Then There’s This Type of Service

May 7, 2013May 1, 2013 / Bruce Cameron

source: National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Women’s Bureau

It seems that I have, at some time in the recent past, brought myself to the attention of that imp of that controls the quality of customer service and have been blessed with an odd assortment of well-intentioned, but altogether hideous encounters with those call center denizens relegated to direct consumer contact. Now, please don’t get me wrong, I have great respect for those whose job it is to m interact with the likes of me when, through no fault of theirs, a product goes south. It has to be one of the world’s greatest thankless tasks – when it goes right, no one notices and when it goes completely catawampus the complaints fall like rain from the sky.

Act 1:

First, let me be honest, I abhor PayPal – it is a visceral thing with no logical explanation, no reality-based justification, and does not stem from any fault of the service itself – and tend to use it only when circumstances force it upon me. Then only regular use I have for it is to pay for a single annual subscription to an on-line service. This means that I typically access PayPal once every year or two. It also means that whatever familiarity I had with the user interface is guaranteed to be out of date and completely inaccurate. While I got though my biannual task some imp lurking somewhere between my desktop and PayPal’s servers inserted the notion that I had some interested in merchant services. Now, I do have to give the sales folk credit for their follow-up and their tenacity – e-mails inquiries were closely followed by phone calls 5 minutes later. It was only by sheer happenstance that my schedule had me out of the office (the contact pattern was e-mail, phone call, wait 48 hours, repeat) during the sales contact 3-peat cycle. By the end of the entire debacle, I had a mild twinge of regret when I received the e-mail telling me that I was being removed from the salesman’s contact list.

Act 2:

For some reason, I’ve been getting calls from salesfolk who feel that it is necessary to be less than honest in their intentions to get past my receptionist and voicemail – a tactic that has me wasting time scanning caller id and googling unfamiliar area codes each time an unknown caller opens a conversation with “I’d like to discuss a possible [fill in practice area here] matter with you”; a tactic that seems to have been pioneered by a few legal referral services but that has now been picked up, by all groups, Mediate.com – a mediator referral source. It seems strange that a referral service for mediators (a group that tends to want to create trusting environments) should choose deceit as it’s opening gambit.

Act 3:

Now, I will admit a fondness for freebies and was intrigued by the Dan Kennedy/GKIC offer of free marketing information. After entering an e-mail address in the appropriate place, I was redirected to a web page where I could claim my “free” information for only $19.99 (shipping and handling). Not having sufficient interest in the material to invest just south of $20 in the “free” package I left the page and headed out to greener pastures. Again, I will give the GKIC auto-responder kudos for follow-up; it has diligently been sending me various daily e-mails explaining exactly why I should invest a measly $20 for this wonderful “free” gift.

Lessons

From a distance, I can get a chuckle from my recent customer service debacles – it is amazing how time can turn annoyance into perspective. And with perspective, comes the basic reminder that a quality customer experience does not come from the end product, but from the entire interaction. I should point out that, with the possible exception of Act 2, my annoyance arose not from poor service, but from over-zealous service; after all, the lack of follow-up is the leading cause of lost sales though I think that there is supposed to be some delay between contacts (there’s constant contact and then there’s CONSTANT contact). So, I have to thank the various actors for reminding me:

To listen to the customer – understanding is far more difficult and far more valuable than simply hearing;
Be up front with the customer and set the correct expectations; and
While follow-up is good, there are fine line between follow-up, too much follow-up, and stalking;

Spring Niches

April 30, 2013April 29, 2013 / Bruce Cameron

After a longish winter (snow on the 26th of April is a bit over the top), the annual rights of spring are finally upon is – the fishing opener is but a weekend away and the wild turkey season is in full swing. For those not familiar with these activities, both are exercises in which the participants spend far more than is strictly sane to obtain a food stuff that could be had at a reputable grocer for a tenth the price. For those of us who spend our time participating, these rights are about more than simply nurturing our inner hunter-gatherer, they mark the transition when snow-shoveling (sure there is skiing & snowmobiles, but it all has to do with that frigid white stuff) gives way to far more varied ways of being outdoors.

Turkey hunting is something of a solo activity – after all, if you are armed, dressed like a bush, and making sounds like turkey, the last thing you want is another armed, turkey sounding bush anywhere in the vicinity – while fishing tends to be more a small firm activity – 2 or 3 gathered together to wash worms, sit in contemplative silence or to debate the great problems of the world as mood suits. When fall comes around, the big law model hits the woods and fields as groups head out to spend time in the deer camps of the great north woods.

785286_48781848 But places to hunt are fading away as more landowners close acreage to hunters – set aside acres are being put back into production, woodlots and non-tillable lands are being put into private preserves, and some are simply closed thanks to, I’m sorry to say, the poor husbandry of the hunters themselves. As more and more land is closed or put to more profitable use than simple outdoor recreation there will be people interested in preserving their ability to pursue their form of communing with the great outdoors.

I’m not sure that a recreational land practice would ever be a full-time profit center, but then again it might with the right mix of estate planning, real estate, contracts, and entity formation; after all, hunters are not the only ones wanting to preserve the space needed for their outdoor activities – there are equestrians and mountain bikers looking for places to ride, snowmobilers looking for places to run trails, and cabins on the lake to preserve for the next generation. The potential client pool encompasses anyone with a hobby that takes place outdoors and requires a bit more space than your average backyard.

Marketing this type of practice is may be a little tricky – most likely it will be mainly be by word of mouth and will involve a delicate balancing act so as narrow the niche too far; the recreational land practitioner would need to recognize that the various elements of their client pool may have divergent requirements (equestrians aren’t going to want to share trails with dirt bikes, and those looking to spend a quiet snowy evening alone in their cabin tend get a mite peeved when a herd of snowmobiles shatters the mood) and that the best marketing would project this understanding to the client pool.

