Nick Kehoe's blogs

Imagine if your law firm was put to the test by a secret shopper – someone like TV celebrity guru Mary Portas, otherwise known as Mary Queen of Shops.

How would it fare?

After a high powered career in retailing, Portas forged a media career by visiting shops unannounced and then returning to offer advice on how things could be improved – all in the full glare of the cameras.

I’m not a massive fan of reality TV but I’ve always liked shows involving Portas.

Her comments could be quite blunt and sometimes hard for the struggling shopkeeper to take they usually ended up agreeing that she was right.

Now Portas has been drafted in by the government to help save Britain’s high streets.

She is to carry out a review and identify what local authorities and businesses can do to develop more prosperous and diverse city centres. She wants people to put forward ideas.

Well, helping High Street law firms to thrive would be a popular suggestion for Gazette readers I suppose but I don’t think Portas will be getting that specific.

So, as Portas is unlikely to arrive on your doorstep as a secret shopper, I’m prepared to step into the breach … or at least share my impressions of what happened when I went with my wife to update our wills recently at a medium to large High Street law firm.

First let me deal with the service. It was excellent.

The solicitor who dealt with us was friendly, clearly knew his subject inside out and was able to explain all the issues both easily and expertly.

In the end, with his help and advice, we actually ended up making a very simple will – the kind we could have made for a fraction of the price with cheaper providers, but we didn’t mind about that. It was comforting to know that we had explored all the avenues even if we didn’t necessarily follow them.

So I was impressed by the service but, in my self-appointed role as mystery shopper, I didn’t think much of the firm’s approach to marketing.

Even the most basic elements were missing.

We were given no information about the firm’s other services and so given no incentive to do more business.

We weren’t given any leaflets, newsletters or brochures.

Nor did we get a follow-up letter a few weeks later, thanking us for our custom and asking to browse through a brochure telling us more about the firm and its range of services.

Portas would be appalled. The firm in question spends a lot of money advertising to strangers in the local press but can’t promote itself for free to clients who walk through its doors and are sitting targets for cross-selling.

It wasn’t all bad though. We did eventually receive a letter containing a survey asking us to rate the service we received. I was impressed by that.

Did I fill out the survey and return it? Nah, couldn’t be bothered.

Does that mean the survey was a waste of the firm’s time and money? Absolutely not.

Getting clients to fill in a survey is helpful, of course, and can provide useful information, but that shouldn’t be its main purpose.

Its main function is simply to provide an excuse for you to communicate with clients; to remind them that you exist, to show them that you care and value their custom, to make them more inclined to return to you.

Anything else is a bonus.

So full marks for the survey but there’s been nothing since and that’s disappointing from a marketing point of view.

They ought to keep in touch and so develop our relationship by providing me with more information whenever possible.

This would not be hard to do. For example, a few months after we made our wills, the chancellor announced in the Budget that he would reduce inheritance tax by 10% when 10% of a person’s estate is left to charity.

Now that could be important news to me.

It might make me want to update my will again meaning more business for the firm.

But even if I keep it as it is, I would still welcome the information and feel well disposed towards a firm that would provide it for me. It would make me more inclined to use them again.

My solicitor should have told me about the change and missed a trick by not doing so.

Did your firm alert clients to the change? Does it alert firms to any legal developments?

So then, a mixed report from my mystery shopper outing.

My law firm may think I’m a little harsh with my comments about its marketing but it could have been a lot worse.

Imagine what the more formidable Mary Portas would say.

Or better still, imagine what she or any potential client would say about the marketing efforts at your firm.

Nick Kehoe is a former television and newspaper journalist. He is now managing director at law marketing firm Media Coverage.

The spectre of increased competition in the legal market has prompted wildly different responses from law firms.

Some are rolling up their sleeves and preparing for the fight; others seem to have given in already or have senior partners whose main strategy is to hope they reach retirement before it all kicks in.

Not much chance of that I’m afraid. But on a positive note, I’ve always thought that it won’t be as bad as some people fear.

That’s why I was very interested to read Rachel Rothwell’s article in the Gazette, 'Consumers unattracted by non-legal brands, survey suggests'.

It provided an exclusive preview of a Contact Law survey in which 66% of consumers said they would not be happy to buy legal services through non-legal brands, and 84% said service was more important than price when dealing with legal services.

The article prompted some understandable comments from readers as to the reliability of the survey, but even so, I think it has the ring of truth about it. I’m not a lawyer and I think the AA or supermarkets are perfectly fine, but when it comes to legal services I want to go to a law firm.

