Clients hire attorneys to solve legal problems and deliver desired outcomes. They want our advice and our work product. They pay for our services and the results we get for them.
But that’s not all we’re paid for.
We’re also paid for the experience we give our clients and, in great measure, that experience is just as important and valuable as the legal work we do and the outcomes we deliver.
It’s true. Airy-fairy as it may sound, clients value how we make them feel when we do what we do.
Your mom might have told you, it’s the little things that make the difference.
Little things like showing clients how hard you work to help them and how you give them hope.
A lot of it is in the tone of your voice, the look in your eyes, and the urgency with which you do what you do. The little things really aren’t little at all.
The way you respect them by seeing them at the time scheduled for their appointment (and apologizing if you were even a few minutes late); the way you refuse to look at your phone during your time with them, or the extra time you spend with them (off the clock) when they have more questions or are worried and need you to hold their hand.
And more.
The things you say or do that have nothing to do with your services, like sharing an idea you have that could help their business or telling them about your health challenge to encourage them about theirs.
Little things, like introducing them to people who can hire them, telling them about a support group you heard about that might have some answers they need or want.
It all counts. More than we might realize.
When you show clients you care about them as human beings more than you care about their business, you make them feel good about choosing you as their lawyer and good about themselves for overcoming their doubts and fears and taking a chance on you.
How you make clients feel doesn’t replace the work you do and the results you deliver, but it’s close.
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