Customer Relationship Management

Group Project

Consultants:

Claudia Andert Wiebke Genze Ann Kristin Buerke Borja Balparda Bolinaga

361852 358237 357496 370691

Coach: Words:

Shu- Fen Lee 6116

Contact person Andreas Genze a.genze@ra-drkoch.de

Table of contents
1 2 3 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 4 Methodology ................................................................................................................ 5 The Company .............................................................................................................. 6 3.1 4 Clients .................................................................................................................... 7

Market Situation concerning CRM ............................................................................. 8 4.1 4.2 CRM in our sector................................................................................................... 8 Competitors ............................................................................................................ 9

Current situation ....................................................................................................... 11 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Strategic client relationship ................................................................................... 11 Operational CRM .................................................................................................. 12 Analytical CRM ..................................................................................................... 13 Collaborative CRM ............................................................................................... 14 Current use of CRM.............................................................................................. 15

6 7

SWOT Analysis ......................................................................................................... 16 Value for customers.................................................................................................. 18 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Customer satisfaction ........................................................................................... 18 Customer experience ........................................................................................... 19 Dealing with complaints ........................................................................................ 20 How they build relationships? ............................................................................... 21

Recommendation ...................................................................................................... 23 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Analytical CRM ..................................................................................................... 23 Operational CRM .................................................................................................. 24 Strategic CRM ...................................................................................................... 25 Customer satisfaction ........................................................................................... 28 Complaint management ....................................................................................... 28

Future Forecast ......................................................................................................... 30

10 Critical success factors ............................................................................................ 31 10.1 Internal components ............................................................................................. 31 10.2 External components ............................................................................................ 32 11 In a nutshell ........................................................................................................... 33 12 Bibliography .............................................................................................................. 34 13 Affirmation ................................................................................................................. 35 14 Appendix .................................................................................................................... 36 14.1 Interview questionnaire......................................................................................... 36 14.2 The competitor Wandscher & Partner ................................................................. 41 14.3 Presentation ......................................................................................................... 42

Introduction

During our module Customer Relationship Management, further abbreviated with CRM, we were asked to analyze a company concerning their use of CRM systems and tools. Therefore, we created our group which consists of three German girls and a Spanish guy doing his exchange semester at Hanze. Our report should outline the current situation of the chosen company and give detailed recommendation for a strategy and improvements in following three years. After some difficulties which are described further in our methodology, we chose the lawyers office Dr Koch & Kollegen as our partner to do the project. The following is the outcome of seven weeks of intensive work within our group.

Methodology

We started our work by trying to find a partner company, which turned out to be much harder than expected. While looking for a cooperating company, we were confronted with many difficulties. We started by asking companies on the campus, e.g. Refid Fietsshop or the Study Store in the Zernikeplein 11, Hanze. Every one of us asked shops that are near to his or her place of living in addition. After that, we went to the Paddepoel and the city centre to ask the companies there if they were interested in working with us, but the answers were mainly the same. The first problem we were faced with had a linguistic origin. Many of those small local businesses didnt have enough English-speaking personal or even some knowledge of the English language. Another problem, which occurred very often, was that the companies told us that they are very busy these days (especially the study store) and that we only could come next month to work with them. The most frustrating experience was that there were several companies who were interested in doing the project with us, but when we asked for a second contact, they refused. This is why we finally chose the German lawyers office which we know by personal contact. Another problem within our group was to coordinate the meetings. As one of us is an exchange student, our schedules differed dramatically. Therefore it was sometimes hard to find suitable appointments, but we managed to solve that. An additional challenge for us was the fact that we needed to write the report while learning the theory at the same time. So sometimes, we had to add some information we just had not had before. In spite of all those obstacles, we managed to finish the report on time and give a presentation in class, which satisfied each of us.

The Company

The company we are doing our project with is located in Oldenburg, the smallest large town of Germany. It is a lawyers office called Dr. Koch & Kollegen with its chamber very close to the train station and city center. This makes it easy for clients to come there, as it is possible to go there by bus or even by train. It is open from Monday to Friday between eight in the morning and five in the afternoon. There are in total 25 people working in this company. Eight of them are lawyers and solicitors; seventeen are doing Chamber management or draw up letters to clients. The lawyers are mainly men, but it is also one woman lawyer working there. The business is managed by four owners, who are all lawyers. They meet weekly to discuss urgent matters or important news that have aroused. Different fields of law consultancy are offered. The main parts are Traffic Law, Bank Law, Medicine Law and Insurance Law, due to specialization, but also every other cases are worked on. Another main part is the advising service concerning property deals which need to be executed by a solicitor. The chamber has a long history in Oldenburg. It is the oldest one in town, existing for over hundred years, and has been the biggest one concerning the number of employees until a few years ago, when their most important competitor Wandscher & Partner began to grow. This is described more detailed in the paragraph Competitors below. Clients do mostly come from Oldenburg or the North of Germany. The chamber works for private clients, but also for small and medium-sized companies, banks or insurance companies in the region. As a partner, they work together with the ADAC1 and even with the companies mentioned above.

