Legal prep can help businesses deal with 900-pound gorillas
6th August 2011 · 0 Comments
As a rule, gorillas and apes typically take a peaceful approach to life, but as the trailers for the Aug. 5 “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” have demonstrated, certain events can trigger the beast, exposing the aggressive nature of the animal.
Business executives need to be prepared to deal with the occasional 900-pound gorilla, the client who likes to puff out their chest and threaten a lawsuit or other form of legal action. These hairy confrontations can be unsettling and I often hear from my clients after the distressing encounter. However, with a little legal planning and business preparation, any executive can diffuse the situation.
As the buzz for this version of the Charleton Heston classic peaks our interests, here are some things that every business owner should be pondering and discussing with their legal team:
1) How can my contracts protect me in a dispute? Your attorney will help to strengthen the language of any contract and find loopholes that could cause legal issues. Many business owners are tempted to use contracts available from online web sites. While these websites are a great resource, an attorney needs to finalize any document and ensure compliance with the specific state statutes. This is the first line of defense to keeping disputes at bay.
2) How am I documenting disputes with clients? Every business should have procedures in place for dealing with customer disputes. I have often told clients to establish a customer service policy that allows employees to quickly resolve these conflicts. Most importantly, employees should document all encounters with clients to protect themselves as well as the company. If possible, have a supervisor or colleague sign off as a witness to any encounters with upset clients. Proper documentation of client interactions can be the difference between having a long, drawn out legal battle and resolving the dispute in a timely manner.
3) When should my attorney contact clients? When clients continue to bare their teeth and not listen to reason, it is probably time to bring in the legal team. By having a customer service policy and established procedures in place, a business owner can determine when to have their lawyer contact the upset customers. In many cases, an attorney will have a standard letter prepared which addresses the legal aspects of an agreement and outlines the steps necessary to settle the dispute.
Having a client friendly customer service policy in place will easily resolve most issues with the 900-pound gorillas. Additionally, legal planning and an understanding of how your attorney can play a role in disputes will help calm down the more aggressive apes. For those clients that continue to beat their chest and bare their teeth, the problem may not lie with your company. Business owners should run a cost/benefit analysis for the time and resource investment into that customer. They should then weigh the options and consider the possibility that it may just be time to let that client go.
Jim Montgomery is the president of Montgomery and Associates, a San Antonio-based law firm.
