What would it take for your clients to say bye-bye?

Share

What would it take for your current crop of clients to leave you? What would make them say “enough” and hire another attorney?

Ponder on this for a bit. How might you offend them? What promises would you have to break? To what level would your standard of care have to fall?

It’s good to know these things so you don’t do them. And so you can work on strengthening what you do in each of those areas.

One area to consider are your fees. If you’re doing things right, fees aren’t the most important consideration for most clients. In surveys I’ve seen it’s number four on the list of factors for hiring an attorney, after things like “keeping them informed/availability” and other service-related issues.

If fees aren’t the number one factor, you have to ask yourself how much more you could charge before clients start to leave.

Could you safely raise your fees by 20% without losing clients? How about 30%? Could you double your fees, or triple them?

If you increased your fees and lost some clients, what percentage would be tolerable? Consider the added income you would bring in from the clients who didn’t leave and from new clients who signed up at the higher level?

When it comes to fees, surely even the most loyal client has a breaking point, right?

Maybe not.

I mentioned in a prior post a conversation I had with an attorney who was spending thousands of dollars a year on auto insurance for the family’s three cars. I asked her if they had shopped other carriers to see how much they might save. She immediately told me that she would never do that.

They like their agent and have been with him for years. He provides them with good service and they would never consider going anywhere else.

“What if you could save $2000 a year?” I asked her, and pointed out that this was entirely possible.

“No,” she said, they wouldn’t switch. They’d had other agents before and were disappointed with them, so they really appreciate (and are loyal to) their current one.

It didn’t matter that they might be grossly over-paying for something they might never use. It didn’t matter that if they did file a claim, the agent has little or nothing to do with whether or not that claim is paid, or how much.

Most people, myself included, look at auto insurance as a commodity. There are lots of places you can buy it. A few phone calls or online applications might allow you to save as much as two-thirds for the same coverage.

But this didn’t matter to her.

Granted, auto insurance isn’t purely a commodity. There is a service aspect to it. But how much is that worth?

Apparently, more than some people think.

Now, if this is true for auto insurance might it also be true of legal services? Something that isn’t a commodity (or shouldn’t be)?

I say yes. Which means that if you do a good job for your clients, you might be able to safely charge significantly more than you do now.

Especially if your clients have had other attorneys and were disappointed with them.

Fees, billing, and collection made simple

Share