General German Drivers Club (Allgemeiner Deutscher Auto Club)

3.1

Clients

Clients can be mainly differentiated into three groups. Those who are claimant (for example companies, who need to claim their money), those who are defendant (mostly in Traffic Law, if you caused for example an accident) and those who need the service of a notary. It is to be said that all those groups of clients have different expectations concerning the outcome of their process. This is the reason why they all have to be treated differently. The ones who are claiming something may need to see that their lawyer is trustworthy and does really fight for their rights, they want to win their process. The ones who are defendant need somebody who listens carefully and tries to solve their problem in the best way, even if it is only possible to get a milder fine. Finally the ones who need the advice of a solicitor want to have for example a contract that protects them of any risk and gives a fair substructure to their deal. For example to do a property deal it is necessary to have contracts and certificates of ownership. Because this has often to do with a lot of money they want to feel comfortable and well-advised by their solicitor.

Market Situation concerning CRM

4.1 CRM in our sector

In general, law firms place great importance on customer relationship management. With the aid of the implementation of CRM it is easier to stay consistently in touch with the clients. Moreover the success of the lawyers office will be influenced by it. But many lawyers see also two obstacles in CRM. The first obstacle is that implementing a CRM system makes demand on lawyers time because of understanding and structure behind the system. Secondly they refuse CRM because they see themselves as the protector of the clients, so personal matters should keep in confidence. The clients must not have the feeling that everyone in the whole lawyers office knows about the problem or even worse the lawyer interact with other lawyer firms. Nevertheless, lawyers admit that without implementing CRM it is impossible to respond to individually needs of the clients and therefore they cannot give a comprehensive expert advice. So lawyers have to gain the clients confidence. Although lawyers office can benefit from CRM, most offices, such as Dr. Koch & Kollegen, work in a very old-fashioned way. Everything is documented on paper and retained in the office. For this reason the sector is still interested in simplifying the whole process. Documents could be collected and forwarded digitally. This would have to be done by the whole branch and may be introduced in the next few years. Therefore the changing will take a lot of time because of the reorganization of the entire sector that would have to be done.

4.2

Competitors

The lawyers office Dr. Koch & Kollegen is one of the leading chambers in town concerning the number of lawyers and employees. The office is ranked just below the local lawyers office Wandscher & Partner which is the main competitor with 13 lawyers and 26 employees. Both are one of the 151 lawyers offices in Oldenburg. In the following we concern their biggest competitor Wandscher & Partner2. Both are regional chambers so most of their clients are located in Oldenburg and environment. Of also great importance is the personal contact to their clients by identifying the desires and needs which is shown on the web pages of the chambers. In contrast to the biggest chamber in whole Germany Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer3, which has a very impersonal web page, the other pages like Wandscher & Partner seem to be highly trustful for the clients. In spite of many similarities are also differences. These differences could be expressed in the following way: Modern versus traditional! Wandscher & Partner is a very modern lawyers office compared to Dr. Koch & Kollegen. They have designed a professional web page to inform their clients about general information such as the company, the lawyers and the 29 fields of laws. Furthermore they also take marketing measures by sending newsletters, developing a feedback form, giving information about the careers and representing their office in local newspapers. In contrast Dr. Koch & Kollegen have a very new website including only general information and the possibility to contact the lawyers office. Additionally, compared to Wandscher & Partner, Dr. Koch & Kollegen only offer 19 fields of laws restrict whereby the competition offer 29.

2 3

Appendix page 41 http://www.juve.de/pressemitteilungen/pressemitteilung-29-09-09

Other competitors are some tax accounts and banks because they are giving advice. Additionally, in the future they will also compete with more upcoming competitors for the reason that more young people are studying law and citizens with a legal protection insurance form get quite often in contact with a chamber if something happen. In conclusion the chamber Wandscher & Partner is the biggest competitor referring to the usage of marketing, the knowledge , the specialization and the numbers of the lawyers. Recently, Dr. Koch & Kollegen have recognized that without representing themselves properly they cannot change the traditional office to a modern one. For now, they have to focus on implementing their knowledge.

