customer experience

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗴 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵?
In this case, a staggering A$15.3 million.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴
Unlike most handbags however, this one has a story to tell.

It was the very first Birkin bag.

Designed by Hermès executive Jean-Louis Dumas in 1984, following a chance encounter on a flight with actress and singer Jane Birkin (hence the name), the bag was used daily by Birkin for nearly a decade before she donated it to an Aids Charity auction.

What the sale of this bag evidences though is how value extends beyond material worth. Value is not the $$$ signs you seen on the price-tag; it’s about the stories we tell, the history we preserve, and the emotional connections we forge.

The sale of this bag is a powerful reminder to professionals that authenticity and narrative can elevate your service offering from ordinary to iconic.

It is your powerful – and likely only – differentiator. It is what clients are willing to pay for.

Link to article: https://lnkd.in/gfsrSmMK

‘Customer service’ vs ‘Customer experience’

Ever wondered if there is a difference between ‘customer service’ and ‘customer experience’?

I was fortunate enough to come across this quote by Paul Roberts, CEO at My Customer Lens that, frankly, sums it up better than anyone else I have seen lately:

“It’s important to define the difference between customer service and customer experience. I like to define customer service as what you do, and customer experience is how you make people feel.”

Too often in professional services firms we concentrate on the ‘customer service’ at the expense of the ‘customer experience’; when the reality is that we should be much more focused on the customer experience than we are on the customer service.

As the article states:

“Improving the client experience is about looking at the entire client journey, from initial enquiry through to case completion, and beyond. It’s a rethink and review of every customer touchpoint throughout your organisation; from the way the phone is answered, to your hold music, reception waiting room and website home page.”

Spot on advice.

If you or your firm is struggling to get a grip with this, feel free to reach out to me for a chat.

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Which would you prefer: the customer you attract, or the customer you pursue?

Business Development image

This blog post is based on a #2020futureoflawthought I posted last week on social media – ‘Who pays you better, the client you attract or the client you pursue?’.

It occurs to me that law firms are much more willing – and even better resourced – to pursue customers than they are to attract them. We have dedicated pursue customer resources to hand – such as bids, tenders and pursuits teams. And we are willing to offer discounts and other ‘value adds’ to new customers that we would never think of offering to existing and loyal customers.

And what do we get for throwing all these resources and efforts in to pursuing customers?

If we are honest, and have a really good bid/tender/pursuit team to call on, somewhere between 50%-70% win conversion rate! Which is not to say that conversion rate is profitable, because in many cases to get us across the line it isn’t!

Create distinction

Recently I started listening to Scott McKain’s daily ‘Project Distinction‘ podcast. It’s a great podcast that lasts around 10 minutes; around the same time as I made my social media post, Scott ran a week long series on how the ‘hard sell’ had had its day (the $55 million dollar ‘lost’ sale is a funny listen and a serious lesson in to why the 7 touches sales method is dead IMO).

Scott is also the author of ‘Create Distinction’, a book I have just started reading on the back of his daily podcasts that I have really enjoyed.

Anyhow, both Scott’s podcast and what I have read of his book so far have made me come to the realisation that the traditional law firm approach of pursuing a customer is actually the wrong way of doing things. Instead of pursuing customers with great value adds and discounts, we need to get much better at attracting customers – to our areas of expertise and to our superior service delivery.

Become a person of interest
Timely Andrew Sobel – one of the greats in my opinion – also touched on the issue of attracting versus pursuing customers in his blog post last week: ‘C-Suite Strategies Part IV: Become an Irresistible Person of Interest’.

In the post Andrew asks:

What if, however, the situation were reversed, and senior executives were *drawn to you*? What if, instead of you waiting in the long line outside their office, they were waiting in a line to meet *you*?

Fair question: what indeed?

Andrew then sets out six ‘strategies’ (more like ‘tips’ in my opinion) on how to become a person of interest, that include:

Sharpen your expertise while expanding your knowledge breadth
Develop your thought leadership
Be seen as someone who is at the crossroads of the marketplace
Become a person with interests
Build an eclectic network
Develop, manifest, and communicate your core beliefs and values

Something to think about this week then: would you prefer to be attracting or pursuing customers?

As always though, interested in your thoughts/views/feedback.

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