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[00:00:07] Scott Benton: Hey everyone, Scott Benton here. How are you? I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast where we help you easily transition from law school student into your professional career as a bonafide attorney and where we make the practice of law fun, more importantly.
[00:00:22] Scott Benton: Now today we’re going to answer the question of how do standard and superior client services differ?
[00:00:30] Scott Benton: How do standard and superior client services? differ
[00:00:34] Scott Benton: [00:01:00] Now, there are going to be many differences between standard client service and superior client service, but overall, for the sake of this podcast episode anyway, we’re going to look at the use of case facts in order to determine the difference and recognize that essentially there are two types of case facts.
[00:01:42] Scott Benton: Standard client services. is only going to be concerned with focusing on one form of case facts, and a superior level of client services is going to be concerned with two forms of case facts. Now, keep in mind that focusing on two [00:02:00] types of case facts, That’s not necessarily an easy thing to do because it causes a lot of confusion, as you soon shall see.
[00:02:07] Scott Benton: And as such, a lot of attorneys, they just prefer to only focus on one type of case facts. Largely because practicing law can be quite demanding. And they’re going to see, that focusing on two types of case facts, it’s just it’s too difficult. It slows them down. It makes them less efficient in terms of completing cases.
[00:02:30] Scott Benton: And so a lot of times attorneys are going, they’re going to default back to focusing on only one type of case fact. But what are these two types of case facts that we’re talking about? First, let’s say that there is a first type of case facts here. They are going to be case facts that pertain to the law.
[00:02:51] Scott Benton: They pertain to the law. The second type of case facts, they’re largely going to be, we’ll call them background case facts, and they really [00:03:00] don’t have any bearing on the case as far as the law is concerned and they’re certainly never going to appear in a courtroom or in front of a judge but they’re facts nonetheless.
[00:03:11] Scott Benton: The background case facts, the ones that are never going to show up in a courtroom, those are going to be the case facts that your client is going to value and that they’re going to be the most important case facts of probably all of them because those background case facts are going to connect with your client on an emotional feelings level. These background case facts, for instance, they might be usually something about what they’re gonna do, the money that they receive. Sometimes it’s to accomplish a personal goal or a family goal. Maybe they want to buy, for instance, an investment property, so they have some retirement income.
[00:03:48] Scott Benton: Maybe they’re in the retirement and they need more retirement income, so they’re gonna use this money they’re gonna get from this case to go out And by an investment property or two so that they can rent those out and every [00:04:00] month they can have extra income to improve the quality of their life. So it’s the reason that they initially picked up the phone and called your firm and it’s why they made the decision to hire an attorney to help them navigate the complexities of the legal landscape.
[00:04:17] Scott Benton: And in fact, a client will likely not. be able to tell the difference between case facts that become part of the case and then these other background case facts that while they’re tremendously important to them, to your client, they don’t become a part of the case and the clients aren’t going to really be able to tell the differences between the two in general.
[00:04:38] Scott Benton: You’re going to explain them to them. Eventually they’re going to get it, but for the most part, Facts are just facts to them. It’s all one thing. So for you as the attorney, the tendency is to pay little attention to these background facts. A lot of times those just get pushed aside, and you’re only going to [00:05:00] focus on the case facts that you can use in a court of law.
[00:05:05] Scott Benton: A lot of attorneys, they do this because just of efficiency. Now, it’s a given, obviously, that you must focus on the case facts that you’re going to use for your case that you also have to recognize that you have an opportunity to focus just as closely on those other background facts. With an understanding of the differences between the two types of case facts, here, we can now use them to better demonstrate that a standard level of client service. It’s only gonna focus on the case facts that a judge is going to see or a courtroom is going to see.
[00:05:41] Scott Benton: But if you really wanna level up your game as an attorney by and I mean by orders of magnitude. By orders of magnitude, if you wanna level up your game as an attorney, and if you wanna make a significant difference in the overall quality of the work that you’re providing your client with [00:06:00] a superior level of client service.
[00:06:04] Scott Benton: Then you’re going to want to include those background facts that you only discuss with your client. These don’t go outside of that relationship. You don’t talk about these background facts, for instance, with opposing counsel or bring them up in the courtroom. You’re largely going to be discussing these background facts as a form of motivation with your client to help keep the case
[00:06:27] Scott Benton: funded and always moving forward. So you’re gonna say to your client. We’re a step closer now to getting you. that investment property that you want so that you have extra income during your retirement. Because that ultimately, that’s their goal. No one else knows that just you and the client.
[00:06:44] Scott Benton: But by reminding the client that’s the goal, it’s gonna help keep the case moving forward. They’re gonna continue to buy your legal services. Until you reach the end of that case, they’re not going to ghost you, they’re going to stick around, they’re going to return [00:07:00] your phone calls and your emails, and they’re going to keep the legal services going by replenishing their account with the law firm.
[00:07:08] Scott Benton: When you talk to your client, in addition to just talking about the regular case facts, the ones that pertain to the law, and that everyone associated with this case, they already know and they have these case facts, you also want to bring your client into the process. the space of those background case facts.
[00:07:26] Scott Benton: Because with all of the countless details that generally become a part of a case, it can get easy to forget really what you’re fighting for. You’re not going to forget you want that investment property, but temporarily you can get derailed because, having a case that you’re working on can be sometimes pretty stressful for the client.
[00:07:46] Scott Benton: And so you want to, when you talk to them, remind them. of the why of the case. Why are we working on this case so hard? Why are we doing all of this work? And the [00:08:00] reason is because in this case, in this made up case that because at the end of the case, you’re going to be able to buy this investment property or investment properties depending on How much the client stands to walk away with.
[00:08:15] Scott Benton: So you want to remind your client really over and over again about what brought them into your law firm. That why behind that action those case facts that aren’t really tied to the law. And sometimes the target changes in terms of the legal goal that they’re trying to reach. There’s just new information that comes in from time to time and it shifts that legal goal.
[00:08:37] Scott Benton: But. whatever happens, the reason behind why they’re pursuing those goals, such as buying the investment property that generally doesn’t change that generally stays the same. So you want to keep your client inside of that more emotionally charged space And continually remind them of why they called your firm [00:09:00] in the first place.
[00:09:00] Scott Benton: Now, an attorney providing a standard level of client services, remember, they’re only going to focus on the one, the case facts that pertain to the law. And an attorney, that’s hopefully you, An attorney that is going to provide superior client service, that’s you, is going to focus on the case facts that pertain to the law as well as the background case facts.
[00:09:26] Scott Benton: They’re going to pay attention to those simultaneously and that’s the difference. That’s the difference between a standard level of service and a superior client service. level of service when it comes to your client. So I hope that’s informative and I hope it’s useful information. My name is Scott Benton.
[00:09:41] Scott Benton: I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If this is material that you like and you would like to receive an alert whenever we put out a new episode, you can go to our website. Our website is classroom2courtroom. com. That’s classroom, the number two, courtroom.
[00:09:57] Scott Benton: com. You can put in your contact information. You’ll [00:10:00] get a notification whenever we put out a new episode of this podcast. And if this is information that you’re enjoying, don’t forget to share and subscribe if you’d like to stay on top of our newest episodes. And until then, we hope that you’ll join us in making the world a better place, one client at a time.
[00:10:18] Scott Benton: Thank you so much for listening.
