August 2002 Article
Originally Published in The Lawyers Weekly
August 2002
Used with permission.
Client Care
Client Care is a misunderstood element of a personal injury law practice. While clients expect and desire a legal remedy to their situation and place their trust in counsel to represent them through any necessary proceedings, clients also expect empathy, concern and understanding regarding their plight. Your clients also look for an awareness of what issues are causing them distress as they navigate a legal process that is unfamiliar to them. The reality is that if your clients are worried enough to lose sleep they are probably going to require more contact with counsel. Introducing a Client Care element to your practice can result in happier, more contented clients and less time spent on issues unrelated to client casework.
Losing Sleep
How responsive is your practice to the cares and concerns of your clients? How aware is your team of the issues and concerns that your clients might have? Before considering the introduction of a Client Care component to their practices, personal injury lawyers should attempt to determine how much of their time is spent responding to clients' personal needs, and not on their legal issues. The results might surprise you.
Consider a common scenario. Your client has been injured in a car accident, suffers ongoing pain, and is facing economic hardship. Unable to return to normal activities of daily living, isolated at home due to injuries and lacking the social network of coworkers your client now has a lot of time to worry. The result is predictable: your client's life becomes the accident. In desperation your client does the expected and contacts you frequently for contact, reassurance and any snippet of news related to their situation. A natural response for any client is to reach out to the person they believe can remedy their situation.
Building a Care Team
You want to build a Client Care team that will support your clients through the legal process and meet their expectations of care and understanding. Consider the adoption of a brief but succinct "Client Care Code of Ethics" that you can publish at your firm. What matters to clients is that their communication needs are met, they understand the process they are involved in and their worries and fears for the future are heard and acknowledged. Not only is it a good idea to have a multi-lingual office, but inviting your clients to speak to you in their language of choice-even through an interpreter-will greatly expedite the legal process and instill a sense of comfort in your clients. Your office might already have employees who speak different languages and who would see the opportunity to translate as a value-add they can offer the practice. You will be providing care to your clients, freeing up your time for legal work, and giving an employee an opportunity to increase their contribution to the practice by utilizing existing skills. It is a situation that quickly becomes win-win-win: your clients are happy, your employees are assuming more responsibility, and you are presenting your practice in its best possible light.
Consider designating a member of your team as a contact for clients who have non-legal questions. "Has the doctor's report arrived?" and such questions do not require a lawyer to answer. Your clients might also call to learn what other resources-from support groups, Employment Insurance or CPP-exist that they can access. Providing one "Client Care Specialist" for clients to contact not only reduces the amount of time counsel will spend updating clients, but demonstrates your desire to meet their needs for communication and information.
Positive Thinking
Introducing clients to a Client Care Team can easily be handled with finesse. After meeting with counsel, clients are introduced to a member of the Client Care Team. To make the introduction, have a member of the Client Care Team provide clients with printed information to help them fight stress and worry and encourage them to think positively about their circumstances. The message you are delivering is that you recognize the fear, worry and stress associated with injury. Your introduction also provides clients with an individual they can contact-an individual they have already met and feel comfortable with.
Three Essential Elements
To be effective Client Care requires three elements that work together. You'll need a dedicated resource to manage client care, a contact person for non-legal questions and concerns, and an office environment that reinforces your commitment to client care.
A designated Client Care Manager sends a clear message to your clients that you recognize that they face more than legal issues. You are building goodwill for your clients, and improving the services you offer at your firm.
Providing a contact for clients to call for non-legal issues is not only friendly, but a strategy to reduce the amount of time counsel spends on nonessential work. Not every client call requires legal expertise; calls that do require contact with a lawyer are escalated appropriately.
Build your office environment around your clients' needs, not your own. Make sure that there is enough room for people who use crutches or wheelchairs. Stock your lobby with periodicals in a variety of languages and geared to different interests and lifestyles. Consider providing bottled water for visitors instead of coffee or tea.
Todd A. Reybroek practices personal injury law in Toronto. He can be reached at TReybroek@reybroek.com or 416-780-1413.