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Current situation

CRM is not simply an IT issue or a marketing tool, it is a mindset within a company or an organization. The character of CRM has four meanings (strategically, operational, analytical, collaborative), which we are taking a closer look at. In the following paragraphs we analyze Dr. Koch and Partner to see how CRM is strategically used.

5.1

Strategic client relationship

Strategic CRM in general has its focus on customer-centric business culture. The objective is winning and maintaining customers (in particular: clients) by creating and delivering a better value towards other law offices. But how is that implemented by Dr. Koch and Partner? As we gathered information from our interview4 with one of the proprietors, we have got the information that they were trying to set the same goals and behavior within the lawyers office for everyone to keep an appropriate business culture to extravert. Making their clients feel comfortable on the one hand and to turn them into an asset by building up their value on the other hand is mainly focused. But since some employees struggle with themselves because of internal processes they are slightly unsatisfied and due to this they cannot go for this goal. This results to their not being one unity with the lawyers office and therefore do not transport the desired culture to their client. Another point is the internal communication itself. They are trying to manage their internal communication by using intranet (with chat application) and having regular meetings. Meetings are within the proprietors and employees. In fact, they strive to communicate effective to each other in order to build up a culture. Moreover they also strive to communicate effective regarding the clients which is done by fragmentation of the clients to the lawyers secretary. Thereby they assure to serve the client individually. In a customer-oriented company, as they told us they are, a constant spotlight on the client in all areas of the business - like the general customer support or a helpful website-

Appendix page 36

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is obtainable. Their clients, for example, know who is responsible for their issue (each secretary belongs to one lawyer). By then the clients feel closer to the office and feel to be treated how they have to be by putting them first (customer-oriented company, Philip Kotler5) and accomplish their expectation. To sum up the culture, communication and the customer-oriented behavior are the strategic efforts of the lawyers office to retain and win new customers. Here and there needs this improvements, especially concerning the employees, but the attempt and awareness of the value of a customer is made.

5.2

Operational CRM

Operational CRM implies a business processes which is supporting the "front office" by including customer contact information (marketing, sales and service). At the lawyers office there are two customer facing processes for service automation: Firstly, the contact per email and phone and secondly the personal component, the reception. These touch points can be considered for the communication among the participants along the company, as a component to automate and integrate processes. The fact that the company is very traditional foreshadows that the implementing of automation just takes place hesitantly. Dr. Koch & Partners tries to digitalize in order to manage processes faster and consequently to satisfy the clients. One example is the digitalize dictations and drawing up letters.

Professor of International Marketing, American economist

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In conclusion it can be said that the actual purpose of CRM is helping to manage their clients in an organized and efficient manner and for example reducing service costs (by service automation) is not sufficiently used yet because of the old-fashioned character of the company.

5.3

Analytical CRM

Analytical CRM is concerned with capturing, storing, extracting, integrating, processing, interpreting, distributing, using and reporting customer-related data to enhance both customer and company value.6 Regarding the analytical CRM, the lawyers office of which we are doing the analysis uses only Intranet as their CRM system, but no data-tools. In addition, they do not keep statistics on visits (personal, website) and do not have statistics on customer retention, they only see if customers come back if they have a new issue. They use their internal data and the external data that can be found in the trade register but they never analyze these data. However, even knowing who their stronger competitors are, they do not do any analysis of them or their prices and services. It happens something similar with the main fields of business: Insurance Companies, traffic, medicine, insurances, and bank law. They know all of them but do not maintain an extensive database with information on each of them. Neither do they analyze how many clients are served for each field. For a legal issue, they save all documents of lawyers cases for 5 years and the solicitors/notary documents forever. The personal data it is only used for personal communication and never for doing analysis. To conclude, the law firm does not maintain a good database of customers. However, due to their personal relationship with customers, they get the loyalty of them.

Francis Buttle: Customer Relationship Management Concepts and Technologies, Second Edition, published by Elsevier Ltd., Burlington, 2009, page 9

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5.4

Collaborative CRM

This field describes the strategic and the tactical alignment of normally separated enterprises in the supply chain for the more profitable identification, attraction, retention and development of customers.7 Now we will analyze the current situation of the law firm from the standpoint of Collaborative CRM. They just released to set up a new webpage from which the client can contact the firm. Although the most common form of contact between customer-company-customer is the phone call and the subsequent meeting, they use other means such as fax, email. Dr. Koch & Kollegen works with a consulting firm for IT-resources, but no consultant who give advice concerning the whole business. In addition, they co-operate with the German Drivers Club ADAC, which generates clients for them. In communication with those companies they work with, they have not implemented any software that facilitates communication and exchange of information about customers. They simply use the channels that are already mentioned above: telephone, email and fax. To sum up, it can be said that the company we analyzed has hardly any systems of communication with customers and outside companies they work with.

