Dan Hull’s Great “Ease-of-Use” concept

Dan Hull, of San Diego and author of What About Clients(TM), has some remarkable insights. Here’s one of his latest: What About “Ease-of-Use Awards” For Law Firms?

What if the services sector competed for clients on the basis of “ease-of-use”?
Develop and apply ease-of-use concepts to pure services? Our clients’ services? Our services? Sure, and why not?

Consider for a moment just products. Cincinnati-based The Folgers Coffee Company, a P&G company with extensive operations in New Orleans, has been awarded an Ease-of-Use Commmendation by the Arthritis Foundation for its AromaSeal™ Canister. If you’re a Folgers drinker, you notice that Folgers added an easy-to-peel tin freshness seal (no need for a can-opener), a new “snap-tight” lid and even a grip on its plastic red can.

Great companies many of us represent do spend money and expertise on making their goods, equipment and products usable. Think about your car, your luggage, your TV remote (well, strike that one), your watch and even grips on household tools. Think about Apple, Dell and Microsoft. Each year they think through your experience with their products and try to make it better. Continuous improvement models for “things”. Folgers did it for coffee cans. IBM and CISCO have Ease-of-Use programs for the products they sell.

Develop and apply ease-of-use concepts to pure services? Our clients’ services? Our services? Sure, why not? It’s probably coming anyway, even while it will be infinitely harder to do for services than for products. WAC? has noted before that even corporate clients that sell goods see themselves as selling solutions and not products. In 2004, services sold alone or as support features to the sale of good and products accounted for over 65% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the US, 50% of the United Kingdom’s GDP and 90% of Hong Kong’s. Even products sold by IBM and CISCO, now chiefly service companies, are part of a services-products mix in which the services component is the main event.

Law firms, of course, have always sold services. And we are a small but powerful engine in the growth of the services sector. We strategize with and guide big clients every day. While that’s all going on–day in and day out–what is it like for the client to work with you and yours? Are clients experiencing a team–or hearing and seeing isolated acts by talented but soul-less techies? Do you make reports and communications short, easy and to the point? Who gets copied openly so clients don’t have to guess about who knows what? Is it fun (yeah, we just said “fun”) to work with your firm? How are your logistics for client meetings, travel and lodging? Do you make life easier? Or harder? Are you accessible 24/7? In short, aside from the technical aspects of your service (i.e., the client “is safe”), do your clients “feel safe”?

What if law firms–or any other service provider for that matter–”thought through”, applied and constantly improved the delivery of our services and how clients really experience them?

And then competed on it…?

Does your lawyer read enough blogs?

Allison C. Shields writes about a lawyer who might have been better off just reading one more:   When I tell people I have a blog, I get a lot of blank stares or confused looks. Sometimes a brave soul will admit that they don’t know what I’m talking about and will ask me, “What’s a blog?” or say, “I don’t understand blogs.”

A recent New Hampshire case demonstrates the dangers of not being up on the most recent technology and social networking tools and how the general public is using them. After a verdict convicting his client of rape, counsel for the defendant discovered that the jury foreman was a blogger who had written on his blog about having to serve on a jury and listen to the “local riffraff” try to “convince me of their innocence.”

What does this juror’s comments say about the juror’s attitude toward the presumption of innocence and the burden of proof in a criminal case? As defense counsel, would you have prevented this juror from sitting on the jury if you could? Even if the court denied a cause challenge, would you have used a peremptory challenge?

Although defense counsel was able to bring the issue to the court’s attention after the verdict, the trial court declined to throw out the verdict after interviewing the jurors and took the blogger at his word that he could set aside any past bias, follow instructions and give the defendant a fair trial.

The defendant’s appeal was unsuccessful. The appellate court did not find any juror misconduct or evidence of actual prejudice to the defendant, since the blog entries were not shared with the other jurors.

Since jurors have agendas and biases, it’s wise to consider how they might use those agendas and biases to influence others, both inside and outside of the courtroom. Some courthouses are even providing jurors with internet access during breaks, and that, coupled with the prevalance of handheld devices with internet access, makes blogging about trials or jury service in real time easy to accomplish.

Whether you agree with the court’s decision in this instance or not, it seems pretty clear that lawyers have to be cautious during voir dire to ask questions that reflect current technologies and the popularity of blogs and the internet. The availability of free or inexpensive instantaneous access to millions of people over the internet using blogs, My Space and other technologies are things that must be taken into account when preparing for trial.

It is possible that this juror’s biases could have been discovered had the juror been questioned and honestly answered questions about his views on the criminal justice system, and whether he had any pre-formed opinions or had commented about the presumption of innocence, etc. But asking questions specifically about blogging and other internet activities might have revealed some of those biases, or at least the potential danger.

For more on the New Hampshire case, see the ABA Journal e-report article, Blogger’s Posts Don’t Equal Juror Misconduct by Molly McDonough.

To read more on ‘rogue jurors,’ see the ABA Journal article, Rogue Jurors, also by Molly McDonough.

How to Use a Webinar

If you’ve not been exposed already, familiarize yourself with the webinar. Jonathan G. Stein explains in his article: A what? A webinar. A webinar is a seminar that you put on through the internet. Most businesses that use webinars use them to market their product or put on a sales presentation. Its a great use of technology to sell your product. But, there are other uses to webinars as well.

Here are 7 things you can do with a webinar besides selling:

1. Positioning your company
2. Focus group
3. Infomercials
4. Database building
5. Training
6. Test seminars
7. Partner/strategic alliance recruitment

Make Taxes Less Taxing — Vow to Get Organized Now

Here’s timely advice from Denise O’Berry at AllBusiness: Tax day is just around the corner. Did you find yourself spending countless hours searching for those all important documents again this year? Filing taxes is a fact of life. Why waste time once a year when taking a few small steps throughout the year can save you tons of time? Make this year the year you take action to do it differently.

To help get you organized, visit www.officedepot.com/getorganized for advice from organizing expert Stephanie Winston, The New York Times bestselling author of Getting Organized.
“Taxes can be less of a hassle if you file receipts and records consistently throughout the year,” Winston said. “It’s never too early to get organized.”

According to Winston, following these steps will help save valuable time and minimize frustration when preparing to file taxes.
Create An Expanding File: At the beginning of each year, make sure to create an accordion file with tabs to store receipts. Label the sections for W2 and Wage Statements, Investments, Mortgage, and so on. Make sure to continue to update these files throughout the year so you don’t find yourself frantically searching for documents when it comes time to file.

Schedule Time For Taxes: Don’t wait until March when the collective panic starts to set in. Make an appointment with yourself or with an accountant by mid-February to get your tax materials organized so you can file on time without an extension.
Keep It Together: It’s important to have a single location that holds all tax information. File any new paperwork in a single place as soon as you receive it to ensure you can locate it when it’s time to file. If you don’t already have a system in place, create one.

Record Storage: Even as you begin to file your taxes for this year, you will also need to start collecting and organizing next year’s materials. To avoid confusion, Winston suggests labeling two sets of accordion folders — utilizing one expanding file folder for the new materials, while keeping records from the preceding year in a separate file.
Additional tips and solutions to get organized and prepared for the tax season can be found in the Office Depot Five-Day Office Makeover, which is available for free download at www.officedepot.com/getorganized