Customers will rule the legal services revolution
Where are the clients? Or more to the point, where are the profits going to be in certain law firm client groups in the future market for legal services?
If your firm is looking at the subject of what will happen as the Legal Services Act plays out its final cards, or you have a partner who may need a concise review of the current position, I recommend a recent report – Big Bang: Opportunities and threats in the new legal services market – to bring everyone up to date. The conclusions are that you must act now to secure the future of your business.
I know we at Marketlaw, other consultants and market commentators have said this repeatedly for a number of years, but this report shows the extent of what's happening outside your firm. For those anxious about the future, I suggest you can use this report to prod, persuade or demand that your (less forward-thinking) colleagues at least read it and, if they don't want to comment, let you start to address the issue it raises in your firm. If that doesn't work, put a copy of this recent Gazette news article on their desk.
Having digested the report, may I suggest you think from the clients' point of view about the future of you firm. Who are your clients now and what do they want from you in the future? What profit do you make from those clients via your services? How will competition affect or change the client groups your firm currently serves? These are the first marketing management questions you will need to address.
The legal services market in England and Wales is changing in a unique way. There are no real comparisons anywhere else that could help us predict the future size, shape or profitability of legal services.
Your firm's future will be based on demonstrating to potential clients the value of your services over those offered by competitors. Whatever shape your firm takes - partnership, LLP, ABS or anything else – your focus needs to be on which clients will provide profit for in the future and you are going to have to be openminded and creative in your approach.
Comments
Co-op Law - It's all about implementation
I read the bit about the Co-op and their legal services offer.
They are already trying to promote this.
Just look at the credit card readers when you are
in the Co-op.
Nice touch. After all they could put adverts on the back of the
receipts too.
But what they totally fail at, (currently, maybe they will read this
and hire me to put it right...) is that when you ask
"So I'm interested in a Co-op Will"
You get the same reaction that you'd get trying to put something
through the till without a barcode. Absolute chaos.
No staff member has a clue what you are talking about.
So the moral of the story is.
It's all very well talking about it. And we all know that anyone can
have the technical ability to do a Will service.
But it's all about SERVICE QUALITY and that means the basics
have to be spot on.
So get your service quality right from start to finish and you will
mop up all that business that is already out there.
Happy to help.
Customers will rule...
Customers will rule...but it is probably more accurate to say "the market will decide." No marketing budget or law firm of any size can stop that.
Are the drivers Tesco Law and LSA? I don't think they are, it is far more basic than that...it's economics. If you can deliver the same service and provide it at a lower delivery cost for the same price that increases your margin. Invade your competitors market with your solution message and you have a significant market advantage.
Clients don't give a stuff if you have 90 partners and a 200 year history. They pay you to do a good job at a reasonable price and support them where necessary.
If you are looking over the parapet worrying about brands wiping you out then you are looking in the wrong place. Your threat, as has been reported many times, is your own profession, the firms that deliver more, for less in a way that is convenient and lucid into your market space. The really smart firms are doing that now.
Don't say you weren't warned!!