How well does your firm know its clients?  More pointedly:   How richly, truly, deeply does your firm understand your clients' attitudes towards your firm at large, the services you provide, and the individuals who provide it?

Even if your firm is in the vanguard (and saying that this practice puts your firm in the vanguard could itself be the subject of an essay on the dismaying backwardness of our beloved profession), and undertakes more or less formal client surveys, there can be a grave disconnect between what clients tell you and their true attitudes. 

If you don't believe me, believe Bain & Co., which reports that over 80% of clients who fired a professional service firm gave the firm positive reviews the last time they were asked.  (Alternatively, just hark back to the last time a boyfriend or girlfriend walked out on you, and you hadn't seen it coming.)

What's to be done? 

Permit me to introduce you to "Relationship Audits & Management" (RAM), a UK/US firm with an effective methodology to get "under the skin" of a relationship in ways that a questionnaire—even one conducted by an objective third-party—never will.  (The problems with questionnaires are two-fold:  You only get answers to what you ask, and you can't be confident the most telling issues are addressed.)

My own introduction to RAM came through Eversheds, which, along with Addleshaw-Goddard, has engaged them for the past 3-1/2 years to help get to the bottom of key client relationships.  (Eversheds has used the RAM methodology with clients accounting for 40—50% of its revenue.)  In an interview with Geoff Harrison, previously a partner specializing in UK and EU competition law, and now the "Client Relationship Manager" at Eversheds, I learned why Eversheds engaged RAM to begin with, what they'd learned, and what advice Geoff might offer other firms contemplating a similar program.

To begin with, Eversheds was attracted to RAM because its methodology goes beyond mere client "satisfaction" to unearth the real level of emotional commitment on the client's part.  Consider this map:

This delineates four zones into which clients can fall, depending on what their opinion is of your firm and what their intentions are:

• Rejection (low opinion, intending to act on it), a/k/a "Renegades"
• Apathy (low opinion, indifferent)
• Satisfied (high opinion, indifferent)
• Committed (high opinion, want to share that with others), a/k/a "Apostles"

RAM can not only tell you how your clients are arrayed across this mental map, but why.  For example, at Eversheds, one "aha!" moment came when they discovered that while the general counsel at Client X had a perfectly favorable opinion of the firm, his heir apparent had an "oil and water" relationship with some Eversheds lawyers and couldn't wait to steer the work elsewhere.

Innovative?  To be sure.  Too revolutionary or threatening?  That, frankly, depends on your firm.

I would not recommend RAM or its methodology to a firm not prepared, at all levels of the partnership and among associates, to embrace the news it might very well deliver.  Eversheds was fortunate in having a culture that conceives of its business as one of client service and actively sought to become closer to clients as service providers and not just as impeccably qualified and trained counselors and technicians. 

Moreover, Eversheds partners reacted to the inevitable, occasional, low grades by "trying to put negatives right rather than becoming defensive," as Geoff reports.   Prior to learning what RAM is capable of teaching you, be deadly certain your partners would by and large react the same way.

How did Eversheds surmount initial skepticism and resistance?  First of all, the firm's "buy-in" came from the top.   Nor did it hurt that excellence in client service is decidedly a factor in remuneration:  At compensation-time, The Executive Committee is presented both with the "forensic" results of a client relationship audit (the data) and with an informed narrative evaluation of what the results really mean in context.   How big a factor is this?  Geoff says only, "there's more to do on this score."

Nevertheless, the process got off the ground by recognizing that RAM's methodology could not just enable Eversheds to "play defense" and perhaps retain some business it might unwittingly be at risk of losing, but that it could affirmatively help generate new and additional business:

• From solidly established, core clients with whom "it would be remiss" not to pay the attention a RAM audit involves.
• From another group of clients who, while they seemed to be "a good fit," were perhaps not favoring Eversheds with as large a "share of spend" as they might.
• And from a third group of clients viewed as being of strategic importance to Eversheds, regardless of fee income—clients with whom Eversheds sought to cultivate a deeper relationship.

And how has it gone?  Hasn't the involvement of Eversheds partners in the process come at the price of forfeiting otherwise-billable time?  Isn't there an "opportunity cost" to all this?

Yes, but Geoff reports that it's more than offset by the benefits of deeper and stronger client bonds.  For example, another early "aha" moment came at the outset of discussions with a particular client, when the Eversheds partner was explaining why Eversheds cared enough to want to formally assess the client relationship, and the first thing the client said was, “until you came here today, I didn’t know I was that important.”  Eversheds had simply not made it obvious to the client that they were deeply valued.

Another "happy surprise" you might find is that if the client is of the view that your team is doing a splendid job, and offers nothing but high praise, don't change things. 

For more about Eversheds' experience, you can watch a brief video of Geoff Harrison talking about their experience (click on his image—5.5 MB file, so don't try this from any bandwidth-challenged device):

One other thought of mine: In our era of M&A and lateral practice group moves, imagine if you could employ the RAM methodology as part of your advance due diligence to help assess whether those boatloads of clients promised to be coming over with your shiny new hires were, in fact, joined at the hip to your optimistic potential hires. Just a thought.

If you're intrigued by what RAM might be able to do for you, let me know, or get in touch directly with Carey Evans of  RAM.