Francis Buttle: Customer Relationship Management Concepts and Technologies, Second Edition, published by Elsevier Ltd., Burlington, 2009, page 11

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5.5

Current use of CRM

To sum up, it can be said that they only use: Some Operational CRM (Intranet, customer touch points) Insufficient Strategic CRM (no business culture) No Analytic CRM (no tools concerning IT Resources) Some Collaborative CRM (co-operation with ADAC)

Generally speaking, we interpret from this that CRM is not sufficiently used by Dr Koch & Kollegen at the moment.

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SWOT Analysis
STRENGHTS WEAKNESSES

General: General: Specialization (branch of law: 19) Some unsatisfied employees Old lawyers office image of Not everybody is aware of probtrust lems to change them Proprietors aware of internal prob Mission, vision not existing lems and want to change it Good relationship between lawyers, helps to implement changes Recruit people which fit into this company focus on quality Relationship: Close relationship to their specific customer CRM: CRM: Fixed customer base Poor CRM in general Customer-centric culture clients Few marketing methods first (kind of business to built up a measures personal relationship) Hardly any automation To carry out the culture Expectation meets (mostly) expe No handling of complaints rience

and

OPPORTUNITIES

THREATS

General: General: Many people need a lawyer and it Too many small cases because of is getting more the legal insurances8 no time More fields of law more stufor important cases, quality suffers dents new ideas and practices (less time) of graduated students (obtain their knowledge) ADAC partner reputation leads to more clients
8

proactive solutions to help people plan for, prevent and resolve their legal and financial matters (i.e. ARAG)

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CRM: Competitors: Trend: digitalize chance to More competitors in Oldenburg manage internal process better Development: Insurance and tax Word-of-mouth advertising companies become more competitive (own lawyers department) Almost overtaken by its rivals Wandscher & Partner strong competition (specializations, number of lawyers)

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Value for customers

7.1 Customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is mainly based on customer experience. This is the cognitive and affective outcome of the customers exposure to, or interaction with, a companys people, processes, technology, products, services and other outputs.9 The main touch point that have an impact on customer experience and therefore on satisfaction is the counselling interview. We found that there are in fact neither statistics about customer satisfaction nor evaluation forms or other ways to evaluate this in the analyzed company. On the one hand we heard from our interview that customers of Dr. Koch und Kollegen are generally very satisfied. This is noticed only from personal conversation. On the other hand, we were told that those people who are unsatisfied with their treatment or the outcome of their process often don't claim that. To the lawyers mind only very few of them do, so in fact nobody knows how many clients are unsatisfied. This also refers to our theory, where it is said that there are several reasons for customers to do not complain. For example they feel that the company does not care, they fear retribution or it takes them too much time and effort.10 Theoretically it could be said that if clients are satisfied they come back, if not they don't. This would be a very simple way of describing how to evaluate customer satisfaction in this business. But in fact there is a problem by using this theory: The sector of legal consultancy is ruled by people having difficulties with the law or other persons. So they only need the service of a lawyer if they have any problems.

Francis Buttle: Customer Relationship Management Concepts and Technologies, Second Edition, published by Elsevier Ltd., Burlington, 2009, page 165 10 Francis Buttle: Customer Relationship Management Concepts and Technologies, Second Edition, published by Elsevier Ltd., Burlington, 2009, Chapter 7

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In conclusion, this point shows that simply the fact that clients do not come back can have two reasons. Either they are really unsatisfied, or they just don't need the advice of a lawyer. This leads to the point that it is not necessarily a criterion of dissatisfaction if clients do not come back.

7.2

Customer experience

To build up a long-term relationship it is very important to understand the needs and expectations of their customers. Therefore, companies have to develop a deep customer insight to ensure a better customer satisfaction. But delighting customers, or exceeding customer expectation, means going beyond what would normally satisfy the customer.11 Companies have to think about identifying ways how to delight and surprise their customers with the level they provide. Furthermore, they have to create a WOW effect to the customer which stays in mind of the customers over a long period of time. Customer delight takes place when the customer perception exceeds the expectations. Customer Delight: Perception > Expectations For this reason we conducted a survey and asked for their experiences with the lawyers office Dr Koch & Kollegen. All clients who were asked contacted the lawyers office either personally or via telephone. In their opinion the employees were very friendly at any time but sometimes the situation in the office seemed to be hectic and the duties, responsibilities and the authority have not been well-defined in the office. Most customers found out about the office using their personal contacts, for example knowing one of the lawyers or employees or some of their friends by word-of-mouth. This

11

Francis Buttle: Customer Relationship Management Concepts and Technologies, Second Edition, published by Elsevier Ltd., Burlington, 2009, page 264

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leads to the fact that the lawyers office does not enough advertising or representing their office in public. Finally the expectations of all customers we asked were met and they were very satisfied with the outcome of their case, so the perception of their experience exceeded the expectations. We assume that most customers are delighted customers as their perceptions are higher than the expectations. Nearly all respondents would recommend the lawyers office to someone else.

