Your Call is (Not) Very Important to Us

Let's talk about customer relations.  You have a client who is unhappy with your service and unhappy with your bill.  Do you: a) Come out to talk to the client with an amended bill, which not only does not reduce the amount owed, does not itemize the costs, but also adds in the parking ticket you received while meeting with them; or b) Talk to the client about the bill, hear their concerns, and try to address those concerns?  Most people here in the Trenches would choose "b"; the electrician who is working on our new home chose "a".  But wait, we're not done yet.  Did I mention that the reason we were so unhappy is that they mis-wired the building, and left at least a dozen loose, LIVE wire ends buried in the insulation (maybe they have the fire department on speed dial)?  Well, they slept on it and offered to make it right, choice "b" - this morning.  This afternoon, they called back and reneged.  How stupid is that?  Obviously, customer relations is not their strong suit, and they will regret it.  

 While I was in my fury about the electricians, who shall remain nameless for now as I hope they will sleep on it yet again, I was wearing my other hat as co-chair of the Standing Committee for the Resolution of Fee Disputes for my local bar association.  The people who file complaints with my committee are mighty unhappy clients.  Most of them are unhappy with the attorney's service and unhappy with their bill. When we receive one of these complaints, we jump on them.  We don't want to make a bad situation worse by making them wait while we take our sweet time in investigating the claim.  Unfortunately, some past chairs of this committee didn't share that view; some investigating members of the committee didn't share it either.  I had to deal with one of their unhappy complainants, and unfortunately not only did I have to apologize (profusely) to the poor woman for how much time it took for us to address her concerns, but I also had to tell her that her complaint was not the type of dispute over which we had jurisdiction.   You can bet I will never assign that investigator to a case again, but meanwhile, we have a client who thinks our committee is simply window dressing while we protect our own.  My apology won't overcome that, just like the electrician's offering to make it right won't make me think them competent.  The electrician's offer, although it did not make me happy, at least returned me to neutral; reneging not only undid that, but made it worse, and there is nothing worse than an angry attorney.  I hope my apology to the client and my determination never to allow that investigator near another case or to let anyone wait that long again, while not making the client happy, will at least bring her back to a neutral impression about our committee.  In this case, it's as much for which we can hope.  Client relations - it's all around us and a part of all we do - here in the Trenches.