Why? Well, I think it’s because I like the comfort of dealing with specialists when it comes to such an important service. I don’t mind the supermarket assistant not having a clue about how to work the electrical goods they sell, and I don’t mind that the checkout staff look bored when serving me, but I don’t think I want those characteristics in a lawyer.

Law firms are run by partners or directors with a stake in the business. That engenders a commitment that would be hard for a jobbing supermarket solicitor to emulate.

I think most people feel the same, as illustrated perhaps in the Contact Law survey.

That doesn’t mean law firms are off the hook, of course. Let’s not be naive. The new players are going to take a significant slice of the market, but the point is that it is still all to play for and, as the survey suggests, consumers still find some comfort in the idea of the traditional high street law firms.

The job for those firms, of course, is to nurture that feeling. Instead of worrying about the new brands, firms should think of how then can reinforce their own brand.

The challenge is to get your retaliation in first; win the hearts and minds of your clients now so they’ll come back for more. Make it difficult for someone else to win them over.

You may wish to refresh your brand, in which case, the standard advice is that you should focus on what is the unique selling point of your firm. This has become a cliché and, while it is true, I think it is often overplayed and sometimes law firms can take it too literally.

It can be hard to find something that makes you genuinely different to the thousands of other firms out there – and there’s a danger that when firms can’t find a unique selling point, they simply stop trying and don’t bother at all.

The answer is not to take this too seriously. As long as the brand is positive, the most important thing is to get it across to the public.

The best place to begin is with your existing clients. Use the fact that you’ve refreshed your brand as an excuse to write to them and remind them of your presence. As you help clients with one problem, take the opportunity to speak to them and let them know about your other services. Provide good brochures and leaflets to reinforce the message.

And remember, the marketing effort doesn’t stop once the client has left the office. Find reasons to keep in touch. Send them questionnaires asking what they thought of your service. Let them know of forthcoming seminars, assuming you are staging any. If you are not, then surely you are missing a marketing opportunity.

Even if most people don’t come to the seminar, which they won’t, the very fact that you have told them about it reminds them you are there and emphasises that you are an important player offering valuable services.

Produce a good quality newsletter every quarter. This should carry stories about the latest legal developments that affect people’s lives. Keeping in touch with clients lets them know you still value them and increases the opportunity of cross-selling.
You can also open up another front with the media. Let your local press and business magazines know about developments within your firm. Advertise your seminars.

What it boils down to is reinforcing your relationship with existing clients while reaching out to new ones. It means putting your name in front of people at every opportunity.

People are reassured by a familiar name, so make sure they see your name as often as possible.

Nick Kehoe is a former television and newspaper journalist. He is now managing director at law marketing firm Media Coverage

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The Law Society has asked members to inform it of any problems their clients may have experienced with unregulated will-writers.
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The call for evidence is in response to the investigation of will-writing by the Legal Services Board (LSB). There’s a strong feeling among official bodies and consumer organisations that this is a serious issue but examples of malpractice seem to be few and far between.

That’s why the Society is looking for cases involving what it described in a recent press release as ‘nightmare will-writers’. It has been campaigning for stricter regulation and wants as much evidence as possible to put before the LSB.

In theory, there should be plenty of cases to highlight. The Law Society carried out a survey in 2006 of its members who specialised in wills and probate.

There were 443 replies from across the country. More than 60% of respondents said will-writers had become more active in their area and more than 70% said that some of their clients had reported problems after using the services of unregulated will-writers.

All that is needed now are some suitable case studies. The need is quite urgent if the Law Society campaign is to succeed because the LSB so far seems far from convinced.

When it announced in the summer that it was going to look at the issue there were reports in the media suggesting that will-writing malpractice was widespread. The LSB moved quickly to distance itself from such reports, pointing out that only 7% of people use a will-writer who is not a solicitor.

The chair of the Legal Services Consumer panel, Dianne Hayter, was quoted in the media as saying regulation ‘could result in less choice and higher prices for consumers, so the panel will only recommend this step if there is convincing evidence that will-writing businesses are failing consumers.

‘Finding evidence of badly written wills and underhand sales practices will be crucial to establishing this.’

So there you have it: provide the proof, or unregulated will-writers can carry on unchallenged and encroach even further into your territory – as if you weren’t already facing enough challenges from every direction.

Hopefully, the case studies will emerge. If so, they will not only be useful as evidence, they will also be immensely helpful for publicity and marketing.

Whether you’re writing press releases, blog articles or marketing material for your website, being able to quote from real life examples will bring your work to life and help you reach the reader on an emotional as well as an intellectual level.

