Your clients hire you to obtain results. They want a certain outcome, a verdict or settlement, a deliverable. This post points out that results usually come at the end of the engagement and says that, ". . .clients don't care about results most of the time, they care about the experience they're having with you right now."
Clients obviously do care about how they are treated by you and your staff; their experience with you is important to them. But I don't think you can say they don't care about results most of the time. They certainly do.
But, next to getting those results, there's something else they care about.
They want to see that you made the effort.
Clients want to see that you tried. You fought for them. You did the work. If the hoped for results don't come, most clients will accept this, but only if they know you did your best.
Your clients expect you to treat them politely and keep them informed. They expect you to be fair in your billing. Being treated well is part of the deal, part of what they get when they hire you. But being treated well will never excuse a lack of effort.
There's two parts to this:
- You have to make the effort, and
- Your clients need to know you did.
Make sure your clients see your work product and understand everything you do. Paper them, inform them, explain to them. Show them you did everything you could to obtain the results they want. That's what they're paying you for.
Filed under Client relations, Communication by 
My recent post on holiday greeting cards elicited a comment from Bruce Brightwell, an attorney who sends his list a magnetized refrigerator calendar. "People love the calendars, and I am in front of them for the whole year," he said.
This is smart marketing. A practical gift that keeps your name and contact information in front of clients and prospects that is inexpensive and effective.
Calendars are a great year end gift. What can you do the rest of the year?
Do a search for "advertising specialties" or "ad specs". That's what they are called in the trade. You will find a mind numbing array of possible items you can offer:
- Pens
- Key chains
- Calendars (wall, refrigerator, desk, wallet)
- T-shirts
- Baseball caps
- Book bags
- Book ends
- Paper weights
- Coffee mugs
- Thermoses
- Book bags
- Mouse pads
- Business card cases
- Book marks
I like pens. You can get them in bulk for under .25 cents, and nice ones for under a dollar. People use pens and carry them, and if they lose one, someone else will pick it up.
I also like note pads. They are very inexpensive (any printer can make them for you) and you can get them in different sizes. Real estate agents send them pre-printed with lines for a grocery list. This is good for consumers. For businesses, I like a 4 by 5 1/2 size that can sit on a desk or next to a phone. While taking notes, your prospect looks at your name and smiling face at the top of the pad, draws a mustache and eye glasses and darkens your teeth. It's a note pad and a game!
A disadvantage of note pads is that once they have been used, they're gone. But this gives you an opportunity to get in front of clients and prospects several times a year to replenish their stock.
In choosing an item, keep in mind the amount of room available for printing. A pen has very limited space; a calendar has much more. More space lets you include an "advertising" message: your practice areas and/or an offer, e.g., "'Free Report: How to save 20 to 50% on legal fees this year' at www.mywebsite.com".
You can, of course, have more than one gift item. You could mail everyone a calendar at year end, give coffee mugs to visitors to your office, and give a more expensive item (e.g., Polo shirt) to new clients.
Have you used ad specs to market your practice? Did it bring you new business?
Filed under Advertising, Client relations, Marketing legal services by
To be productive, a farm needs acres and acres of land. Rich top soil, seeds planted a few inches under the surface, within reach of the sun's rays, regular water, and the loving care of the farmer. The farmer knows that each seed can yield only so much, so he plants lots of them. More seeds, bigger harvest.
A farm is "an inch deep and a mile wide." Unfortunately, so are many law firms. They plant a lot of seeds, going wide instead of deep, collecting fees and moving from new client to new client. But while a seed planted in the Earth can only yield so much, clients can yield far more than the fees they initially pay.
Each client can also:
- Hire you again
- Hire you for other services
- Provide referrals
- Introduce you to prospects, referral sources
- Promote you via social media
- Send traffic to your web site
- Recommend your newsletter, ezine, blog
- Distribute information by and about you
- Invite their colleagues to your seminars
- Provide information to you about their industry and/or key people
- Give you testimonials and endorsements
- Provide feedback about your marketing
The big money in a law practice is not the initial harvest, the fees earned on front end. The big money is earned on the back end. You may earn $10,000 from a client today, but $100,000 over their lifetime.
To bring in his big crop, the farmer must nurture his seedlings. So must you nurture your clients. Communicate with them. Appreciate them. Acknowledge them. Give to them. Build strong relationships with your clients and they will bear much fruit and continue to blossom for many seasons.
A farm is an inch deep and a mile wide; a law firm should be an inch wide and a mile deep.
