The 2010 Law Technology News Vendor Satisfaction Survey is the first survey of its kind to take a neutral look at how law firms rank technology vendors. The survey incorporating respondents of all firm sizes and most positions, provides feedback on vendor satisfaction by product category, as well as ranking specific factors, including customer service, price for value, and brand reputation. Monica Bay’s overview serves as an excellent Executive Summary. Here’s my takeaway:

Customer Service, Customer Service, Customer Service

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to legal technology vendors that customer service was the highest ranked factor among survey respondents. The survey reports that 77% of respondents considered customer service the highest priority.

There’s no doubt that technology makes us more productive, but it can also be the source of great frustration. Why do users call help desks and tech support lines with an ‘angry, ready for a fight’ attitude? Because technology has the ability to make us feel inept, even stupid, and more than a little lost, when things don’t go well. What happened to the promises made before the sale…24/7 support and a real person to talk to?

Vendors large and small must deal with customer service and support as a priority service. If support is merely a necessary evil, or a primary revenue center, how do you balance your priorities with the expectations of your customers? Bringing your support team into the sales and marketing process, and clearly defining expectations can extend the honeymoon period after the sale.

The Inevitable Training Question

Training was eighth on the list of nine factors at a paltry 39.8%, and it should come as no surprise that it ranked so low. Why is it that ‘easy to use’ equates to ‘no training necessary’? Several opinions are shared in the article, and all are valid:

Legal professionals have busy schedules and it’s hard to find the time for training

Vendors over promise ease of use

Providers need to develop training options that fit into work styles

In my own anecdotal experience, about a year ago I switched from using Visio to SmartDraw and while I found it easier to use, like most users, I worked my way through my task at hand with little thought for how some product knowledge might help me. Last week SmartDraw offered me a 1-hour, free training webinar. What an ‘AHA’ moment! Although it wasn’t intended as a thorough product training, I quickly learned that SmartDraw was much easier to use and filled with shortcuts that improved my experience.

Product literature may not be as important as we thought

Ranked the least important consideration was vendor literature. We spend weeks and months developing product brochures and feature lists, should we eliminate them? Absolutely not, they are an important part of any integrated marketing program, but don’t rely on your collateral to make your sale for you.

How would your company stand up to this survey?

In 1992 after a seven-year career as a litigation paralegal, I decided to move into the world of marketing and selling to lawyers. I knew instinctively that my time “in the trenches” would serve me well as I went to work developing messaging and selling technology software to lawyers.

Having spent three months on a law school campus earning my paralegal certificate, I saw first-hand how law students were converted into lawyers. What I didn’t realize until I entered my new career was how many of the same factors that go into legal training influences the way lawyers buy legal products and services.

Why is the legal vertical so challenging?

1. Law School Creates Lawyers – Like medical school, the competitiveness and demand on law students fundamentally changes their personalities. From LSATs to applications, the competition starts before the first day of class. Drop-out/failing rates and class ranking struggles pervade the psyches of students forcing them to focus inward and manage their time selfishly. The better the school, the higher the class ranking, the better the job at graduation (especially in a tough job market). That competitiveness continues into the firm environment.

2. Law Firms have a Different Business Model – A carry-over from the law school mentality, law firms are a bastion of individuality and competitiveness. Rather than pulling together, law firms are made up of pockets (practice groups) that invariably distrust each other. David Maister’s article Are Law Firms Manageable? first published in The American Lawyer, addresses the issues of distrust and competitiveness, and how they impact firm values.

3. Competition is the Name of the Game – The law school process encourages critical thinking and teaches students to advocate every side of an argument. There is no right or wrong, only winning and losing arguments. Three years of arguing in law school, and it’s no wonder lawyers challenge every claim a vendor makes. As consumers, they question ‘the biggest’ and ‘the best’ and they are risk adverse. Few lawyers want to risk trying something new for fear of making a mistake and suffering the scorn of their peers…in short, they’re not early adopters by nature.

My first position after leaving the law firm was as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for a legal technology company that developed and marketed case/practice management software. From the onset, we knew we had to overcome aging Luddite managing attorneys, and reasoned that within a few short years, younger more technologically inclined lawyers would move into decision-making positions and advocate for more technology. Along with our competition, we truly believed that as younger, more tech-savvy attorneys worked their way up the ranks, they would embrace productivity enhancing technology, and by the new millennium, every attorney would use practice management software.

And yet even today, only 33% of attorneys use case/practice management (according to the 2010 “Perfect Practice® – Legal Technology Institute Case, Matter, and Practice Management System Software Study” conducted by The University of Florida Law’s Legal Technology Institute, link unavailable at this writing).

What we failed to understand at the time was that the demands placed on young attorneys to perform require them to narrowly focus on the issues at hand. Most young attorneys enter the practice of law in subservient roles and are required to use whatever technology their firms use. Their goals are limited to getting the job done, and as they mature and move through the ranks, they remain focused on getting the job done, and not on how to do the job better.

This is not to say that lawyers will never embrace technology fully. It is to say that there are factors unique to the legal industry that impact buyer behavior. As sellers of legal products and services, we need to hone-in on the specific buying characteristics of this unique market of buyers and craft messages to address their needs and the drivers that most influence them.