We had a contradiction arise last week that actually raises issues about the future of the choice of legal service suppliers.
We support www.solicitor.info a comparison website aimed at promoting solicitors that offer good service. Last week, a competitor complained that because our company is regulated by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers, we should not be allowed to be on the site. (Our competitor has since retracted his complaint as we employ solicitors and the site is aimed at rating solicitors.)
However, this raises a wider question about how people buy legal services, and whether the recent liberalisation of the legal market will have a large an impact as many traditional lawyers fear it will.
It is clear that many consumers select a solicitor based on a recommendation, the most effective being a friend or work colleague. Indeed, we have found that it is very common for an individual to be named on the reviews on www.solicitor.info which usually includes a reference to a person rather than a company.
In our opinion, this calls into question the importance of company branding and how consumers perceive quality from a legal provider. Do consumers buy legal services from a company or an individual and given that the Law Society is promoting the use of solicitors, how important is the branding of the firm in which those particular solicitors work?
This raises further questions about the value of some of the new branding schemes that have been introduced such as QualitySolicitors where the plan is to subvert the names of even the company by trading under a single banner.
However, the major challenge is that a good solicitors' time is finite. In our opinion, the firms that will succeed will be those that combine the smart use of supportive technology with intelligent support staff, ensuring consistency of support throughout the organisation.
After all, the days of "I'm sorry but the person handling the file is not available and no-one else can help you" should be long gone by now.