7.3

Dealing with complaints

A successful handling enables companies to capture customer complaints before customers start spreading negative word-of-mouth.12 In the analyzed lawyer's office there are no rules of how to deal with complaints. We were told by one of the proprietors that if there are any complaints, it is tried to talk to clients about the reasons for it in order to find a solution. The problem is that employees are not regularly informed about how to react on complaints in detail. They simply try to be nice and do their best instead of having a kind of handbook or instruction about how to manage this. This could be a problem if you take into account the problem that is further described in our point Strategic CRM which includes the business culture. Employees have no real close relation to the business, so they do not necessarily aim at the same goal as their chiefs. This could lead to their reacting not efficient enough on complaints, because they dont really feel the value of every customer to the whole business. In addition, there are again no statistics about complaints although this could be important. Drawing up statistics about complaints could provide the opportunity to see what cli-

12

Taken from the CRM presentation, lecture week 4

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ents mostly complain about. Its analysis could lead to an improvement and therefore to a better customer satisfaction. Finally, I want to mention at this point that there is a general lack of analysis and statistics concerning both customer satisfaction and complaint management. Employees are too less involved in processes referring to these fields.

7.4

How they build relationships?

To successfully build a relationship, the core attributes needed are trust & commitment. Especially for a consultancy business these are the most important factors to get clients satisfied and therefore build up the relationship. This is also mentioned in our theory: Trust is defined as the glue that holds a relationship together across time and experience.13 Commitment is explained to be shown by an exchange partner believing that an ongoing relationship with another is so important as to warrant maximum effort to maintain it; that is, the commitment party believes the relationship is worth working on to ensure that it endures indefinitely.14 Because of the fact that this business is ruled by personal contacts, the personality of people who are acting plays a very important role and has a great impact on if a relationship is successful or not. In the following we try to explain how Dr. Koch & Kollegen build their relationships to clients: In general it can be reported that they try to enclose the relationship step by step. This is done for example by the way of contacting each other.

13

Francis Buttle: Customer Relationship Management Concepts and Technologies, Second Edition, published by Elsevier Ltd., Burlington, 2009, page 29 14 Francis Buttle: Customer Relationship Management Concepts and Technologies, Second Edition, published by Elsevier Ltd., Burlington, 2009, page 30

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Starting at the first contact, the prospect will be served for example via phone call or the contact form on the web page. The first-time customer is normally served at the reception and then put through to the responsible lawyer whereas the repeat customers already knows which secretary is responsible for them and their case, so they can directly contact her if they have any issues. One step further, the majority customers will be automatically guided to the lawyer that has always been serving them and whom they already trusts. Finally, the last step of a customer journey in the lawyer's office Dr. Koch & Kollegen is to become such a loyal customer that you receive the direct number of your lawyer itself, so you can contact him directly for any issue. In conclusion it can be seen from this example of a customer journey that there already is a development of relationships at Dr. Koch & Kollegen and that they become closer over the time. But all this is based on trust and commitment between client and lawyer.

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Recommendation

In the following we will give to you some recommendation concerning the improvement of CRM in the lawyer's office Dr. Koch & Kollegen. Beforehand it is to be mentioned that not all parts of the four CRM's suit to the same extend to every company. The analysed lawyer's office has that much clients at the moment that they should focus on retaining those customers that make profit for them instead of generating new ones. To deepen the relationship to companies who are regular customers and get existing clients to become that loyal that they only do business with them in the future should be the main goal. As it is a consulting business that has much to do with personality, it is not advantageous to automate customer-facing processes. Therefore, they should not focus that much on Operational CRM. What they should do is implement analytical CRM because there is in fact none at the moment. In fact, they should improve it by digitalizing processes, which has also an impact on their collaborative CRM. We recommend this although they depend on the whole sector in this part. Besides, we want them to use strategic CRM to retain customers. Now we go into detail and give the exact advice.