Filed under Client relations, Increase your income, Leverage, Marketing legal services, Relationship marketing by
I hired an attorney recently. After I signed the retainer agreement, he gave me a copy of the agreement and my check. Nothing else. Nor has he sent me anything in the mail or email in the several weeks since.
No letters, no phone calls, no information.
It's true, nothing has happened yet that would require an update. Nevertheless, not sending me anything or communicating with me in any way is a big mistake.
Attorneys need to give new clients as much information as possible, and stay in touch with them as often as possible:
- To thank them for choosing you instead of any other lawyer
- To educate them on what you will be doing and how the client can help you do a better job for them
- To inoculate the client from doing or saying anything that could harm them
- To clarify and commemorate what you told the client and what the client told you
- To give them something to show their spouse or partner that explains what you are doing and why it is necessary
- To show clients you are organized and experienced and that they can trust you to stay on top of their matter
- To ensure the client knows what will be happening, and when, so they don't expect too much, too soon
- To let the client know that even though they haven't heard from you, you are working on their case
- To reduce the client's anxiety–about their case and about working with a lawyer
- To add value to the transaction and exceed the client's expectations; to give them a "wow" experience
- To clarify billing and payment requirements so there are no misunderstandings or unpleasant surprises
- To set the stage for cross-sales and referrals by educating the client about other services your firm offers
Every law firm should send new clients home with as much information as possible. Create a simple "new client kit" and supplement this with regularly scheduled letters and phone calls. Let them know what you are doing for them, even if what you are doing is waiting for something from them or from another party.
Many attorneys do this but too many don't. How about you? What do you send your new clients and how has this helped your practice?
Filed under Client relations, Law office management, Referrals, Thank you letters by
When was the last time you called a client just to say hello?
If you're not doing that, you're missing out on a simple but very effective marketing tool. In fact, it's one of the best tools you have.
Calling clients and former clients without the meter running, with no business agenda whatsoever is, ironically, a great way to get new business. Why? In the long term, the stronger your client relationships, the more loyal your clients will be. When they need your services, or know someone who does, odds are you will be the one they call. In the short term, your call reminds them that you still exist, that you still provide the benefits they want, and it prompts them to think about their lives and the lives of the people they know in that context.
When they speak with you your clients will remember a question they've been meaning to ask you but "didn't want to bother you" or didn't want to get a bill. They'll remember their cousin who just got into an accident or someone at work who is having marital issues. They'll think about a friend of theirs whose business is having cash flow problems.
Surveys tell us that clients who could refer often don't merely because they, "just didn't think about it." Your call makes them think about it.
The telephone is your most valuable marketing tool because it allows you to reach out and speak with the most important people in your (professional) life. These are the people who pay your mortgage and put your kids through school and they don't know how much you appreciate them. Show them by calling, just to say hello.
Filed under Client loyalty, Client relations, Marketing legal services by
When one of your clients has a friend or business contact who needs a lawyer, they'll hand their friend your business card (we hope) and say, "Here, call my lawyer".
Notice they don't say, "Here, call my law firm."
Your clients have a relationship with you, not your firm. Even if you are a partner, your brand is "you" and "you" is what you should be promoting.
If permitted, you should have your own web site or blog, your own social media accounts, your own domain name, and your own email account (you@yourdomain.com).
If all you do is promote and brand your firm, what happens if you leave the firm or the firm disbands?
Your brand is valuable. It should be protected, nurtured, and grown.
(Note, the above photo is a business card from lawyer James Rains, circa 1857. It says, "Will practice in any of the Courts, and attend promptly to the collection of claims." It looks like he was a partner in the firm of "Kernan & Rains," yet the card promotes Mr. Rains.)
Filed under Business cards, Client relations, Referrals, Relationship marketing, Social media by
This morning, I spoke to a coaching client, a successful personal injury attorney, about a recent decline in the number of new clients his firm was signing up. It wasn't a precipitous drop, but enough to bring it to my attention. The economy has hurt attorneys, but clients don't need money to hire someone on a contingency fee, right? Could it be that people are simply driving less?
After some discussion, the question answered itself. The attorney realized that he had gotten away from doing some of the things he had done to build his practice. For one thing, he didn't have as much time to meet with clients personally. He used to do the initial client interviews himself and now has a paralegal do that for him. He knows it is the personal touch that builds relationships (and that those relationships create future business) but he doesn't have ninety minutes to invest in the initial client meeting.
I suggested he continue having the paralegal do the interview but that he come into the room at the end, shake hands, review the file, and say something wise and reassuring. Five minutes instead of ninety.
