How to Improve Your Customer Service Skills as a General Counsel

As a general counsel, you play a crucial role in your organisation. You are responsible for managing legal risks, ensuring compliance and providing legal guidance. However, in addition to these duties, you must also work towards delivering exceptional customer service to your clients. It is no longer enough to solely provide legal advice, but rather, it is equally important to focus on building strong client relationships. In this article, we will explore how you can improve your customer service skills as a general counsel.

Understanding the Importance of Customer Service in the Legal Industry

Customer service is critical to the legal industry. Providing exceptional customer service can lead to higher client satisfaction, increased retention rates, and even provide a competitive advantage. As a general counsel, you represent the legal department and serve as the primary point of contact for your organisation's internal and external clients. Therefore, your customer service skills can significantly impact your organisation's reputation and growth.

The Role of a General Counsel in Customer Service

As a general counsel, your role in customer service is more vital than you might expect. While your primary role is legal advice, you must also provide excellent customer service to maintain strong relationships with clients. You must take the time to understand clients' needs, provide personalised attention and communicate effectively. By doing so, you can build their trust and confidence in the legal department and the organisation as a whole.

Furthermore, a general counsel must be proactive in identifying issues that could impact customer service. For example, if a client is experiencing a challenge or has a complaint, you must address it promptly. You must also be available to answer questions and provide guidance, ensuring that clients feel heard and valued.

How Customer Service Impacts Client Satisfaction and Retention

Customer service directly impacts client satisfaction and retention. By providing an exceptional customer experience, you can increase client satisfaction and loyalty, leading to more business opportunities and referrals. When clients feel valued, they are more likely to continue working with your organisation and recommend your services to others.

On the other hand, poor customer service can damage your organisation's reputation. Clients may switch to a competitor, or worse, leave a negative review, affecting your organisation's growth and profitability. Therefore, it is essential to prioritise customer service and ensure that clients receive the support and attention they need.

Moreover, exceptional customer service can help your organisation stand out in a crowded legal industry. By providing a personalised and attentive experience, you can differentiate your organisation from competitors and establish a strong reputation for quality service.

The Benefits of Investing in Customer Service

Investing in customer service can have numerous benefits for your organisation. By prioritising customer service, you can:

• Improve client satisfaction and loyalty
• Increase retention rates and reduce client churn
• Generate more business opportunities and referrals
• Build a strong reputation for quality service
• Stand out in a crowded legal industry
• Enhance your organisation's growth and profitability

Overall, customer service is a critical component of the legal industry. As a general counsel, it is essential to prioritise customer service and ensure that clients receive exceptional support and attention. By doing so, you can improve client satisfaction and retention, differentiate your organisation from competitors, and establish a strong reputation for quality service.

Essential Customer Service Skills for General Counsels

Being a general counsel requires not only legal expertise but also excellent customer service skills. Clients expect their general counsel to provide top-notch legal advice and guidance, but they also expect exceptional customer service. Here are some essential customer service skills that every general counsel should have:

Active Listening and Empathy

Active listening and empathy are essential skills for providing exceptional customer service. By actively listening, you demonstrate that you value your clients' thoughts, feelings and opinions, building a deeper connection. With empathy, you can understand their perspective, anticipate their needs and provide tailored solutions.

For example, if a client is going through a difficult time, you can show empathy by acknowledging their feelings and offering support. This can help build trust and strengthen your relationship with the client.

Effective Communication

Effective communication is vital to providing excellent customer service as a general counsel. You must communicate clearly and effectively, both verbally and in writing. This includes explaining complex legal concepts in a digestible manner and providing updates and feedback in a timely and concise manner.

For instance, if a client has a question about a legal document, you can provide a clear and concise explanation of the document's contents and its legal implications. This can help the client understand the legal issue at hand and make informed decisions.

Problem-Solving and Adaptability

As a general counsel, you may face unique legal challenges that require problem-solving skills. You must approach these challenges in a solution-focused and innovative manner, adapting to changing environments and circumstances.

For example, if a client is facing a legal issue that has no clear solution, you can use your problem-solving skills to come up with creative and innovative solutions. This can help the client achieve their desired outcome and build trust in your abilities as a general counsel.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is also vital to delivering exceptional customer service. It enables you to understand and manage your emotions and the emotions of others. By doing so, you can build stronger relationships with clients and colleagues.

For instance, if a client is frustrated or upset about a legal issue, you can use your emotional intelligence to understand their perspective and respond in a calm and empathetic manner. This can help defuse the situation and build trust with the client.

Time Management and Organisation

Effective time management and organisation skills can significantly impact your customer service delivery. You must effectively manage your schedule, ensure timely completion of tasks, and follow-up promptly with clients to provide an excellent experience.

