Legal Commentary

One Bad Apple. One Little Thing.

By Patrick J. Lamb

I love the Westin Hotel in Seattle.  I have several great memories of that hotel. But on Thursday, I was in a hurry and I needed to grab a quick bite.  For some inexplicable reason, this hotel does not have a restaurant for breakfast.  Instead, there is a little cafe where you can get breakfast, but there is no wait staff to speak of.  And on this day, when I was in a hurry, the line to order was close to a mile long.  Well, maybe not a mile, but it took a long, long, long time to order and by the time I did, I was simply taking coffee to go.  In the grand scheme of things, is this a huge problem?  Not really.  Those who know me know that I can afford to miss a meal or a hundred.  But it irked me enough that I am going to look at hotel options the next time I am in Seattle.  And that is the last thing any hotel chain should want.

Lessons for lawyers?  I would hope the big one would be obvious.  Giving your customers any reason to look at another firm is a sure way to lose customers.  Because some will find something where the little thing that irks them about you isn't any issue.  Moral of the story:  don't do a great job on most things and flub up on the little stuff.  Be great at everything when it comes to client service.

(And if anyone from Westin happens to read this, I also don't like the fact that you are not putting bathrobes in your rooms anymore.)

Full post as published by In Search of Perfect Client Service on April 04, 2009 (boomark / email).