Isn't that what happens when you see a doctor? The nurse takes your history and then the doctor comes into the room. The doctor sees you for a couple of minutes, writes a prescription, and moves on. You expect this and you are satisfied with this. He or she is still "your" doctor.
It is important to meet clients personally, to let them know they made a good decision in choosing you, and to give them some encouraging words about their case. This has nothing to do with the technical aspects of the case and everything to do with building a relationship with the people who are putting your kids through college.
But this post isn't about the value of building relationships so much as getting back to basics, about doing what worked so well in the past that you stopped doing it.
Football coach Vince Lombardi began every new season with a lecture to both veterans and rookies alike on the basics of football. "This is a football," he would begin, followed by instructions on the elements of the game–passing, blocking, punting, and tackling. Lombardi knew that mastery of the fundamentals was the key to success in football and it is no less so in building a law practice.
If your business has declined, the economy could be a factor, but there's nothing you can do about that. What you can do is get back to fundamentals. What have you done in the past that worked so well you stopped doing it?
Filed under Client loyalty, Client relations, Coaching, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Time Management by
"I'm a busy lawyer. I don't have a lot of time to write a newsletter or blog."
Good. If you have time to write a lot, your clients and prospects might not read what you send them.
While frequency of contact is important, quality is far more important. Instead of writing low-quality weekly messages, you'll do far more to strengthen your relationships and build your reputation by sending a high-quality missive once a month.
I am subscribed to hundreds of blogs and email newsletters. My email inbox and RSS feed reader are inundated. Several times a day I peruse these offerings. I spend most of that time skimming the headlines and deleting or archiving nearly every article. I may scroll through ten or twenty percent but I probably read no more than two percent. The ones I read (and, often save) are where the real value for me lies.
I stay subscribed to this multitude of newsletters and blogs because they give me a sense of what's trending in my areas of interest. I also find articles I can share with my Twitter and Facebook companions. And, I do find articles worth reading. If I don't have time to read them on the spot, I save them to read later. Many of the publications I follow publish several times per week; some of the bigger publications publish twenty or thirty articles per day.
I filter through a large quantity of articles looking for the few of high quality. Sometimes they come from the multitude. More often, they come from the handful of sources that consistently provide high quality material. They may not post frequently and not everything they post is golden, but the most useful material (for me) usually comes from the same sources. Those are the ones I look forward to and make sure I read.
So, if you write a newsletter or blog, you don't have to write every day or three times a week or even weekly. Write when you can but make it worth reading. Your clients and prospects will appreciate it.
Apparently, uncle Google agrees. Carolyn Elefant writes that while in the past, quantity of keywords and links to a web site determined primacy in search engine ranking, Google has modified its algorithm to better reflect the quality of those keywords and links. You don't need everyone linking to your site, so long as you have the right ones.
Filed under Blogging, Client relations, Communication, Email, Productivity, Relationship marketing, Social media, Social media marketing, Writing by
One of the best ways to get more repeat business and referrals is to stay in touch with your clients and other contacts and one of the best ways to do that is via email. But whether you email individually or to a list of newsletter subscribers, your efforts can backfire if you make some simple, but all too common mistakes:
- Using your personal email account (e.g., hotmail, aol, gmail, etc.) instead of you@yourdomain.com.
- Difficult to read messages–ALL CAPS, paragraphs that span the entire email window, long paragraphs and sentences, unusual fonts.
- Poorly written or edited, boring "lawyer-like" prose, too much "technical" law talk, not enough human interest.
- Lengthy disclaimers and CYA language that put distance between you and the reader.
- Emailing too often or not often enough. People need to hear from you and if you send valuable and interesting content, they will want to hear from you. Occasional emails are better than no emails but monthly is better. If you have enough to say, weekly is better still. Daily is not unheard of for some markets.
- Always selling. Your emails should be 90% content.
- Never selling. Your offers (services, free reports, seminars, etc.) deliver benefits people need and want. Don't deny them.
- Not putting "you" into your messages. You are building a relationship with you, not your firm, so make your messages personal.
- Putting too much "you" into your messages. Talk to your readers about their lives, their business, not about yourself.
- Making it difficult for recipients to unsubscribe or change their email address. Don't make people email/reply, automate the process with an autoresponder.
Have you made any of these mistakes? Are there any that you've seen your colleagues make that aren't on this list?
Filed under Client relations, Communication, Email, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Relationship marketing, Writing by
Seth Godin talks about making your (practice) indispensable:
[mc src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vzuLbaMAF8&feature=player_embedded" type="youtube"]Seth Godin on making your business indispensable[/mc]
Filed under Client loyalty, Client relations, Communication, Image by
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