RJon Robins

Everyone’s heard about the value of getting a new client.  The lifetime value of each new client we generate with our Rainmaking activities is a subject I rant about loud & often.  So I’ll skip my usual refrain on the subject and share an observation that comes from a different perspective, one that requires me to admit something I’m not especially proud of. . .

I’m back at my regular restaurant this morning, with a painfully slow internet connection pirated off of a nearby source.  Recall that I’d already told the manager that I’d pay for the $70 wireless router it would take to make me happy and when they declined I went out in search of a new regular place.  I found a new restaurant that offers great free internet connection and even lower prices for my usual breakfast.  But old habit die hard & so I’m back here.

This beggs the question, what in the hell do these people have to do to lose me as a customer?!?!  They already charge more and deliver less.  I’ve already tried the competition but reverted back to my old routine because it’s, well, because it’s a routine.

So, what do YOU have to do to lose a client?  If your answer has anything to do with “finish the case” you’re missing the point entirely about the lifetime value of a client.  Once a client, always a client in my book.

Seriously, I’d be interested in anyone’s anecdotes about what they have done to actually lose a client, because in my experience it’s so easy to keep them coming back for more?

I don’t know what’s been going on lately.  Seems everywhere I go, I’m seeing more & more examples of stupid service.  Last week it was my regular restaurant that sent me across the street to the competition, even after I told them  exactly what it would take to keep me and  offered to pay for it.  This time it was my dentist whose staff basically came out and told me that they run the office for their convenience, not mine as a patient.

Short story. . . been seeing the same dentist for many years.  Even though his prices are high, I have no complaints & keep going back because of the quality, familiarity, inertia, etc.  This time there’s a sign on the bathroom door “Staff Only”.  So I ask to use the “other bathroom”.  I’m handed a key and given a set of complex direction to go out the front door, down the hall, around the corner. .  .wait a second is the other bathroom out of order or something?  Why can’t I use this one right here?

I’ll spare you the stupid answer and simply suggest you take a look around your law office to see if there are any “staff only” signs, posted or otherwise.

As regular readers of this blog and my e-zine know, I often pick-up my laptop and work from a little restaurant around the corner from my office.  I find that getting out of familiar surroundings where I have absolutely no responsibility for anything enables me to relax and be creative.  Or maybe it’s the jolt of caffene.  The bottom line is that I probably spend around $300/month eating out for breakfast and the restaurant likely enjoys at least another hundred or so because I sometimes meet clients and friends there too. 

In case you’re wondering how this practice fits with my position about not taking clients to lunch etc. there is a difference.  First of all I’m not talking about prospective new clients.  Second of all when I do invite a client to meet me for breakfast, it’s only when we have something specific to discuss that won’t require us to handle documents and that isn’t going to be sensitive in nature – let’s brainstorm about how to reorganize your business so you can spend more time out on your boat vs. we need to analyze your financial statements, billing records and your weekly score cards  to figure out which clients you need to fire. And last but not least, I have taken the precaution of converting my regular table into a sort of remote office where we have alot of privacy and the waitstaff has learned to leave us alone when I’m with someone.

Anyway, my regular restaurant recently taught me a valuable lesson about how to lose a client.  Or in this case, a regular customer.  I’ve said it before & apparently I’ll be saying it again that satisfied clients are dangerous to a law practice, or any business for that matter.  They’re dangerous because there’s no real way to tell how satisfied they are.  Maybe they’re just marginally satisfied and will jump ship for a relatively minor or unexpected reason that you would address if only they would complain.  This is why you see some big law firms crashing & burning much more quickly than you’d expect, by the way.  In case you are not aware, the legal industry is full of cautionary tales of 50 lawyer firms imploding into 25 lawyer firms practically overnight.

Ok, so the lesson.  Well, it seems that for the past year I’ve been pirating a nearby internet signal which I had thought came from the restaurant.  I learned this today when I couldn’t get online over my eggs & toast.  When I discussed the “problem” with the manager, she declined to accomodate me by plugging in a wireless router to the internet connection in her office.  So I offered to give her a wireless router.  Still no interest in accomodating this formerly regular customer.

Bottom-line is that I’m now typing to you from my new regular place a block farther away. 

LESSON FOR LAWYERS READING THIS: get into the habit of making sales calls on your current and former clients to proactively discover what they do/don’t like about your services before your competitors beat you to those discoveries and walk away with your clients.