The business of serving legal process is a “service” business in more ways than one. In order to be successful as a process server it is necessary to have clients who are willing to hire you and then pay for the work you’ve done. This section will discuss some of the important aspects of client care which, though easily overlooked, are vital to the success of any professional process server.
In this section, when the word “service” is used, it will generally relate to the service provided to the client and not to the act of service of legal documents.
Without clients you will not have any papers to serve and will be out of business shortly after you start. Clients are the single most important aspect of a business. Ignore them, and their needs, at your peril.
Expectations
What does your client expect you to be able to do? If you’ve advertised that you guarantee to serve 100% of the documents assigned to you then your clients will expect you to provide that level of service. The first time you fail to serve a paper then you will fail to satisfy the client and risk losing him to your competition. You set your client’s expectations through your advertising and your statements about what you will and can do. If you set them too high, as in this case, you are certain to experience failure.
On the other hand, if you create realistic expectations in your client’s mind your chance of success improves dramatically. If you meet those expectations your client will be pleased because you did what you said you would do. If you exceed those expectations your client will love you.
Reliability
George Washington said, “Undertake not what you cannot perform but be careful to keep your promises.” You make promises in a variety of ways. They are made in your advertising materials, in your conversations with clients, and in every way your name is known.
Clients come to you with problems and expectations. “I need these papers served. Here, you serve them for me.” If you reply, “I will serve them for you”, then your client will expect nothing less. On the other hand, if you reply, “I’ll try my best”, then your client will not hold it against you if you return the papers unserved accompanied by a report stating you found the given address empty and you were told by a neighbor the target moved to South America last week.
Another part of reliability is knowledge. Instead of just saying you will try your best you might say, “I’ll try my best to serve the papers according to statutes, court rules, and case law.” You have now promised your client that you are knowledgeable about those things which are important in correctly serving the documents with which you are being entrusted. The client’s expectations have been raised but not to an unreasonable level, so long as you are indeed knowledgeable in the areas covered by your promise.
Responsiveness
If you promise every service assignment will be attempted within 24 hours of receipt then you need to make sure it happens. Being responsive means being timely. If you set a deadline then you are creating an expectation in your client’s mind. As mentioned above, failure to meet an expectation could cost you a client.
Many assignments are time sensitive but not all of them. Some must be attended to today but others can wait a while. Indeed, it is not unusual to receive a number of assignments which require your attention today thus requiring you to put other, less time sensitive, assignments off to another day. Some process servers advertise that every service assignment is just as important as every other and they will be all treated equally. This means either DO TODAY assignments are not very important or casual assignments, typically cases dealing with collections, MUST BE ATTEMPTED TODAY NO MATTER WHAT!!!! Claiming that all assignments will be treated equally, and then attempting to fulfill that claim, creates a set of circumstances which almost guarantees failure.
Management theorist Peter Drucker said, “Time is the scarcest resource, and unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed.”
Reassurance
Are your clients comfortable with you? Do they have confidence in you? Do you stand out in their minds as a useful and helpful resource? These and other questions are answered in a number of ways.
Are you knowledgeable and do you let your clients know you are? Clients expect you to know the rules of service, do you? They expect you to know your local area, do you? They expect you to be helpful, are you? It is not unusual for a process server to know more about the rules of service than many attorneys and certainly more than their staff. Make yourself a resource to them. But know when to say, “I don’t know.” This lets the client know that you are aware of your limits.
Listen carefully to your clients and assist them in solving their problems. Ask questions about any part of an assignment which is unusual or different. This makes it clear to them that you are interested in completing the assignment correctly the first time out and that you don’t want to take anything for granted.
It is your job to solve problems for your clients, not create them.
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This is a rough diagram of a typical courtroom in the state of Washington. Courtrooms vary a great deal from city to city and county to county but they all have the same basic structure.
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