Marc Gericó at the I Congress of Humanist Advocacy at ICAM: “Do you all know the buying process and experience in Starbucks? You should achieve the same”

How has communication in the legal sector evolved in the last decade? What will be the new forms of communication? These questions were the core of the round table on “Communication, law and ethics” held at the First Congress of Humanist Law at ICAM.

The round table, moderated by Marc Gericó, managing partner at Gericó Associates, was attended by Margarita de la Fuente, founder of Patentbox International and director of the program “Patenta tu éxito” on Radio Libertad; Carlos Berbell, director of Confilegal; José Luis Vegas González, partner at Vegas Legal; Fernando Fanego Castillo, lawyer member of the Civil Liability section of ICAM and presenter of the radio program “El quitamiedos”; and Andrés Ruiz, founder of Todojuristas.com.

During the event, Marc Gericó highlighted the consequences of the fact that, in just a few years, everything has evolved so quickly: “Looking back, I remember that, when between 2013 and 2015 Facebook and Twitter were booming, it seemed that everything had to fall on those networks. However, then there was a second phase, when other platforms such as Instagram were boosted, especially for attracting talent by firms. At that time there were large firms whose communication strategy relied on Facebook, especially for social responsibility and talent issues. Twitter was the communication to the world, where we saw a little bit of everything”.

Photograph by Adrián Hernández

As for the communication strategy, Marc Gericó assures that it depends on each type of firm and who we are addressing: “This conditions the type of language, channels and formats. It is key to start by asking oneself for what and for whom I want to communicate, focusing the objectives correctly in order to carry out a business-oriented strategic communication”.

With regard to communication and customer relations, he states that there are two phases: “The first phase is the attraction of the customer, in which the firm must bring out its best strengths in the market, but then there is a second phase in which the customer really falls in love with the firm, and here it is necessary to implement loyalty strategies and optimal service provision. And then comes the moment of invoicing, when it is essential to know how to transmit our value and justify, if necessary, the amount of our fees”.

Finally, with regard to client management, he stresses that it is always advisable to have the figure of the project manager, who transmits confidence to the client from the beginning: “How? By establishing a work methodology, standardized processes, predictability of what is to come and communications.When you go into a Starbucks, you know exactly what the process will be: they ask your name, smile, take the order, make it easy for the customer to see the process of placing the order, call by name, smile and deliver the order, and then they call the customer by name, smile and deliver the product. This example conveys a standard of quality and specific processes.

We need to analyze how each of us builds that trust and manages each project with the customer to build customer loyalty, which is the real challenge.”

Photographs by Adrián Hernández