It’s important, of course, to quote facts, figures and statistics when bringing the issue to the public’s attention – but it’s the human touch that really drives the message home. For example, show us the example of the family who were forced into a dispute over their inheritance because a parent’s will was drawn up incorrectly by an incompetent will-writer and so declared invalid. This will really get people’s attention

Or what about the person who was attracted by the promise of a low cost will only to find that the price suddenly escalated out of all proportion because of hidden charges?

There’s also concern over ‘vanishing wills’ which cannot be traced because the will-writer is no longer in business and never made the proper arrangements in the first place.

How about unscrupulous cross-selling, with some vulnerable person setting out thinking they were making a will and then finding themselves being pressurised about other services such as lasting powers attorney, trusts and so on?

Ideally, it would be helpful if you were able to identify the victims involved but in reality, most people would rather not be named. That’s perfectly understandable and it won’t detract too much from the impact of their story if their identity is not revealed.

The personal touch will still come across to readers and make the message far more powerful.

Nick Kehoe is a former television and newspaper journalist. He is now managing director at law marketing firm Media Coverage

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Marketing legal services can be difficult and expensive, so wouldn’t it be nice if there was an easy way to get some priceless publicity for free?
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How about a way in which you could get several column inches in your local newspaper just for doing your job? And just as an added bonus, as part of this article about you doing your job, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to say how you excel at the legal services you provide?

But no newspaper is going to let you get away with that are they? Err, well actually… yes they are and, what’s more, it’s happening all the time.

If you follow the business pages of most local and regional newspapers you will find numerous articles in which law firms literally get publicity just for doing their everyday work.

They don’t dress it up as that, of course. The articles are all presented along the lines of ‘Law firm Smith & Jones advise WidgetsRUs on takeover deal…’ or ‘Law firm Smith & Jones helps clinch property deal for major client…’, and ‘Law firm Smith & Jones helps with merger …’.

I could go on but you get the idea. These articles have long been an important part of newspaper business pages. They’re strange in a way because they’re not really news in the strictest sense.

After all, the reason these law firms are helping with mergers or whatever is because that’s what they do. It’s their job and they do it every day. Generally speaking, people going about their everyday business isn’t really news, but it’s treated as such in this case.

You could have a debate about whether these articles are more like adverts than news, and in the days when journalists weren’t quite as rushed off their feet as they are now, they did have such debates. Nowadays, reporters rarely have time to worry about such things. They’re just thankful to have it to fill their news-hungry pages.

In any case, such issues need not concern anyone wanting to market their law firm. All that matters is that the opportunity is there, so why not make the most of it?

The format of these articles is quite straightforward and easy for any firm to use. If you have been involved in a significant business deal involving local companies (or national ones for that matter), then it might be worth sending a press release about it to your local papers and business magazines.

You will need approval from your clients, of course, but given that they will get some valuable publicity out of it as well, they will probably be happy for you to go ahead. In fact, you could put it to them as an added value you offer.

Assuming your client is happy then your press release simply needs to cover the basics. The intro would be along the lines of examples given above. Perhaps something like, ‘Law firm Smith & Jones has advised WidgetsRUs on the takeover of three of its specialist suppliers…’, or whatever the circumstances may be.

This is typically followed up by three or four paragraphs saying how the law firm steered the client through the complex negotiations before reaching an agreement that is good for all concerned.

If you’re lucky, you may be able to include a quote from the client saying what a good job you did. You will probably be able to reciprocate by saying how you were delighted to be able to act for such a major company as WidgetsRUs etc.

It’s also possible that you will be able to say something about how your firm excels at providing the kind of service involved in the story, whether it be advising on mergers, takeovers, funding or whatever. You will certainly be given more leeway to promote yourself in this kind of article about a business deal than you would in a think piece about a new piece of legislation.

For example, you couldn’t write a piece explaining the ramifications of the Equality Act and then slip in a sentence about how good your firm is at dealing with the issues involved. However, you are likely to be able to do so in an article about how you carried out some work for another local company.

If anyone thinks this is too good to be true then I would urge them to take a close look at the business pages in their local newspapers and magazines. They will find several examples of this approach. A quick look at the Birmingham Post over the last few weeks will show you what I mean.

You may well find you are knocking on an open door when you produce these articles. Many business editors like them because they regard them as reflecting local business life and therefore of interest to local businesses.

You’ll find few better ways of getting free publicity.

Nick Kehoe is a former television and newspaper journalist. He is now managing director at law marketing firm Media Coverage

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