning work can only really be judged by its clients' perceptions. For a client to remain loyal and give their advisers new instructions, these perceptions need to be very positive. This will only happen when they believe that their needs and expectations are being satisfied or exceeded and that the service being provided is extremely difficult to replace or replicate.

Building such a position of trust requires lawyers to understand, establish and agree their clients' expectations at every stage of the relationship. This will be whilst selling to the client, in the final negotiations, at the start of work, at regular stages in the execution of the work and also at the end of the engagement. A client's expectations can be gleaned from a firm's conversations and/or planning meetings with them. Whilst fee-earners often make a good job at agreeing the ‘technical deliverables' of an assignment, frustration on both sides is sometimes caused by a failure to agree the ‘soft stuff'. This invariably includes how the two sides are going to work together, how they will communicate, how meetings should be run etc.

Having established and agreed the client's expectations, firms are in a much stronger position to plan and execute their work so that it meets or exceeds them. In doing so, those firms that are very good at client management continue to communicate with the client throughout the planning and execution stages. This enables them to crosscheck expectations in case they have changed. It also enables these firms to make ongoing improvements to their overall service delivery.

Defending client relationships 

So can you really stop a client from flirting? If you really care about your relationship you should start by being honest about any weak spots.

Relationships in law firms tend to centre on the interpersonal dynamics between a person in the firm and a key contact in the client. However, a number of fee-earners will always move from firm to firm as their careers develop and this can put client relationships at risk. As a result, more and more firms are building multi-level relationships between their organisation and their clients. They are becoming more sophisticated at creating client teams, which really reflect the interests and ‘personality' of each client. And they are ensuring through their client management systems that frequency of contact is maintained with the client (even if they are not working for them). This is an excellent way of ensuring your firm is considered when new work becomes available.

Who can resist a little flirting?

Developing the client relationship 

Some firms say that clients ‘pigeon-hole' them for providing a particular range of expertise. The client doesn't realise that the firm could help and support them in a much wider capacity. Client development is about promoting the totality of a firm's business to key clients in order that they understand the range of capabilities the firm possesses and more importantly, which services may be the most value to them. This is not about trying to ‘flog' a range of services to get a bigger share of the client's wallet. If this is the key motive it does, in time, become apparent and the client resists the firm's advances.

Those firms that are successful at developing the client and their business use all their knowledge of the client to establish very tailored solutions. These draw on a wide range of capabilities from within the firm. The aim is to provide even greater support and additional value to the client and help them achieve their business objectives. Targeting clients with activities and correspondence that correlate to their specific interests and issues can really help here. The greater support the firm can give, the more irreplaceable they become in the cl ient's mind . The less tempted they will be to seek satisfaction with other firms.

Project managing the client relationship

Client project management is about the firm's culture and approach to key client management. Those firms that excel in this area create systems and ways of working that ensure that all people involved with key clients contribute to the knowledge and plans relating to them. In doing so, these firms ensure everyone is passionate and motivated to deliver a great client experience. You can't do it all alone. Get your colleagues involved!

If you value the relationship it's worth working at

Remember the best relationships require on-going maintenance. Give your clients the love and attention in the four key areas identified and you have a much greater chance of a long term mutually satisfying future.

So if you focus your key client management strategy in the areas we have identified will you stop your clients from flirting? Probably not. After all, there is no harm in looking. But with the right level of care you should be able to stop them going all the way!

> Back to Articles