Most of us have used a conveyancing solicitor or conveyancing executive at some point in our lives.
Cast your mind back to when you instructed your chosen operative to conveyance your first home or even a commercial purchase. Can you remember the level of service you received during the conveyancing process?
For me, conveyancing is very similar to a dining experience. You might wait weeks for availability at that exclusive restaurant in hope of receiving a culinary masterclass or you could simply settle for subpar fast food.
What we’re all really looking for is that unexpected gem. That little local restaurant that doesn’t look like much, but delivers a knock-out experience.
What we’re trying to avoid is spending a fortune on fine dining and receiving fast food instead of foie gras.
So, what are the different forms of culinary conveyancing?
Under-Par
Even in the upper echelons of dining, restaurants have a set amount of table covers to serve each night, and there’s a similarity here in some law firms.
You may have instructed a full-service law firm for your conveyancing, however, the legal executive or paralegal dealing with your case may be dealing with over 100 files at a time. This ultimately affects the service levels and their efficiency in keeping you updated.
Due to their workload, lease drafts may extend lead times and deadlines can be missed. Surveys and searches all have lead times outside of the firm, and the instructions need to be timed to perfection in line with tying up the case for completion.
The Masterclass
On the other hand, if the same restaurant assigned the restaurant manager and head chef to your dining experience, I’m sure your experience would be first-class throughout.
Issues would be dealt with effortlessly and updates would be delivered in a timely manner.
Here’s another avenue. If the ingredients the restaurant had received were not up to scratch — ultimately affecting your dining experience negatively — the restaurant manager would not hesitate in returning the ingredients and replacing them, or possibly even dealing with the vendor directly and negotiating a discount for you.
The Local Gem
There is an argument that the best food can be sourced from local, often family-owned, establishments. On holiday, there is nothing better than the local’s recommendation when deciding where the best place to eat is.
A specialist stand-alone conveyancing firm in my view depicts the local’s recommendation. The price can be very reasonable and there isn’t any question about the high quality of service you’ll receive as the buck stops with the name above the door.
With only a local catchment area, great relationships are often formed with local vendors. Executives are often in contact with the same vendors for multiple cases resulting in mass completion of tasks.
On the other hand, the downfall of a local catchment area is in the inability to cover transactions outside of the chosen area. After all, you can’t be a local gem and operate nationally, can you?
Fast-Food
There are a number of comparison sites as well as online advertisements offering cut-price conveyancing. If you’re a regular fast-food consumer and very rarely fine dine, would you recognise a bad experience with your McDonald’s from Deliveroo or would you see it as ordinary service?
Home-Cooking
There is an argument that if you researched accordingly, you could complete your own conveyancing in the same way people cook at home from scratch.
However, the other side of the argument is how would you grade the quality of the result? If you are well clued up with a knack for cooking, the results could be great. But if you aren’t, things could go disastrously wrong.
Have you Received Michelin Star Service?
On reflection where would you position your recent conveyancing experience?
In turn — for the partners and head of departments out there — how do you feel your own conveyancing department performs?
For me, this scenario is about finding something to match your requirements. This is exactly why you should select the digital marketing agency suitable for your firm.
A lot of our clients have been struck down by the marketing version of food poisoning before dealing with us, only realising what they had purchased wasn’t good enough after the event.
If you would like to discuss a creative approach to your legal marketing, we are Strawberry Forge and are on hand with the right utensils.
We even offer our own marketing masterclass in our Digital Workshop.
