On January 3rd, I posted a story about Thomson Reuters’ decision to move attorney research support to a “core business hours” model and eliminate 24X7
research assistance. Execs at TR must have gotten whiplash when they threw the policy into reverse on January 5. However they announced that 24X7 hours wouldn’t be resumed until January 18th….
I suppose this temporary Lexis offering is in the spirit of “never letting a good crisis go to waste.” A representative from LexisNexis just provided me with the message below:
As a follow-up to your story about TR dropping – then reinstating – its 24/7 support, LexisNexis is offering Westlaw customers free research support until Jan. 17 to get them through this service interruption. Attorneys can call 1-800-543-6862 to get help with their legal research needs (There’s also a landing page with more info). The company has added additional after-hours and weekend staffing to handle the increased calls. Hoping you can help spread the word so that attorneys (and librarians!) are not left without support.
This is a bit of a “stick in the eye” and piling on — after all Thomson Reuters quickly reversed their decision. However they did create the opening by postponing the resumption of full service to January 18th.
I have to assume that there are lawyers who would welcome support from any source if they are up against a filing deadline and are stuck on a research problem.
I am posting this as a warning to other vendors. They need to take both customer support and customer engagement very seriously. It is not only good business but ignoring customer needs leaves the organization open to longer term reputational damage.