8.1

Analytical CRM

Dr. Koch & Kollegen should have a CRM program for its business to capture, store and find client related data quickly. In a digital database they could easily add customer related information. Referring to this, doing statistics on the website visits to find out who is visiting their webpage (http://www.ra-drkoch.de/) and how long there are staying on the website would be a good idea. The lawyers office would obtain useful information which helps them to analyze and interpret data. It may enclose data mining to make decision like who are our most valua23

ble clients. Using reported data enhance both, clients and companies value, which also can be extracted from the graphic below. To point out the results, it can be said that the profitability increases steadily with analytical CRM models and leads not only to better but also to more productive customer relations.15

Therefore, we recommend the lawyers office to integrate a client/case data base which has to be digital in consideration of the trend and thus to implement analytical programming.

8.2

Operational CRM

From the analytical CRM statement we go a little further and suggest that CRM analytics provide customer segmentation groups which slightly leads to operational CRM. At this point we have to draw attention to Dr. Koch & Kollegen which should make use of the customer portfolio management with the purpose of optimize their business performance and offer appropriate value propositions. Each customer has different needs and expectations; accordingly they have to be treated differently16. Some of the clients just want to have an advice and other a comprehensively support to fight for they right.

15 16

http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/definition/CRM-analytics

Francis Buttle: Customer Relationship Management Concepts and Technologies, Second Edition, published by Elsevier Ltd., Burlington, 2009

Profitability

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Concerning this matter the portfolios for Dr. Koch & Kollegen could be clustered into:

Group 1 LTV customer protect, enhance relationship Group 2 Quantity harvest relationship, re-engineer Group 3 Dooropeners like big companies with outlook of more cases start relationship

To conclude the lawyers office ought to be aware of each customer as an (financial) asset but beforehand cluster them into groups with different needs which should be met by different value proposition. It will be then possible to segment clients automatically and therefore do some marketing automation. By manage customers like that the company will profit from it.

8.3

Strategic CRM

Since we identified the culture of Dr. Koch and Kollegen is not the culture how it should be (compare analytical CRM) in order to represent it to the clients, we suggest them to adopt a new strategy. We could see it as a four step procedure: 1. Define mission, values and culture 2. Design a relationship building strategy 3. Plan relationship building activities 4. Acquire resources A company must start by defining its mission, values and cultures.17 The mission contains of three components - extrinsic motives for example tangible results or material,

17

http://www.iese.edu/research/pdfs/DI-0690-E.pdf, page 7

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intrinsic (satisfaction of their job) and also altruistic motives (satisfying customer). The objective is to have a high altruistic motive which results to a higher motivational quality.18 The higher motivational quality, throughout the focus of satisfying their employees will be improving the contact to the environment. Rule of thumb: Satisfied employers can satisfy clients. This could be reached by: More internal meetings especially with the employees. They ought to play a bigger role and let them be a part of the company by joint action to create the mission (empowerment). This will lead to an improvement of the business culture within the lawyers office. Additionally, having someone in charge for the needs of the employees, for example a trust person. This person then reports the main problems to the weekly meeting of proprietors. If step one is made and a (successful) business culture is built, the foundation stone has been laid. The next step is all about the relationship-building strategy that broadly defines how the company will relate at a deeper, higher quality level with its best customers.19 The third step is strengthening the companys relationship with its finest clients in order to harmonize with the mission, value and culture of Dr. Koch & Kollegen. The lawyers relationship-building activities can be linked to marketing. The marketing strategy, as major element, includes activities (aware of channels) such as: Birthday, Christmas card Newsletter about topic-related themes (field dependence like labor law) by use of webpage sign-in Annual letter to clients We have not forgotten you

The last step is the efficient implementing of these activities by CRM software. Besides, acquiring these human resources:

18 19

http://www.iese.edu/research/pdfs/DI-0690-E.pdf, page 7 http://www.iese.edu/research/pdfs/DI-0690-E.pdf, page 7

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recruit professional to set up marketing activities (i.e. consultant)

Finally, the implementing can be monitored to check this entire process. Summarizing it can be stated that constructing a mission is the basis of each company to create a culture which can carry out the value to the client.

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8.4

Customer satisfaction

Satisfaction is the result of creating and delivering value to a customer. Companies can create value to their customers by increasing benefits or decreasing sacrifices. Enhancing value to the customers, the lawyers office has to find better solutions to the customers problems. Because we found out that customers who are unsatisfied do not claim that, we recommend them two ways. Firstly they should create an anonymously evaluation form for the customers and secondly they should conduct mystery visits by friends or an external company. These possibilities offer the opportunity to find right solutions and therefore increase the benefits received from the consultancy. In conclusion the value of the customers will be growing.

