It is no surprise that clients make the majority of their decisions based on emotion vs. any kind of rational “calculation”—and the more emotionally engaged clients will probably recommend a lawyer or firm more often. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to pull at the heart strings through your marketing (although, it can’t hurt), but rather identify impactful ways to make meaningful connections. This is where small to medium sized firms have the size and agility to do this well.
A thorough review of your client service is a great place to start—online and offline. By viewing your procedures, processes and general contact from a client’s point of view, from here you can make the simple changes that encourage the development of a much stronger bond. Consider every point of contact as part of their experience, and think about how that experience might be improved.
- Are you missing opportunities to discover and develop a common bond?
- Is your staff empowered to provide service on an individual basis?
- Does your staff use humor, compassion and empathy? Are they personable?
- Are you really listening and/or acting on client feedback—before, during and after a point of contact? (This includes online, phone and automated/email interactions.)
Without a significant connection to your firm, clients could be easily swayed by any number of marketing maneuvers from competitors, large and small. Take time to look at the human/softer side of service, and discover the opportunities to make the most of client contact.
Action Items:
- Look at your marketing items – Do they tell a story or are they simply cold/generic?
- Look at your marketing items – Are you really trying to connect to your potential and current clients emotionally or is it all very “rational”?
- Have you ever looked at your marketing materials from a potential client’s perspective? Do they make you feel ass certain way? Is it good?
- Do you survey your clients at any point during their case? Do you take note of their feedback? What do you do with that feedback? Do you correct the areas where they say you aren’t performing up to par? Do you communicate to them that you have corrected those areas/come full circle?