How to manage expectation of clients in Mediation?
This title reflects a familiar marketing and ethical question for all service providers – what do clients of plumbers/doctors/psychologists/builders/lawyers etc want?
Predictably, the answers given by anecdote, “theory” and more systematic research are complicated and conflicting. There is a simple answer to every complex question, and it is wrong.
There are three elements in the question – what do the (1) clients of (2) mediators (3) want?
First, who are “clients”? There are four possible types of clients:
- Immediately visible disputants or “parties”.
- The “tribe” behind the visible disputants – eg relatives, shareholders, cheer squads, the hawks, doves and moderates.
- The person paying the mediator – the insurer, taxpayer, corporation, court administrator.
- The “expert” representative (often a lawyer) acting on behalf of the “party”.
These four categories of “clients” have different though usually some overlapping goals or “wants”.
https://www.lawweb.in/2013/06/how-to-manage-expectation-of-clients-in.html#more