8.5

Complaint management

Clients complain if their expectations are under-performed to a degree that falls outside their zone of tolerance, or they sense they have been treated unfairly. 20 Each customer has an individual tolerance zone referring to the performance or the product of a company. By having no specific handling of complaints, the office misses the chance to benefit from their clients. For these reasons it is necessary to implement a policy and a strategy how to deal with complaints. This policy should include: How to receive the complaints? handle the complaints? resolve the complaints?

20

Francis Buttle: Customer Relationship Management Concepts and Technologies, Second Edition, published by Elsevier Ltd., Burlington, 2009, page 211

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After putting the policy down in writing all employees have to be trained on the complain management. They should also do statistics on what is complained about to identify the problems and solve them. To summarize, the new complaint management can improve the office as a whole without causing that much extra work.

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Future Forecast

This is how CRM should be implemented over the next three years:

Customer insight

2012
Timeline of CRM

2013
gather information about possible CRM tools find advisor to decide on which of them are suiting implement CRM tools give training on new technology collect data and inform clients

2014
Satisfaction
set up customer portfolios and create groups of them develop CRM strategies for them start Customer Portfolio Management add value to customers

1) do education on CRM 2) create awareness of problems by speaking about current situation 3) improve business culture: define mission and vision train employees on complaint management do social activities empowerment set up goals and internal rules find trust person

10 Critical success factors

In Definition, Critical Success Factors are attributes and variables that can significantly impact business outcomes.21 Concerning our CRM recommendations this would mean that there are factors which could hinder the measures that will be taken to succeed. When realizing the CRM implementation, there need to be a risk management plan that regulates how to deal with possible problems. In the following are a few hints of which parts are to be taken in consideration. To explain them all factors are separated into internal and external components.

10.1

Internal components

First of any actions to be taken there must be a decision. This decision is to be made by the managers and proprietors of the company. There could arise problems from different opinions, because there are four people involved at Dr. Koch & Kollegen. To prevent an argument it will be necessary to give education on CRM with the outcome that everyone of them knows exactly what has to be done and why it has to be done. Without the proprietors being one unity and aiming at the same goal, the implementation of CRM cannot be a success. One of the most important internal component are the employees. If they do not believe in the changes or if they do not feel involved in the improvement process, they could retard the realization of CRM implementation. To avoid that, the proprietors of the company need to create an awareness of the problems among employees and the feeling that it is necessary to change something and that they, as a part of the company, are also a part of the project. Another possible problem is the implementation of new technology concerning management processes within the office. The company needs to make sure that every per-

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Francis Buttle: Customer Relationship Management Concepts and Technologies, Second Edition, published by Elsevier Ltd., Burlington, 2009, Chapter 3

son involved knows how to deal with new techniques. This could be done for example with the aid of trainings and seminars.

10.2

External components

First of all, there is the impact of the sector as a whole. Because of the fact that cases are saved and worked on by paper, some CRM implementations can only be realized if the whole legal sector takes part of the change. The only thing that can be done by the proprietors of Dr. Koch & Kollegen to avoid problems by this reason, is to force the implementation of CRM tools and the digitalization of the whole sector. This could be done by sending proposals to courts or local authority. In addition to that there could be a financial component. New technology always costs a lot of money and it needs to be examined by the costing department of the company if the implementation of CRM tools is profitable in the long-term run. Therefore they need to take into consideration not only the costs of the systems compared with revenues, but also the value that is added to clients. Another very important success factor is the clients themselves. If they don't like the new systems and tools or if they feel harried by some new information and processes, they could end the relationship instead of enjoying its new advantages. To avoid this, it is necessary to inform them about what will be changed and why. This could be done by newsletter, leaflets or personal information. Finally, one problem that definitely has to be dealt with is the security of data. Especially in a lawyer's office, clients are often confronted with parts of their lifes they would like to forget about. Therefore, they do not want everybody to know about that. In addition to the rules given by law on how to deal with data, the proprietors of Dr. Koch & Kollegen should aim at finding a solution to limit access on data. As soon as clients realise that their data is kept they will ask why and to which extend. One has to be prepared to answer those questions to client's satisfaction. To conclude all these factors have to be taken into consideration when realizing the project.

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11 In a nutshell
By implementing the recommendations mentioned above, the office will become more efficient and therefore more successful. Moreover, they will save much time by automating processes where possible. Even if there is the problem of the sector, which is old-fashioned, there is a trend that it will be digitalized in the upcoming years, which facilitates the implementation. This will guarantee a promising future to Dr. Koch & Kollegen.