The only other caveat I can think of at this juncture, is that this would not be the type of practice that confines itself to a small geographic area. At the very least, this is the type of practice that would span counties if not an entire state – the recreational land practitioner should expect a bit of travel time in their future.

I should note that I’m not the only one thinking about the niche practices offered by the outdoorsy folk – sdrurallawyer offers this prospective as to why a lawyer should be included in a hunting party.

Field Trips and Incentives

April 17, 2013April 17, 2013 / Bruce Cameron / 3 Comments

382606_3276 Today’s Leader Post reports on the University of Saskatchewan’s efforts to recruit rural lawyers.

The lack of rural lawyers is not just a problem here in the US; the root causes – population shifts away from rural areas, practicing rural lawyers looking at retirement and practices closing because there is no successor – are not localized phenomenon.

The article reports on the University’s efforts to address 2 problems common to rural lawyer recruitment: a lack of familiarity with available opportunities, and the siren song of a big city practice. While the University’s College of Law is just beginning to address the later issue (the preliminary ideas seem to be focused on some form of loan forgiveness and modeled after a program the Saskatchewan government offers medical students), the school is actively addressing the former by providing day trips to rural areas for interested students.

Rural law practices don’t happen simply because a lawyer hangs out a shingle. They happen by building a connection to the community; it’s basically about being the right person in the right place at the right time and frankly, the only way to find the right place is to go out and spend time in rural areas and small towns (find the right place and you become the right person). Now, unless there is a sign from above – lightning flashes, thunder booms – a day trip is really not enough time to evaluate a rural area (if they know yo are coming, just about anyone can be charming for a few hours) but it is enough time to make a few connections, to collect some contact information, to start thinking about opportunities, and perhaps to plan for the next trip.

Hanging Your Shingle in a Small Town

April 15, 2013April 15, 2013 / Bruce Cameron

A guest post by Andrew Flusche

Similar to being a rural lawyer, practicing law in a small town has unique challenges and considerations. It’s certainly not the same as the big city! Here are a few things I’ve learned since starting my practice in the booming small-opolis of Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Today’s lawyers are tomorrow’s judges

In Virginia, the legislature appoints our judges. Of course those appointments come from the ranks of the active bar. It makes perfect sense, but when I was a baby lawyer I never really thought about it.

Here’s why I mention it: be nice to everyone! If you’re rude to a colleague that doesn’t seem to affect your practice at all today, they very well could be a judge next year.

In the five years since I’ve been practicing, I’ve seen a handful of judicial changes, and I practice in an extremely limited number of courts. Just this simple fact should give you pause before you do anything that might not reflect positively on you.

It’s a small world out there

When practicing in a small town, you run into people from your legal world outside the courtroom. I run into clerks, judges, clients, colleagues, and officers all the time when I’m out and about.

Needless to say, we should always be nice to everyone. But we’re human, so that’s easier said than done.

However, as a small town lawyer, it’s even more important to always be kind. Heck, I run into clients who I can’t even remember, but they recognize me. If I treat someone poorly, they just might be a past client. Or they might have been a client tomorrow.

Be unique to stand out

It’s tempting to model your practice on the other attorneys in town. After all, it’s working for them. Why not follow suit?

Here in Fredericksburg, most folks do family law, criminal defense, and personal injury. Some people just do two of those, but being more of a generalist is standard practice around town.

To give myself a marketing advantage, I came up with a unique angle: traffic and misdemeanor defense. I’m the only attorney in Fredericksburg (and perhaps the state of Virginia) who solely defends traffic tickets and misdemeanor charges. Many colleagues are still surprised that my practice works, but I think the main reason it’s worked out is that I’m different. In a crowded field, the purple cow gets attention.

Andrew Flusche lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia and helps people from all over the country with their reckless driving Virginia tickets. He also wrote the consumer book, Fight Your Virginia Reckless Driving Ticket. Find Andrew on Google+.

The Rural Track

January 30, 2012 / Bruce Cameron

While the rural lawyer is expected to be something of a generalist, there is some wiggle-room in that definition – folks don’t expect a lawyer to do everything. On the other hand, the rural lawyer who refuses to work outside a particular speciality is in for some lean times. The trick is to find that balancing point between doing the stuff that interests you and doing enough of the stuff that small town clients need so that bills get paid, you get fed and your conscience lets you sleep at night.

I arrived at that balancing point by doing transactional work and ADR – there is something about the degree of conflict in litigated matters that just does not sit well with my belief system. Frankly, when I made the decision not to litigate, I was a bit concerned that I wouldn’t get clients – after all rural clients are a fairly conservative and traditional bunch and ADR might come across as a wee bit too much like tie-dye and love beads to them – but rural clients “get” ADR; though many were surprised to find out that it could be applied to areas other than union contract negotiations (many thanks TV news).

The thing I noticed most was that it became a lot easier to market my practice when what I did aligned with who I was. It was not just that the ol’ elevator speech sounded a bit more natural, the experience from first phone call to last meeting flowed better. Sure there are some clients that choose to go with the “full lawyer experience” and that’s OK – what’s right for me is not right for them. I do notice that the ones that do go with an ADR solution tend be surprised by the results – I often hear the phrase “our friends told us that their _____ was horrible, this isn’t all that stressful, are we doing something wrong?” It’s always nice to have to confirm that disputes can be settled with a minimum of conflict and that if they are getting the results they want, then they are doing everything right (personal validation, vindication and a paycheck all rolled into one).

My thanks go out to Bill Holbrook, the creator of “On The Fastrack“, for allowing me to use an image from his January 26th, 2012 strip and for reminding me that I’ve got that job.

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