Law office design: it’s part of the marketing, yes… but don’t ask which part
I love David Ogilvy. In a very manly, sophisticated, brotherly way. His book, "Ogilvy on Advertising" is a classic that you should all have read. Have you? Go do it now. There’s a link to it somewhere on that list of books over there. What Ogilvy hasn’t said about copy writing, for example, doesn’t bear knowing. He also has some pretty great quotes. Here’s one:
If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language in which they think.
Another one of Ogilvy’s quotes that I just love is:
I once used the word "obsolete" in a headline, only to discover that 43% of housewives had no idea what it meant. In another headline I used the word "ineffable," only to discover that I didn’t know what it meant myself.
That’s Ogilvy all over. Both quotes are at the heart, I believe, of great marketing and advertising. And they are at the heart of what’s so often wrong about law firm business practices, including office design.
This particular rant was touched off by a nice article from "New York Lawyer" online. But there is a giant, gaping hole in the article that is also the giant, gaping hole at the center of so many firm business practices. And it’s one that’s related to a famous advertising quote that’s usually attributed to department store mogul John Wanamaker.
"I know that half my advertising works,
I just don’t know which half."
- John Wanamaker
That’s probably one of the most famous quotes in the history of advertising. I bring it up now because I guarantee that firm office design falls into the category of the half that’s not working.
How can I tell? Because the giant gaping hole in the center of both the article and many firm processes is in the shape of its clients. The article talks a bit about what the firms hope to achieve vis-a-vis their clients. For example, one wants to meet some "white shoe expectations of a well-heeled clientele." We’ll assume the cobbling pun was unintended. To attract wealthy clients, the feng shui practitioner suggests tucking a purple piece of paper in the… I’m sorry. I just can’t finish that sentence.
The point being that the article doesn’t ever get into what clients might want from a firm’s office. It’s what the firm wants, and what it wants from its clients.
Do any of you out there have any idea how much money has been spent in the last century on understanding the needs, wants and subconscious desires of customers in a retail setting? How to get them to be more comfortable (or less, if you’re trying to shoo them out of the "Complaints" line). How to direct the flow of traffic. How to ensure that they’ll see the featured item of the week, etc. Billions of dollars have been spent on these efforts over the decades. And the single most effective way to research customer preference is still one of the simplest sentences in the marketing lexicon. How do you know what your clients want?
Ask them.
I once did an informal survey of about a dozen clients of a major law firms that I know personally. This was outside of any professional relationship, since I didn’t want to screw with any of the firms I’ve worked with/for. Most of these in-house counsel and businesspeople told me that their law firms’ offices made them feel deeply uncomfortable. Like, in the words of one, "They’d been sent to the Principal’s office." One of the others told me that he always felt like the office had been decorated by, "A wealthy old woman who was trying to make her unwanted guests leave as quickly as possible."
Now, this is of course, not universal. As I said, I asked about ten or twelve people. And I’ve only been inside a couple dozen law firms myself over the years. I’m sure there are many firms whose design and decorations are pleasing and pleasant and convey exactly the message that the partners wish to present to their clients, prospects, important visitors and staff.
Your firm, for example, is clearly doing things right. Right?
And you know that for a fact because you’ve asked your clients about how well served they feel by your office. Right? You’ve asked them to look past design issues and into what could be done to make the place both comfortable and effective. Right? You’ve consulted with marketing and psychology consultants as well as interior designers whose chief motivation may be to sell you the most expensive wainscoting on the planet because their brother-in-law owns the mill. Right? You’ve actually thought about how you want your clients to feel when they come in to your office, and how you’d like that feeling to be enhanced during their visit. Right?
Yeah. You’ve done all that stuff. So don’t worry about it.
But those other firms… they’re still wondering, "Which half of my office design isn’t working?"
I’d be impressed if it was merely half that wasn’t working.