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12 Bibliography
Francis Buttle: Customer Relationship Management Concepts and Technologies, Second Edition, published by Elsevier Ltd., Burlington, 2009 http://www.crm-master.de/crm-in-der-anwaltskanzlei-und-fuer-rechtsanwaelte.html http://www.lotharschulz.com/?p=348 http://www.rae-wandscher.de/ http://www.ra-drkoch.de/ http://www.juve.de/pressemitteilungen/pressemitteilung-29-09-09

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13 Affirmation
We hereby declare that this report has been written only by the undersigned and without any assistance from third parties. Furthermore, we confirm that no other sources have been used in the preparation of this report than those indicated in the report itself.

______________________________ date name

______________________________ date name

______________________________ date name

______________________________ date name

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14 Appendix
14.1
Warm-up How long are you already working for this company? o Since 18.06.1990 What is your job in this company? o Responsible Lawyer, one out of 4 proprietors. Responsible for 21 employees (4 proprietors, 4 employed lawyers, 17 other employees) Are you satisfied with your work? o Yes. General Which products or services are offered by your company? o Legal advice, notarys office, drawing up contracts, dealings in real estate How is the organization like? o 4 proprietors, 4 employed lawyers, 15 secretaries and other assistants What is your business culture like? o Try to set the same goal for everyone, objective: close to clients, make clients feel comfortable when being served, but employees are sometimes unsatisfied, because their close relation to the company and its goals is missed. How do you manage internal communication?

Interview questionnaire

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o Regular Meetings (only proprietors), Meeting with employees once a year, communication via telephone, Intranet (comparable to chat) Do you have business partners or organizations you work with? o Insurance Companies, Big Companies that only do business with this chamber, ADAC, other chambers (lawyers offices) and (court yards to a small extent, Banks who generate clients Which segment(s) do you target? High potential group? o Main target groups: Insurance Companies, special fields: traffic, medicine, insurances, banks via specialization of employees Do you have a website? o Yes, very new. Possible to get in contact via this What is your market share? o Difficult to say, one of the leading chambers in town concerning the number of lawyers and employees (second largest chamber in town) Who do you compete with? o Other chambers (main: wandscher&partner), tax accountants, sometime banks What are your prices like compared to your competitor? o All the same, because it is ruled by law. What in your opinion might be difficulties in our environment? o More upcoming competitors, clients financial situation, (people with a legal protection insurance form a very large group of clients) What would you say differentiates you from other?

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o Specialization, personality of the acting persons (very important), size of chamber, much competence in all in one Any improvements regarding your business performance (mission, vision)? o More concerted marketing, more communication to clients, improving the communicaton of employees with each other Relationship How satisfied are your customers? How do you know? o They are quite satisfied because they tell their lawyer and come back. Those who are unsatisfied often dont claim that, but dont come back What are your customer touch points? Where do you get in contact? o Personal conversations(most important), Requests on the telephone/ via Contact form How are you dealing with complaints? o None. One tries to get in contact and solve the problem by personal conversations. There is no guideline for employees about how to react on complaints. How you retain your customer? o Via success, satisfaction and personal relationships Customer Relationship Management Do you already have CRM-systems or tools? Which ones? o Intranet Do you keep customer-related data?

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o Documents need to be kept 5 years, solicitors documents nearly forever. Personal Data is only received in personal communication and not saved. Do you keep track of visits, purchase etc.? Which target group? o There are no statistics about customer visits neither on the website nor in personal and no statistics about retaining of customers Do you only use internal data (own sales/visits/researches) or also external resources? o Only internal data, except if there is information needed about companies that can be found in the trade register Which channels do you use to distribute to customers? If there are more, which one is the most effective? o Only personal (90%) and written consulting service or personal visits at the clients, generating customers and doing marketing via insurance companies, ADAC or bank What are you doing with those data? What do you analyze? o No analysis of data. What is your specific goal by saving data? o Fulfill the law (by saving documents as described) What type of communication do you use with your partners or separate enterprises? o Telephone, Fax, Internet, written letters with partners, there are no systems or intranet between business partners. Are there processes that you think could be improved by automation or digitalized?

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o Documents could be collected and forwarded digitally but this would have to be done by the whole branch and will be introduced in the next few years (assumption). Dictates could be done directly into the computer, so that secretaries only have to correct instead of typing everything (will be implemented) Do you have access to information to improve CRM? o They have a consulting firm for IT-resources, but no consultant who gives advice concerning the whole business. Did you have problems concerning recent CRM methods? o Problems with Software concerning the digital dictating (drawing up letters etc.) What are your customer-related marketing and sales objectives? o MAR: retaining customers and having them do mouth-to-mouth marketing to advice other potential clients to choose this chamber. o Sales: cases of high value, stable revenues

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14.2

The competitor Wandscher & Partner

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14.3

Presentation

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