Customer Service: Your Most Important Product
You can have a fantastic array of legal nurse consulting services, effective outreach, and great advertising, but if you don’t have top-quality customer service, you don’t have anything or also said as, “You ain’t got nuttin.”
Some think our most important goal is to get new customers and/or clients. However, once you get them, you lose your investment of time and money if you don’t keep them.
I used to spend a lot of time, money and effort getting new clients. But one day I realized that I’d be far better off focusing on how I could get my current clients to give me more cases.
One of the best ways to learn how to do customer service well is to pay very close attention to how you react as a customer.
The Unreturned Call
For example, on Monday this week my husband was having severe back pain and left a message on the answering machine of his family practice doctor. He requested a call back. It never came. It still hasn’t, 24 hours later.
By Monday afternoon, I was speaking to my family practice doctor to see If she’d see my husband. The receptionist was able to see from her computer that my husband was a patient of Dr. X, the man who did not return his call. (Both my husband’s doctor and my doctor are In the same network.)
“Do you want me to ring his office? I don’t want to be accused of stealing a patient from him.” I told her we were not satisfied by the lack of response and wanted to switch to my doctor. “We need a doctor who is responsive” I told her. (To be clear, this is not the first time we’ve had trouble getting a call back from this doctor’s office. This was the last straw.)
Our appointment is today.
On Hold Hell
Think about how you feel being placed on hold. Recently I placed a call to Hewlett Packard to find out why my HP computer did not recognize my HP printer. I was on hold for half an hour before the system arbitrarily disconnected my call. I solved the problem myself, and then saw similar complaints by people on Facebook about long holds waiting for HP.
I used “on hold” recordings on my legal nurse consulting phone system so that attorneys could hear a gentle commercial about our services interspersed with music while they were on hold. Rarely were they on hold for a minute.
Occasionally they’d ask me questions about what they heard. “I didn’t know you did that too. I have a case in which I need that kind of help.” That was music to my ears.
Think About Your Experiences with Customer Service
Whenever you, either as an individual, or as an LNC business owner, must deal with customer service, keep notes on the kind of service you get. Rate your experience.
Review the kind of customer service you give, whether you do so directly or have people who handle this. Make sure that your staff members are fully aware of the importance of high-quality customer service.
Find a way of letting your customers that you want to know if they have any difficulty in speaking with one of your employees. Attorneys have a service business too and are acutely aware of the importance of customer service. I recall attorneys apologizing to me for the way their employees treated me, and implying that person would soon be gone.
If you need to put your customers/clients on hold, do not play background music unless it’s of a quiet, classical nature. Make sure it isn’t scratchy or full of static.
Thank Your Clients
In this season of gratitude and thanksgiving, be sure to go out of your way to thank your clients for their trust in you.
I don’t think you can ever be too thankful.
Most attorneys don’t hear thanks often enough. We all want to be appreciated. You know how it makes you feel to hear a genuine thanks. Say thank you the next time you talk to an attorney. You hear the flight attendants say on a plane: “We know you have many choices when it comes to planning your trip and we appreciate that you chose us.” Attorneys have many choices of LNCs. We want them to pick us – responsive, caring, competent and customer service oriented LNCs.
Creating strong relationships with attorneys is crucial for success. How to Create Lasting LNC-Client Relationships focuses on the concept that working with attorneys is challenging and rewarding. You can have an aggressive marketing program to bring in new clients, but if you cannot retain them, you’ll be endlessly spinning your wheels. use the hard won wisdom in this book to boost your LNC business.
Order at this link.
Pat Iyer is president of The Pat Iyer Group, which develops resources to assist LNCs obtain more clients, make more money and achieve their business goals and dreams.
Pat’s related websites include the LNC business coaching services offered through LNCAcademy.com, the continuing education provided on LNCEU.com, the podcasts broadcast at podcast.legalnursebusiness.com, and writing tips supplied at patiyer.com.