One of the big economic stories of our day is the “retail apocalypse” underway nationwide. Battered by higher costs and the growing power of ecommerce sites like Amazon, retailers have been closing stores in droves. While boutique retail has seen a renaissance in gentrified areas of Brooklyn, for example, the era of off-the-highway big box stores is under threat. There will always be room for focused large chains like Best Buy or Home Depot, but the field is definitely winnowing, as a new generation grows up believing that “shopping” means clicking a few times on their phone’s Amazon app. Technology changes things, as we continue to learn in the legal business.
Living myself in a household where the daily Amazon delivery has become my kids’ version of the milkman, I can safely say that I have become just as familiar with Amazon’s customer service to return unwanted items as I am with their ordering process. To their credit, Amazon makes it very easy to reach their customer service department, via phone, email, or my favorite, chat. Any of these options beats getting into the car for a trip to the store, only to wait in line to meet the sullen sales associate who drew the short straw and got return handling duty for the day. Having a chat customer service feature is especially beneficial for an ecommerce site like Amazon. I value this feature since it allows me to receive immediate help (providing an advantage over email) with easy access to my order information since I am on the computer anyway (advantage over phone). Of course a retail store with great employees can also provide a positive customer service experience, but the reality often does not match the ideal on that front, and retailers that require in-store returns also subject their customers to the hassle of getting there in the first place.
The more I use chat-based customer service, the more it distills for me what customer service is really all about. Rather than resort to trite statements like “the customer is always right,” I have come to realize that the best customer service is the one that lets customers feel empowered, with some control over the process. Think about those businesses that are notorious for providing the worst customer service — such as utilities, government agencies like the DMV, and cable service providers. Customers that need help when dealing with these types confront apathy and inflexibility, and definitely do not feel empowered or in control over solving the problem.
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In other words, customers who are reduced to account numbers will never feel satisfied with the customer service they receive. The proof is that even when a customer “wins” a dispute with a business that provides poor customer service, the customer is often still dissatisfied. Conversely, even when a particular issue is not resolved in the customer’s favor, if the customer service provided was on target, the customer might still want to do business with that company. To provide a real-world example, I remain a loyal Amazon customer even though not every customer service issue I have with them is resolved to my full satisfaction. Part of that is because they provide an invaluable service to me in a convenient way. But another part is the ease of dealing with any customer service issues I have with them as well. I know I can reach them when I want, that I will have all the information relevant to my issue easily accessible, and that they will do their best to listen and treat me fairly.
Done right, customer service can be a competitive advantage — especially for lawyers in small law firms, where it can be a clear distinguishing feature for clients as opposed to dealing with impersonal bigger firms. As lawyers, we are well aware of the amount of competition we face — from fellow lawyers, to legal technology, to clients deciding to handle things on their own. There is nary a firm or lawyer who can afford to provide DMV-level (yes, I know many DMVs have gotten better, but it is a familiar reference) customer service. Lawyers are not utilities, and clients are not account numbers. Now, some lawyers don’t care much for providing customer service to their clients, and some can even afford to get away with it. Most other lawyers must be responsive to their clients’ needs, particularly when it comes to the services being provided by the lawyer. Our natural instinct is to help our clients, particularly when what they need is something we can address.
A word of caution, however, to those lawyers who want to pretend that client customer service is important, even when they don’t really believe it is. When a law firm provides clients with a point of contact to deal with customer service issues such as billing, responsiveness, or anything else, it is making a promise (just like an ecommerce website makes a promise when it offers a chat feature to customers). The promise is that the client’s concerns will be treated seriously, and that the firm has an interest in actually helping resolve problems.
To that end, there is no value to having an admin, for example, try and help clients resolve substantive billing disputes — unless you are the rare firm that allows admins to make financial decisions. Telling clients that they can talk to your admin about billing disputes is not customer service, it is providing a complaint hotline — which may satisfy some clients, but surely won’t satisfy most. Ultimately, we can choose what face we offer our clients when it comes to customer service. The least we can do is make it an honest and helpful one.
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Please feel free to send comments or questions to me at [email protected] or via Twitter: @gkroub. Any topic suggestions or thoughts are most welcome.
Gaston Kroub lives in Brooklyn and is a founding partner of Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov PLLC, an intellectual property litigation boutique. The firm’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation and related counseling, with a strong focus on patent matters. You can reach him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter: @gkroub.