JW Way Fundamental #6: Be passionate about the client experience
“Make each client interaction memorable for its warmth, thoughtfulness, and helpfulness. Create wow experiences, Be obsessive about response time and keeping clients informed.”
While delivering outstanding legal advice is the cornerstone of what we do, a close second, and often overlooked ingredient to building a great law firm is delivering a great customer experience to every Client and with every interaction with that Client.
An important part of delivering a great customer experience is making sure the client feels that you really care about them and their matter. In a broad way, caring is shown by demonstrating empathy for the client’s situation, by fully listening and by honoring commitments. There are a number of specific tools and techniques we can utilize to convey caring when interacting with clients. A simple example is acknowledging the shortcomings in our court system when they impact the client and stating that you understand how frustrating and difficult it must be for them. Everyone likes to have their feeling and beliefs validated. Clients often feel “wronged” and often feel cheated. They often feel that the legal cost of resolving their matter is too high. Acknowledge and validate their feelings.
Delivering a great client experience also means paying attention to the simple mechanics of client service:
- Over-communicate, return calls and emails promptly
- Send copies of everything a client would want to see
- Honor your commitments
- Be respectful of the client’s time by not keeping clients waiting. Sincerely apologize if something caused you to be late
- Treat the client’s money as if it were your own
- Discuss the expense of alternative options and let the client know if you think a certain option is not “worth it”.
Remember, we are in the client service business, as well as the legal business. What will you do to make every client interaction a great client experience?