Posted at 11:00 AM on May 9, 2006 by Arnie Herz

I first heard about client evangelism through Matt Homann’s blog, the [non]billble hour. Matt had just finished reading Ben McConnell’s and Jackie Huba’s great book on the subject, Creating Customer Evangelists, and was in the process of conducting a client audit in accordance with its core principles.

Based on Matt’s introduction, I became an avid reader of the Church of the Customer Blog , also by McConnell and Huba. Their ideas and observations have sparked my own inquiry into the possibility of cultivating evangelical legal service consumers and providers. Although I’ve now covered the issue from various vantage points, I still regularly revisit this question: what compels employees and clients alike to shout a firm’s (or a practitioner’s) praises until the rafters ring?

Always on the hunt for input on this front, I was pleased to find a pair of articles on fostering client fidelity. The first, called Making Clients Loyal through Service and Satisfaction, opens with the popular statistic that it “costs five to six times more in time and expense to acquire a new client than to retain and expand business from an existing one.” The piece goes on to describe ways to “build a fold of loyal clients,” including: projecting the right image; maintaining a positive and helpful attitude; communicating in a courteous and reliable manner; producing excellent work; and getting client feedback.

Similarly practical advice is dispensed in an article titled How to Think Like Your Client. The heart of its message is that we gain client loyalty by becoming well acquainted with the client’s industry and by convincing the client that we “truly care and are committed to its well-being.” The authors provide detailed “to-do” lists to guide us on the path to understanding our clients' "concerns, current business strategies, and industry.” But we’re left to discern for ourselves how we can instill client confidence in our ability to care for, and commit to, their well-being.

I like the clear and straightforward tips these articles offer. Yet, I think there’s more to the mix. A quote from a recent McConnell-Huba article - Customer Evangelists: Spreading the Word – points to the missing ingredient. It says: “A customer evangelist is more than just a loyal customer. He or she has an emotional connection with your company.”

This kind of client connection can’t arise from a lawyer’s task mastery alone. It requires two-way, authentic human-to-human exchange, intimacy and understanding. It requires us to be well versed in feeling and conveying compassion and passion for ourselves and others. And it requires that we fervently believe in the quality and integrity of the services we provide.