Delight Your Clients with G.L.U.E.

At the recent Client Experience in Professional Services conference in Durham, North Carolina, Stan Phelps shared his insights about winning the hearts of customers and influencing positive word of mouth. Phelps is the author of What’s Your Purple Goldfish?, and his crowd-sourced stories resonated with the audience of engineering, design, architectural, construction, legal and financial service professionals.

According to research firm Gartner, Phelps says, 89% of business will compete mostly on customer experience. He adds, “There is a need to create powerful, unique experiences to drive differentiation, loyalty and referrals.” He also emphasizes the need for focus, saying, “You can’t do everything and be excellent. You have to pick what is most important.” One of the lessons that really resonated was the high cost of customer/client acquisition and the need to devote the most resources and energy to retention.

Law firms, like other businesses, need to utilize added value to increase loyalty and create meaningful differentiators. Phelps proposes marketing to your existing customers via G.L.U.E., or Giving Little Unexpected Extras.

The law firm clients we interview identify those value adds as critical differentiators for the law firms that consistently surprise and delight. Some of the most frequently identified and appreciated value adds named include:

• Highly customized education and legal alerts
• Simple and concise status reporting
• Networking and introductions
• Off-the-clock meetings
• Personal favors

Whether it’s a holiday gift or making your client love working with you, the key is getting to know your clients and understanding what added value, or little unexpected extra, you can provide to build loyalty and stand out.