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Every person at the Scott Vicknair Injury Lawyers firm has a $600 budget to buy gifts for clients. Partner David Vicknair came up with this idea, empowered his employees to implement it, then got out of the way. There’s no approval process, no issue with borrowing from someone else’s budget if you go over and no real guidelines except don’t gift firm branded items. A year in, Vicknair says the program is generating more than warm fuzzies; the results show up in the firm’s testimonials and referral numbers. We asked how a policy this loose actually holds together.
—Interview by Emily Kelchen, edited by Bianca Prieto
(Image courtesy Scott Vicknair Injury Lawyers)
You say your job is to explain the why, hand your staff the budget and get out of the way. So tell us, what is the why?
Every client will forget what we did for them, but they will not forget the way we made them feel. Taking the time to care for them and show them you care will make them feel as important as they are to our team.
How did you come up with this idea?
The program was initiated after I read the book The Power of Moments. It’s about how we all have the ability to create memorable, meaningful experiences.
Why $600? How did you land on that number?
It seemed like a reasonable number that would allow 25-30 gifts a year in the $20-25 range. The thought is more important than the dollar value.
Where's the line for you between a thoughtful gift and something that could look like an inducement, or that a bar regulator might raise an eyebrow at?
The bar has given us explicit advice that gifts must be limited in value for situations where they are directly for client referrals. Almost every gift is in the $20-$50 range, which the bar would consider a nominal amount.
The only real rule you have is that firm employees aren’t supposed to gift firm-branded items. Why is that a rule?
We want the gift to be about the client, not us.
Plus, if they want to, our clients can grab firm-branded items in our client appreciation center when they come in to pick up their disbursement.
Most firms treat the check disbursement as a transaction. We treat it like the end of something that mattered. When a client arrives, they are escorted to a lounge area with snacks and drinks. They see their name on a TV screen. We have a photo backdrop so clients can take pictures with the team that worked on their case. And they can peruse our wall of firm merch and pick out whatever they'd like to take home.
Client lounge (Courtesy Scott Vicknair Injury Lawyers)
Do you keep track of who is gifting what?
A list of gifts is published each month via email. Everyone in the firm sees who has spent how much and gifted each month.
You’ve had this program in place for about a year. Has it had a meaningful impact?
The gifts are meaningful because they display to our clients through our actions that we care about each of them uniquely. Our customer satisfaction scores, Google reviews and increased referrals are evidence of this working over the long term.
Raise The Bar’s Take
The lesson here isn't really about gifting; it's about where firms put their trust. Vicknair’s aware that the people closest to a client know that client better than anyone else, so he trusts his team to make their own gifting moves. Pairing that with ethical guidelines on gift amounts and the monthly list of gifts keeps the program running more smoothly than any more hands-on oversight ever could.
How does your firm handle client gifts?
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Raise the Bar is written and curated by Emily Kelchen, edited by Bianca Prieto.
