New Year's Resolutions from TR Legal's Rebranded "Customer Experience and Education" Department, Division, Whatever (?) -- It Has a Senior VP, So It Must be Important

Recently LLB called attention to eight contributors who, in thinking out loud fashion, expressed their New Year's resolutions for practicing their profession in a 3 Geeks Elephant post. Not that any publicity is needed since if you are not already taking 3 Geeks' RSS feed, well ... even AALL officialdom is although they may not like what they read and may be wondering how they are going to silence one 3 Geeks blogger who will be joining the E-club at Philly (Cream Cheese or Cheesesteak) 2011. Good luck with that since according to his New Year's resolution, he doesn't give a damn. See the 3 Geeks Elephant post. OMG, I am digressing in the lead-in paragraph. Sorry, I usually don't do that until the 3-4-5th paragraph of a post -- "my bad." Back to the story.

Invoicing-paying law librarians may have noticed that Bob Azman, TR Legal's Senior Vice President, Customer Experience & Education, announced what sounds to me like three corporate New Year's resolutions.

In the next twelve months:

• We will improve the Customer Experience by assisting you with fast resolution to your inquirings.
• We will have improved training opportunities to keep you up to date and informed, with options for online learning, including eLearning and webinares.
• We will continue to provide you with 24x7 expertise in Westlaw and Westlaw Next via our Reference Attorneys.

Well, isn't that special! Let's hope those corporate resolutions are more successful that personal ones like "I resolve to lose 20 pounds," etc. As far as I'm concerned, the first listed resolution is the most important one. Azman adds

Your feedback is important. Please don't hesitate to send me your thoughts on how we can further improve your experience in 2011. You can contact me directly at customerService@ThomsonReuters.com

Ah ... don't know about you but every Land of 10,000 Invoices VP I've received an email from has an email account something like bob.azman@thomsonreuters.com or robert.azman@thomsonreuters.com. This isn't exactly starting off well, Bob, if that is your real name! But, what the heck, let's see whether TR Legal delivers on its 2011 resolutions. If so, I will be delighted to write a post this time next year saying that the Company did but I'm not going to hold my breath for the next 12 months. You?

BTW, if you are not an invoice-paying law librarian, Azman's form letter was included in TR Legal's latest monthly statements for Westlaw. Still waiting for print statements that close off CY 2010 shipments. Oh joy when they arrive.

Congratulations Fraz on your promotion! Well deserved and it is good to see that hard work in customer service (sorry, I meant "customer experience and education") in Eagan does get recognized. I will miss your prompt attention to our little county law library's transactions with West, which have included massive print cancellations you executed promptly with understanding and appreciation for our fiscal situation. Now, how much do I have to increase my annual West spent to become a major, premium, whatever, government account that is your new portfolio?

Hello, big government spenders, if Fraz is your inside contact now, you are in good hands. You have no idea how many times I called or emailed Fraz starting or ending with "sorry, I was having a senior moment." Fraz has been at this some four years. That probably makes him one of the more senior inside print reps in the company. He knows what he is doing and knows that a personalized relationship with his institutional buyers, one knowledgeable in their institutional needs, is very important. Fraz also has a personalized email account and a direct dial phone number that does not end in W-e-s-t. So here's one person in Eagan who didn't need a New Year's resolution to "improve the Customer Experience by assisting you with fast resolution to your inquirings."

All joking aside. I'm sure invoicing-paying law librarians do hope TR Legal lives up to its 2011 New Year's resolutions. It's going to take a corporate cultural transformation but, if Matthew Bender can do it, so can West. [JH]