CLIENT MANAGEMENT

The idea is that it is okay for you to go all out to get the girl and once you get her it is now 'difficult' to go all out to keep her. Like taking her to Paris, to Royal Albert Hall, to some Bahamian Island all are regarded as part of the fare when the chase is on but once the marriage is in place these things taper off.
Me thought the idea was to use all that as a prelude and then the marriage would be significantly better if not in quantity then at least in quality.

As it concerns law firm business, this opening analogy refers to the focus on getting the client but once the client is gotten there is no elaborate, special even insane plan to manage the relationship to move it from point A to point B. So the client feels uncared for, which is even worse after being sped into the firm's book of business.

Reminds me of a conversation I overheard the other day on the bus when traders were talking about the finance people who want their business.

'Wo n so wipe 'Open an account with us and you will never regret it' nnkan ton ma n so ni yen but ti a ba ti si account yen won ni je ka wo inu office won'

This is loosely translated as: when they come to us they tell us that 'just open the account with us and you will never regret it'. When we open it, to get to see them in their office is almost impossible.
So it's a business problem, not just a law firm one and all sorts of marketing research and data have shown that it is more expensive to get one new client (seven times more) than it is to get more business from the clients that you have.

And yet. Is it that we do not know or we do not believe or that client service is seen as a luxury only our top 15% deserve? Little wonder them clients and customers respond in kind by fleeing and looking at your protestations of 'we care' as the claptrap that it is and they send less and less business your way.

There is a way out. Look at the sales process as a two step process: the first is getting the client and the next is making the relationship profitable for both you and the client or look at it as searching for oil on the offshore, onshore fields and then refining the oil into many many products.
You cannot search for oil and not process it at the refinery.
Either way getting the client is the first step, a heady thrilling first step but only a first step and if this 'client refining business' was easy all other law firms would be at it. It is not.
You need an enlightened business conscience, an open mind, a belief in investing in the necessary processes at your law firm to help you manage the client relationship.
But really you just have to have some respect. Not only for your firm and for the client but for the process itself.

Nobody ever did well at something he had no regard for. Nobody.