Roadmap to Success: Leadership, Technology and Professionalism

• March 18, 2009
• by ServeNow.com Staff
• Business Tips

David Nill has been a leader in process serving technology and business innovations throughout his nearly 25 years in the legal support services profession, but in December he broke new ground. His company, Rapid Legal, released its newest online court filing and process serving solution. With the new technology, the end users of his services can now file and serve from their desktops, upload documents electronically and track job statuses. These advancements have been driven largely by his customers.

I looked for a way to utilize the Internet to offer the most efficient service for court filing and process serving,” said Nill. “We can do that by offering our customers an online portal and then routing them to where they need to go in real time.”

This technology will allow a job to be sent from anywhere in the country to one of Nill’s branch offices in mere minutes. While the new online offering has only been live for three months, Nill says that he has received tremendous feedback that has allowed him to grow and thrive.

“Our next step is to make sure that it continues to be the most efficient solution for our customers, and that we continue to fulfill our customers’ service expectations,” said Nill. “In addition to fulfilling their needs, everything we do needs to be secure so that we protect our customer’s information.”

This wasn’t Nill’s first venture into technology. Nill worked on the Fax Filing Pilot Project to form the foundation of rules that regulate fax filing. He also served as the Technology Chairman for the California Association of Legal Support Professionals and continues to take part in both state and national discussions on eFiling.

“Now I’m trying to give back to the profession that has given me so much,” said Nill, who is a past president of CALSPro and a former member of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Professional Process Servers. “For the first five or 10 years that I was a member, I received so much knowledge from more experienced members. I’d sit down at a function and talk to people who had been in the profession for years. I’d hear their pitfalls, suggestions, and advice, which was invaluable. That was a major contributing factor to my success.”

Nill started process serving at only 21 years old. An employee at his father’s 7/11 store was a process server and helped Nill get jobs working in the East Los Angeles area. He impressed the owners of a conglomerate of legal service providers by staking out a very difficult serve and serving it. He tried to continually increase the area he was serving, and by serving papers faster than everyone else he earned a larger area to serve. His ambition didn’t end there. In 1994, he opened Rapid Legal with 18 employees and now has over 40 employees, shareholders and a board of directors.

After 25 years of process serving, Nill can see that he was never satisfied with where he was. He thought he could be doing things faster, with better quality and a higher level of customer service. He attributes much of his success to treating his business with a high level of professionalism and building trust in his customers.

Process serving requires a lot of professionalism and you can’t run it poorly or half done—regardless of size. You must hold yourself accountable and have policies and the best practice standards,” said Nill. “You can also build trust with customers by telling them the bad news. You can’t be afraid to say, ‘We made a mistake and we are going to correct it.’ I’ve built stronger customer relationships by being honest with them whether it is good or bad news.”

Despite Nill’s success in process serving, he is noticing the recession’s impact on his business.

“As far as growth, we’re not seeing an uptake or a downturn. Customers are paying slower because there’s less money out there. Law firms are folding and downsizing. It is already a stressful profession, and now we’re dealing with lawyers who are even more frustrated,” said Nill.

To combat the high emotions and attitudes of the recession, Nill has been working on managing expectations. He encourages his staff to try to understand what his customers and the courts are going through. He encourages them to work with what they have and use patience when dealing with customers.

“We’re not offering discounts or promotions right now, but we are working with customers when we can,” said Nill. “It’s a tough time for everybody and there needs to be an understanding to work with loyal customers.”

David Nill’s Words of Wisdom:

• If you don’t leave a message when you’re calling a customer it’s like you never called. 
• Work hard, be organized and put in the hours.
• Treat it like a business and bill regularly.
• It’s not just about serving, but communicating the service and returning the affidavit or proof.