Delivering Value
To Your Clients
By Art Italo
The growing number of lawyers has brought a huge increase in competition for clients. Potential clients clamor for value as they become aware there are more choices in legal services than ever before. Gone are the days when an attorney had only to hang out a shingle to have a line of eager clients forming at the door. Now lawyers have to network actively to find new clients and fight tooth and nail to keep them.
From a marketing standpoint, clients are your most precious commodity. In most practices, the majority of new business comes from client referrals. Savvy lawyers are discovering that it is no longer enough just to deliver good legal services. You must deliver VALUE.
Marketing gurus have written volumes on what constitutes value for clients. Let me condense it into one sentence.
The client perceives value when the benefit received is believed to be worth more than the money spent.
The critical factor here is that value depends on the client's perception, which may have little to do with legal issues. Thus, you can get your client a great result and still not get any referrals if you didn't address his or her non legal needs.
To deliver value to your clients, you must understand what they expect from you. Since clients can have different expectations depending on the case and the client, there is only one way to know how to deliver value. Ask the client. Before you take the matter, try asking questions such as the following:
- What results do you expect of me in this matter?
- What are you looking for in the attorney/firm you hire for this matter?
- What do you not want in an attorney?
- Have you ever had a bad experience with an attorney?
The answers to these questions will give you a good idea of how to please clients and how to avoid disappointing them.
As you continue working with a client, ask the following questions periodically:
- Are you satisfied with my services thus far?
- Is there any way I can serve you better?
Questions like these tell the client that you are dedicated to providing personal service. They appreciate the opportunity to give input. If they are dissatisfied in a specific area, they will tell you. You can then correct it. This will elevate you in their esteem.
There are several areas that surface repeatedly when clients are asked what dissatisfies them about their attorney. The following are the most frequently aired complaints. Deficiencies in these areas reduce the value of your service.
HE DOESN'T RETURN MY CALLS. How many times have you been told the importance of this one? Yet most attorneys freely admit that they are so busy they can't get to all their calls. Make no mistake about it. If you don't return your calls you are losing referral business. Let's examine why.
When Mr. Smith calls, you automatically prioritize his call relative to everything else you have to do today. It so happens that today, his call falls about 29th on a list where you will only get 15 things done. You therefore feel justified in postponing the call. Tomorrow, he is up to 23rd on the list. The next day he is 19th. Before long, a week has passed and you have six messages from Mr. Smith.
Now let's look at it from Mr. Smith's point of view. Clients hire attorneys for one reason; PAIN RELIEF. They are paying you to relieve or prevent physical or emotional pain. To your clients, your services are not a discretionary purchase. They need you. When Mr. Smith calls, you can bet that call is number one or two on his priority list. You also can be sure that he is feeling pain. It may only be the pain of uncertainty, but to him it is no small matter.
He is calling you for pain relief. If you don't return his call, you have added to his pain instead of relieving it. You have added frustration to his life. He hired you to relieve his pain but instead you are increasing it. From his perspective you aren't earning your money.
To bring value to your clients, never let the sun go down on an unanswered phone message! If you can't answer the call personally, have your secretary or paralegal get back to the client to see if they can help. If they can't help, have them ask the nature of the call. You can then prepare for your return call. Call back the next day without fail. Don't neglect your phone messages. It's like throwing referral business down the drain.
MY LAW FIRM OVERCHARGES ME. Many clients go into shock when they see their invoice. Even large corporate clients sometimes reel at the sight of their legal bills. Clients are often skeptical of hourly billings. They usually think the work could have been done in fewer hours. The best way to overcome this is to be sure the itemization is adequately detailed. Clients get less perturbed when they know exactly what they are paying for.
You can also ease the pain a bit by sprinkling in a few N/C's (no charge) on the invoice. Most attorneys will do some work they don't charge to the client. If you do this occasionally, make sure you note it on the invoice so the client knows he got something for nothing. This creates good will and those non billed hours will multiply into repeat business and referrals. If you believe in billing every second, consider investing a quarter hour here and there in your own future.
MY ATTORNEY DOESN'T LISTEN TO ME. Most lawyers can size up a situation quickly, especially if they have a lot of experience in a particular area. When they get the gist of the situation, they tell the client what he or she needs to do. Isn't that what the client hired them to do? Well, yes and no.
Part of what the client has hired you to do is to understand their personal needs regarding legal issues. Most attorneys listen selectively to the client. They focus on the facts and ignore the emotions. However, the best attorneys take time to find out how clients feel about the facts. This creates the impression that the attorney is really listening to them and cares about them. Even large corporate clients like to know that you understand their anxieties and frustrations.
Take the time to acknowledge your clients' feelings. If you recommend a course of action, ask whether they feel comfortable with it. If they have reservations, reassure them. This kind of personal attention pays big dividends in additional referrals.
MY ATTORNEY NEVER GETS THINGS DONE WHEN SHE SAYS SHE WILL. Commitment is like a magnifying glass. If you make a commitment, no matter what the results, they will be amplified. If you deliver on your commitments, your stock will soar. You will gain credibility. If you are late for your deadlines, the results are also magnified. You are now undependable. Missed deadlines are always displeasing to the client.
Attorneys often commit to unrealistic deadlines. To please the client, they promise work sooner than it is likely to be done. It's far better to be conservative and deliver the goods early, than to be aggressive and miss the deadline. If you promise the work Monday, and you have it Wednesday, the client is annoyed. If you promise it Friday, and deliver it Wednesday, the client is ecstatic. The client usually has no idea how long it will take to complete the work. However, the client does know what you committed to do.
When making commitments, give yourself a cushion wherever possible. You'll make yourself look good when you come in ahead of schedule.
If you can't avoid missing a deadline, tell the client before the deadline passes. Then set a new deadline. This shows the client that you are considerate and you take your commitments seriously.
Some attorneys who have been burned by missing commitments try to avoid making any commitments. This is as bad as breaking a commitment. It increases the client's uncertainty, and to the client, uncertainty equals pain. It's better to make a commitment and revise it than to avoid commitments altogether. Better yet, make realistic commitments and deliver more than you promise.
To better understand your clients' assessment of value, you should adopt their perspective. Suppose your car broke down and had to be towed to the shop. How would you feel if the service manager didn't return your calls for two or three days? Would you recommend the shop if they charged you five hours labor to change a battery cable? If the service manager was unsympathetic to the fact that you needed your car for an important meeting tomorrow, would you be likely to bring him more business? How would it affect your opinion of the shop if they promised you'd have your car tomorrow and it actually took seven days? Even if they repaired the car perfectly, any one of the above would probably cause you to take your business elsewhere.
Value is value. It doesn't matter whether you are an attorney or a mechanic. People appreciate considerate, personal service. Take care to do unto your clients as you would have your mechanic do unto you and you will improve your referral business dramatically.
Related Article: The 7 C's Of Good Service
Copyright © Art Italo, 1993. All Rights Reserved
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this link to see Art Italo’s Practice Profile
Art Italo is a consultant working exclusively with attorneys in the areas
of business development and strategic planning. He speaks internationally on
legal marketing and strategic planning.
He has developed and refined the concept of Leveraged Networking after
over 15,000 hours of individual consultations with attorneys. He has personally consulted with over 250
attorneys in
For on-line help with your marketing questions, e-mail Art Italo at
italco@mindspring.com or contact Art
Italo at:
Italo Consulting®
P.O. Box 680474
Marietta, GA 30068
(770) 859-0600
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