Make Money Mondays: Which of These 30 Elements of Customer Value Do You Offer Your Clients?

What makes a product or services appealing to customers or clients? For lawyers, most of us would say that most clients retain us because we’re in the business of solving problems. But that response is too limiting and may be costing us valuable business opportunities.

A recent Harvard Business Review piece by Eric Almquist explains that there are 30 Things Customers Really Value .  They can be split into categories ranging from services that provide life-changing value to those serve more functional demands such as reducing cost and effort, saving time and cost or adding variety.  Research by Almquist and his colleagues found that:

Companies that deliver well on multiple elements of value tend to have stronger customer loyalty and higher revenue growth rates, as Bain & Company’s analysis shows. The research documents 50 companies that deliberately added elements over time to improve their propositions, either to turn around a flagging business or to accelerate growth.

The article goes on to supply several examples of companies who added new layers of value:

Throughout 2015 Uber added services to integrate multiple aspects of consumers’ lives, from delivering meals and groceries to providing flu shots. Discover added a feature that allows cardholders to instantly freeze and unfreeze their accounts without canceling their cards, reducing risk and reducing anxiety for cardholders. And Spotify added a feature for runners in 2015 that detects their pace and finds music to match it, hitting on elements of wellness and motivation.

The same lessons apply to lawyers. Although many firms reduce risk (functional) and reduct anxiety (emotional), what if law firms added other simple services such as informing clients by educating them as to their rights or helping to organize (perhaps financial or corporate documents) or help clients make or save money. Each time you add another element of value, you add another opportunity to increase and expand your business.

Take a look at the chart. What value does your firm provide and how are you communicating that to clients? Join the conversation in the comments.