For example, if a client has a deadline for a legal matter, you can use your time management skills to prioritise their needs and ensure that the work is completed on time. This can help the client feel valued and build trust in your abilities as a general counsel.

In conclusion, as a general counsel, you must possess not only legal expertise but also exceptional customer service skills. By actively listening, communicating effectively, solving problems, showing empathy, and managing your time and organisation, you can provide exceptional customer service to your clients and build strong relationships with them.

Building Strong Client Relationships

Clients are the lifeblood of any business, and building strong relationships with them is essential to success. While there are many ways to achieve this, some key strategies include setting clear expectations, maintaining regular communication, providing personalised service, and seeking and acting on client feedback.

Setting Clear Expectations

When working with clients, it's crucial to set clear expectations from the outset. This means outlining the scope of services, timelines, and costs involved in their legal matters. By doing so, you can avoid potential misunderstandings and build trust with your clients. Additionally, providing regular updates and feedback along the way can help keep clients informed and reassured that they are a priority.

Maintaining Regular Communication

Consistent communication with clients can significantly impact the quality of your customer service. Regular updates, feedback, and check-ins build a stronger connection, and reassure clients that they are in good hands. It's essential to make an effort to maintain open lines of communication and keep clients informed throughout their legal matters. This can include phone calls, emails, or in-person meetings, depending on what works best for the client.

Providing Personalised Service

Providing a personalised experience is another essential component of delivering excellent customer service. It's crucial to take the time to understand your clients' goals, priorities, and preferences. By doing so, you can tailor your services to meet their unique needs and expectations. This can include offering flexible scheduling, providing additional resources, or simply taking the time to listen to their concerns.

Seeking and Acting on Client Feedback

Finally, seeking and acting on client feedback is critical to continuously improving your customer service delivery. Feedback can inform areas for improvement and identify areas of strength. By taking action on feedback, you demonstrate to your clients that you value their opinions and are committed to providing an exceptional customer experience. This can include implementing new policies or procedures, offering additional services, or simply making changes to the way you communicate with clients.

In conclusion, building strong client relationships is essential to the success of any business. By setting clear expectations, maintaining regular communication, providing personalised service, and seeking and acting on client feedback, you can create a positive and lasting impression on your clients. This can lead to increased loyalty, referrals, and ultimately, business growth.

Implementing Customer Service Best Practices in Your Legal Department

In today's competitive legal industry, customer service has become a critical factor in attracting and retaining clients. Law firms that provide exceptional customer service are more likely to build long-term relationships with their clients and earn a positive reputation in the market. In this article, we will discuss some best practices for implementing customer service in your legal department.

Creating a Customer Service-Oriented Culture

Creating a customer service-oriented culture is vital to delivering excellent customer service consistently. You must instill a culture of service excellence across your organization, with a focus on understanding and meeting clients' needs. This culture should be reflected in every aspect of your legal department's operations, from the way you answer the phone to the way you draft legal documents.

One way to create a customer service-oriented culture is to involve your legal staff in the process. Encourage them to think about the client's perspective and how they can provide better service. You can also establish a client feedback system to gather feedback on your service delivery and use it to improve your processes.

Training and Development for Legal Staff

Providing training and development opportunities for your legal staff is also essential to improving your customer service delivery. By enhancing key skills and knowledge, you can improve the quality of legal advice and the customer experience.

Training programs can be designed to cover a range of skills, from communication and interpersonal skills to legal writing and research. You can also provide training on your firm's policies and procedures, ensuring that all staff members are aware of the best practices for delivering exceptional customer service.

Establishing and Monitoring Customer Service Metrics

Finally, you must establish and monitor customer service metrics to measure the effectiveness of your customer service delivery. This could include client satisfaction scores, retention rates, and response times. By tracking these metrics, you can identify areas for improvement and celebrate successes.

For example, you could conduct regular client satisfaction surveys to gather feedback on your service delivery. You could also monitor your response times to client inquiries and ensure that they are within an acceptable range. By monitoring these metrics, you can identify trends and patterns that can help you improve your customer service delivery over time.

In conclusion, implementing customer service best practices in your legal department is essential to building strong client relationships and achieving long-term success. By creating a customer service-oriented culture, providing training and development opportunities for your legal staff, and establishing and monitoring customer service metrics, you can deliver exceptional customer service that sets your firm apart from the competition.

Conclusion

Providing excellent customer service is no longer optional in the legal industry. As a general counsel, your customer service skills can impact your organisation's reputation, growth and profitability. By implementing the best practices outlined in this article, you can improve your customer service delivery, build stronger client relationships, and achieve greater success as a legal professional.