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Staff Training

Do you have a problem training your staff to project the professional image that you work so hard to achieve? Many attorneys find that staff members are not as polished as they appeared on their resume or during their interview. Further, it is difficult to find time to train staff and to break bad habits among all the other things small firm attorneys have to manage. If this sounds like your firm, new materials are available from the NCBA's Solo & Small Firm Resource Center to help you solve these problems. Used alone or in conjunction with one another, they will help you correct problems that may be adversely affecting your client relations and word of mouth referrals.

ClientKeeper

ClientKeeper is comprised of about forty pages of sample policies, procedures, letters and forms. Topics covered include mail and telephone protocol, engagement and disengagement letters, fee agreements, monthly status letters and bills, deposition instructions and conflicts of interest questionnaires. This package is available free of charge to NCBA members, and includes a diskette of the documents in the member's choice of word-processing programs.

Phone and Mail Protocol and Client Follow-up

Three elements of ClientKeeper that are important to point out are the mail and telephone procedures and the post-representation survey. The mail and phone procedures are an excellent tool to use in the initial training of your staff. The procedures, which include suggestions such as, "Staff should never reveal to a caller anything about the identity of a client or the nature of a case," are very clearly written and suggest ways in which attorneys may adapt them to their own firm style. Staff should never say things such as "Attorney X is in the bathroom, can he call you back when he is through?" That is most likely more information than the caller wanted to know, and reflects poorly on the attorney and the firm. Train your staff in using specific wording in those situations, such as, "Attorney Y is in a meeting right now, but I expect her to be finished shortly. May I have her return your call?" This conveys a much more professional image for both the attorney and the firm.

Mail procedures are important for both client relations and malpractice avoidance. Mail needs to be date stamped, sorted for staff members and then further sorted into correspondence from courts, clients, and other attorneys. All of this must be done in a manner that protects client confidentiality. Mail logs and designating staff (and backups) with specific responsibilities can help maintain order and ensure that important correspondence receives immediate attention.

Finally, the post-representation survey can help you determine how the performance of you and your staff was perceived by your client. If you rely on word-of-mouth referrals and repeat business from your clients, it is especially important to determine their opinion of your service. A simple one page survey can be enclosed with the last invoice or file closing letter. The survey included in the ClientKeeper package asks the client how they found out about your firm, their satisfaction with the service their attorney provided, and the attentiveness and professionalism of the staff. If clients have problems, they are more likely to write it down and submit it anonymously rather than tell you personally. Importantly, if there is a problem, you would probably prefer to be among the first to know about it instead of hearing it through the neighborhood grapevine. Clients may also perceive your willingness to ask them about their thoughts as an indication of your dedication to improving those services. This may make them more inclined to return and to refer others to you, even if there was a minor problem (provided you take steps to correct the problem).

Staff Training Videos

The Solo & Small Firm Resource Center has several videotapes available to assist in staff training in professional client relations. A simple staff training program that could be quickly implemented might include using ClientKeeper to develop formal guidelines for client relations, and then using the videos tapes to provide concrete examples of good and bad client relations.

The videos receive rave reviews from attorneys whenever they are shown. These high quality programs were produced by the State Bar of Wisconsin to assist firms in training staff in mail, telephone, voicemail, email, and face-to-face communications. These tapes are excellent for training newly hired personnel as well as reminding experienced staff about the important role they play in the success of your firm.

Eleven different tapes are available:

The Resource Center also has tapes available to educate clients about their legal problem, and to help attorneys better manage their staff. Contact membership services at the NCBA, 1-800-662-7407, or whitney@ncbar.org, for more information about these programs.