During my days as an examiner and then lawyer at NASD, I often came across customer complaints that were seemingly triggered by a lack of responsiveness from a broker-dealer or representative to a customer's inquiry. What started out as a small issue or question became a large complaint due to the customer's inability to get their broker to return a phone call, or to find a listening ear at the home office of the firm. Of course, once the customer complains to a regulator, the relationship quickly sours and it may require significant resources from the firm to resolve the matter, not to mention the possibility of arbitrations and disciplinary proceedings. And we all know that its far easier to keep a customer than to get a new one.
A lack of responsiveness is certainly not limited to the brokerage industry, but is faulted in the legal world as well (and most other industries, I'm sure). I just finished reading the Association of Corporate Counsel's 2006 Chief Legal Officer Survey (see it here.) and saw that 32% of the respondents indicated that they had fired a law firm during the year. Of these respondents, the number 3 reason for firing a law firm was lack of responsiveness by the law firm. That's pretty amazing to me. If the Dow continues to fall (as I write this its now down nearly 800 points from its 14,000 high a little bit ago) more customers will become concerned and anxious. Failure to respond to them could result in needless headaches and troubles down the road. Now is a good time for the Compliance and Legal folks to remind the troops of the need to be responsive and provide good customer service. As for The Beck Law Firm, we will.
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