Invite Your Client to Tell You More Information
One of my firm mottoes is “Relatively few clients really have the ability to evaluate our legal services, but 100% of our clients know how nice we are to them.” People understand that things don’t always go as well as well as they would like, but they don’t understand not getting phone calls back, and the lawyer or employees not being nice to them.
I’m often tempted to write about examples of really bad customer service that I encounter. Especially if it appears to be a corporate policy. Some of them seem designed to drive customers away. But bad customer service is a way of life and not tremendously interesting. In the past week, I had two experiences that I thought were out of the ordinary.
Last week, my wife and I went to dinner with some friends. The manager stopped by and asked “Have all of your expectations been met this evening?” Wow. What a question. Not “How was your food?” or “Is everything all right?” Both of those questions, elicit a direct and pointed response and don’t open a dialogue. But “Have all of your expectations been met?” That invites the diner to give an open ended response and to talk about anything that they wanted out of the dining experience that they might not have received. It’s not a matter of food, it’s a matter of dining out and making the evening special. I had never heard that question before and was impressed with it.
Yesterday I went for a haircut and the stylist asked me “How has your life been?” Wow. Another great question. Not “What do you do?” Not “Where are you from originally?” (a popular question in a resort town like Myrtle Beach). But “How has your life been?” Rather than channelling the conversation into a few dead end sentences, it invites the person to talk about anything in their life. I asked her what kind of response she normally got on that, and she told me that sometimes you get complainers, and some people that think she’s asking about how their life will be, but most of the people talk about what’s important to them.
Interesting questions. I liked seeing different ways to get their customers/clients open up to tell them what is important. When I talk to clients, I most always ask them “What questions do you have regarding this?” I think that’s better than asking “Do you have any questions?” because it assumes that they will have questions and invites them to ask questions. But I have to admit, my invitation to the client isn’t as good as the two examples I ran into in the last week. I’ll have to think on that and come up with something better.
