Paddy Kelly, Founder – NSA Leeds Group
'I have always despised the marketing by middle men of legal services to work providers who add nothing to the value of the service delivered. These are very tough times and solicitors need to work together against a whole industry of brokers of legal services who have taken a large part of our market. We have to ask why we let ourselves be herded into a panel to be “managed” by people whose ethics fall well short of those to which subscribe in our own code of conduct.
These middlemen buy work from intermediaries and refer it to us for greater payment. They take commissions and benefits without adding anything of value.
Firms need to be seen to be working together and competing only on one level – service.
As individual firms we are poor at marketing and under resourced to compete with the middlemen.
By joining in a local network of firms facilitated by membership of NSA we can:-
- agree protocols
- avoid conflicts
- prepare and validate HIPs
- offer a quality control operation
- collaborate with each other with the minimum of structure and cost
If we take the example of the estate agents they prefer to recommend solicitors who will co-operate with each other to get transactions through and reduce the chance of sales falling through rather than recommendations based on a fee rendered cheap for the solicitor after the panel manager has taken his mark up.
I speak to many agents who believe that the longer a deal hangs around without an exchange the more likely it is to fall through. That renders a referral fee small change and of little interest to the agent.
We need to tie in agents and brokers and stop them selling our service on price alone. When offered some certainty of service backed by a national organisation the agent will be convinced that it is in his interest to recommend a network.
There have been many networks for varying purposes but I consider that to work in the long term a network should be simple and built on mutual trust, respect and confidence in each other.
A network brings a brand name which an individual firm cannot do by itself. For the agents the network brand provides comfort, confidence and quality assurance.
Collaboration within a network is achieved not by any complex structural solution. Groups do not co-operate but people do, so the network should create as many opportunities for individuals to get to know each other and work together. It should be that simple. NSA provides the ideal platform for selling and nurturing such collaboration.
There are many tangible benefits of NSA membership such as joint marketing campaigns and materials, group purchasing power (particularly for professional indemnity, which will be in 2009 a major issue for firms) an enhanced protocol, work referrals and recruitment but there are also many intangible benefits such as knowledge sharing, exchange of know how, support, benchmarking and sharing of best practice methods.
NSA affords a high degree of trust and transparency between the network and the individual firms. A local firm is better able to win business because the agent receives more value. The agent always wants more than one firm to recommend and for every seller there is a buyer. The agent is comforted by the idea of a national network and the quality assurance which that implies. This can help chains to be resolved and multisite agencies can be serviced.
Protocols can be agreed which are so effective that not only are completions achieved more quickly but more profitably for all involved. This is not something which the commercial panels have offered or achieved.
The network can agree fees at levels which are competitive within the local marketplace yet pitched so as to provide the agent and the public with the quality of service appropriate for the maintenance of professional standards.
By communicating with each other on an organised network basis each firm’s specific expertise and experience can be pooled. Members have ready access to expertise and experience to solve problems in an efficient and cost effective manner.
The offer to agents is as follows:-
By using NSA as the foundation of the agents panel they have comfort that:
• The agent is using legal firms of substance and reputation
• These firms have the local knowledge and presence that the agent is a customer want
• These firms adhere to nationally enforced standards of quality and service
• The quality standards of these firms are monitored by NSA
• These firms have access to unrivalled pools of expertise so that no problem encountered will be insurmountable
• Referral fees are paid in a transparent way in accordance with the Solicitors’ Code of Conduct
Furthermore the agent would be dealing with a limited number of firms, all of which employ standard procedures of consistent quality and can expect to receive in return a significant volume of work from the agent. These firms have a much greater interest in maintaining the quality of delivery than the many thousands of solicitors that presently may expect to get only a few cases a year.
The agent would be able to hold regular meetings with representative firms of NSA to ensure that, collectively, their needs are being met throughout their field of operations and that quality and service levels match their expectations.
Over time the agent’s needs will change, and through this regular contact these can be identified and rapidly communicated throughout the NSA membership to ensure its members are always delivering what the agent wants. In this way the agent will be treating the agent as a major client in their own right and so is able to tailor services to meet their particular needs. This may be in connection with a particular local or national promotion or perhaps to provide the agent with a marketing edge in a particular class or type.'