I was personally attacked by an IT staff member of a very popular, multi-city law firm. My only provocation was the direct marketing material we use that calls to question a prospect’s satisfaction with their current outsourced IT provider. My experience begs a question to you: do you know how your staff are treating people they interact with in the course of doing firm business for you?
Hands down, I have the best staff in the IT biz! They bend over backwards everyday to make sure the people they interact with feel as if they are the most important people to them – our Culture requires it. However, they’re human and I also know they need our leadership and guidance and that they will make mistakes along the way. Sometimes team members say things to a people that would be best said another way. Often you can explain it and other times you have to downright apologize for it. Other times, you just can’t do enough t o make up for it. My story below is one of those cases.
I recently was the unwitting victim of such an employee attack. Below is the redacted rant of the firm IT employee:
He obviously has deeper issues than we have time to address here but sadly I’m certain the firm leadership has no idea that through his job he treats people this way. Is this the type of person that you want representing your firm?
Though I’m sure he doesn’t represent the overall firm culture you should wonder if this type of poison isn’t coming through in his work, attitude towards others he works with or even worse to the clients he may encounter. Even if he never interacts with clients, a firm could be losing other good staff to his actions and attitudes.
Making a big hiring mistake can actually end up losing customers and money before you know it. Here’s the scary question: how do you know you haven’t already? How do you know your staff are treating everyone the way you want them to? Shouldn’t your employees, customers, partners and vendors alike all should be treated in the manner consistent with your firm’s culture?
As a firm owner it is your responsibility to assume it’s happening. Not doing so would be careless and naïve. We naturally don’t want to distrust anyone but it is our jobs to trust and verify. Every team member has a bad day or makes a mistake but there is nothing worse than, as an owner having to apologize for it.
What type of policies does your firm have in place to discourage this type of behavior? Is it written or not? My suggestion is to create a policy, talk to your staff and layout your expectations on how they treat others regardless if they are clients, vendors, fellow staff or even a Legal Tech Guru marketer.
