Case Study
CARTER MARIO LAW FIRM DOUBLES WORD OF MOUTH REFERRALS THROUGH EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE
COMPANY OVERVIEW:
Carter Mario Law Firm is a personal injury law firm with over 30 years of
experience and 6 locations throughout Connecticut.
SITUATION:
Carter Mario, CEO and president, a person who is passionate about service,
chose to make the client experience the law firm’s strongest competitive
advantage.
They started tracking the source of incoming calls, (the backbone of their
business) in 2006 and found that roughly 30% of their calls came from word
of mouth/referral sources and approximately 70%, came from paid
advertising. They wanted to increase the amount of business that came from
word of mouth/referral sources and reduce their advertising expenditure by
providing a world class client experience
OUR SOLUTION:
The DiJulius Group collaborated with Carter Mario to:
- Create a Customer Experience Action Statement, Pillars, Day in the Life of a Customer, and Nevers & Always
- Systemize the Customer Experience delivered by employees to allow consistency at all levels and locations
- Create a short list of Non-negotiable Experiential Standards
- They are available 24/7, live, never an answering machine.
- All clients get a call back the same day, or lunch is on Carter.
- At 8:45 a.m. every day, they conduct a “morning huddle” to communicate with the staff about the priorities of the day as well to share “Customer intelligence” on any clients who are visiting the office that day.
- Front desk is never left unattended.
- Any staff member to come within five feet of a client is to smile, look the client in the eye, and say hello.
- Clients are offered Carter Mario umbrellas during poor weather
- Instituting a procedure for capturing and utilizing information about each client in a format that allows everyone access in order to personalize the relationship with clients. The firm was able to customize its customer management software, which is made for attorneys, by adding a “Secret Service” tab. This tab contains vital Customer intelligence, such as preferred refreshment, client’s eye color, birth date, spouse and other family members’ names, children’s ages, hobbies, past vacations, even pets’ names.
RESULTS:
By the graph, you can see the positive growth of the law firm’s word of mouth calls, (2006-2012) and in 2012 they eclipsed 60%!
A world-class hospitality law firm – What changed or what was the driving force behind this movement? “While we thought we were client centric, we realized we were relative to injury attorneys, which means we were the best of a lousy group,” says Carter Mario. “In 2007 our entire organization including receptionists, in-take specialists, administrative positions, and attorneys, became obsessed with being a world-class customer service company, benchmarked against anyone in any other industry.” That they did! Carter Mario Law Firms are well known for their customer service and the company won the Secret Service System Award, presented to only one amazing customer service organization per year at the Customer Service Revolution conference.
“A world-class hospitality law firm – What changed or what was the driving force behind this movement? “While we thought we were client centric, we realized we were relative to injury attorneys, which means we were the best of a lousy group,” says Carter Mario. “In 2007 our entire organization including receptionists, in-take specialists, administrative positions, and attorneys, became obsessed with being a world-class customer service company, benchmarked against anyone in any other industry.” That they did! Carter Mario Law Firms are well known for their customer service and the company won the Secret Service System Award, presented to only one amazing customer service organization per year at the Customer Service Revolution conference.“
