Creating Rapport
With Your Clients
By Art Italo
Good client rapport is becoming increasing important in getting and keeping clients. With the glut of attorneys in the marketplace, clients have more choices than ever before. Clients know there are plenty of good attorneys from which to choose. As a result, new aspects of the attorney-client relationship are gaining weight in the client's decision to retain or refer. One of the most important of these is rapport.
It would be helpful at this point to define marketing. Marketing is any action that affects the perception of another so as to change the probability of making a sale. When it comes to marketing, reality is irrelevant; perception is everything. Rapport is part of that perception. To put it in simple terms, part of marketing boils down to whether the client likes you.
Naturally, this affinity by itself is not enough to make clients refer their friends if they are not convinced you deliver good legal services. However, lack of rapport with your clients can cause them not to refer prospects to you even if they perceived you did a good job on their matters.
Most attorneys pay little attention to rapport building. I've had more than one attorney tell me they are running a law practice not a popularity contest. Some even think that having a good relationship with a client is detrimental because it clouds their objectivity. This is short sighted. As competition for clients gets more intense, this kind of attitude will lead to erosion in their client base.
Competition changes the general perception of the market. As clients discover they can get excellent legal services provided by amiable attorneys, they will begin demanding both qualities. This is already happening. Thus, rapport building represents an important weapon in your competitive arsenal.
Obstacles to Rapport
When a client first comes to you, there are a number of factors that work against a feeling of rapport. The client is usually uneasy in the first meeting. Most people have very little experience working with attorneys. Uncertainty provokes anxiety. Also, clients are usually there because they have a problem that has them preoccupied. This increased level of tension is not conducive to creating rapport with a total stranger.
The next barrier to rapport building is the unfortunate perception that attorneys are sharks that would gladly rip flesh from your bones for the sheer sport of it. Hyperbole aside, the public has a clear distrust for attorneys. This causes the client to be guarded. Since rapport is built on trust, this initial caution is a barrier to creating rapport.
Finally, the fact that you are an attorney creates a barrier for some people simply because you are different from them. The profession is associated with a certain standard of living far above what most people enjoy (in reality, most attorneys don't enjoy the standard of living that exists in the public's perception. Remember however, reality is irrelevant).
Though there are many factors to overcome in establishing rapport, I look at these barriers as a decided plus in the favor of a good attorney. There is nothing you should like better than a skeptical client. A skeptical client should motivate you to give better service to prove you are the exception to their negative rule. You can easily turn this negative bias to your advantage because the client's expectations start out so low.
Once you are able to differentiate yourself from the skeptics' misconceived notions, they will usually turn into your most loyal supporters. In their minds they will be saying, "Wow, I'm really lucky. I found one of the few good attorneys out there." It requires extra effort on your part, but it is well worth it. Some of the clients who have given me the most referrals are clients that started out as skeptics.
Connecting With Your Clients
There are a number of things you can do that will help you connect with your clients. Put them at ease. The first barrier between you and your clients is your desk. If it is practical to do so, you should meet with your clients on the same side of the desk rather than across the desk. This creates a more benevolent perception. If you are meeting in a conference room, rather than sitting directly across from the client, sit at the end with the client on your left. For reasons that are unclear, the left side is perceived as more open while the right is more guarded (some have opined we show them our right side because we are subconsciously guarding against someone thrusting a dagger in our hearts). Speaking to someone on your left shows your willingness to be open to them. When greeting your clients be warm and friendly. Don't rush right to the point. Some congenial conversation will take the edge off the meeting.
People have the greatest rapport with others they perceive to be like themselves. Look for opportunities to connect with things that are personal and positive in your clients' lives. Show enthusiasm and interest in things they enjoy. If you share a common interest such as golf, sailing, auto racing, baseball or gardening, let the client know you share their enthusiasm. Most people constantly give clues about how to connect with them because they want to be liked. If you show an interest in the things that give them passion, they will perceive you as a person who cares about them. This will create a solid bond.
Some attorneys believe that clients are not paying them to chit chat. They
believe it is a disservice to the client to waste time talking about things not
relevant to their legal work, especially if the client is billed by the hour.
This is easy to overcome. Just tell the client you aren't billing them for that
time: "By the way, there's no charge for the time we spent talking about
baseball." A technique I use is to deliberately tell the client when the
clock is starting. After five or ten minutes of small talk I will look at my
watch and say out loud to myself, "Ok,
Some attorneys object that idle conversation is a waste of their time and costs them money. Nothing could be further from the truth. By focusing on being time efficient at the expense of rapport, you are only hurting yourself in the long run. Such time is not wasted, it is invested. You are investing in client rapport which will bring you valuable referrals in the future.
From time to time, take your better clients out to lunch. Make this an informal contact. Steer the conversation away from business. This allows clients to see you in a more relaxed environment and lets them connect with you as a person instead of an attorney. Even if you do talk about their legal work, don't bill the client for such time while at lunch. The only exception is if the client suggests a working lunch meeting in lieu of a meeting at your office. In this case you should pay for lunch, but you are justified in billing the client because the client asked for the meeting.
Client Follow-up
Part of maintaining good rapport is staying in touch. It is the nature of the legal profession that attorneys will work closely with a client for a period of time and then not for a long while. If you are a litigator, you might work with a particular client only once.
In working with the client, you have invested a lot of time creating a perception that can result in referrals. If you don't maintain the relationship, you will lose the benefit of the good perception you have established.
For a client to make a referral, it is necessary that there is a perception of a continuing relationship in the mind of the client. As time passes without any contact, that perception is lost. It is important that you remind your inactive clients periodically that the relationship continues. Some suggestions follow:
Selecting Clients For Follow-up
Not all clients are desirable for follow-up. People tend to associate with others like themselves. If you didn't find a particular client to be desirable, you will probably feel the same about his/her friends. The rule here is very simple. Stay in touch with the clients you would like to serve again. If they are in a good demographic group, have a business of a desirable size or type and/or were flexible and enjoyable to work with, you will probably want more clients like them. Staying in touch with clients who were difficult or couldn't pay their bills is asking for more of the same.
Announcements
Any time there is any change in your business you should send out an announcement. Most attorneys send announcements when they start a new firm, go solo or change addresses. This usually brings a flood of calls wishing them well. It also brings some new matters.
Expand this idea to include less monumental changes. You don't have to print up engraved cards to send an announcement. For minor announcements, a form letter written on your word processor is sufficient. E-mail also works well. The point is to keep former clients apprised that you still consider them your clients.
If you add an associate, send an announcement including the attorney's background and areas of practice and how proud you are to have him/her with the firm. If you change paralegals, send a similar announcement telling the clients that he/she is eager to serve them. If you get a new FAX line, send an announcement. If you change the focus of your practice, send an announcement. If you have reorganized your staff to serve the clients better, send an announcement. Use any reasonable excuse to send a piece of mail to your clients. That keeps them thinking about you and maintains the perception of a continuing relationship.
Newsletters
Newsletters are another effective way to stay in touch with your clients. You can write them yourself, have your staff write them, or hire companies to write them for you. There are publishing companies that write "cookie cutter" newsletters on which they can print your name.
A newsletter should contain information that causes clients to ask themselves questions that can only be answered by an attorney. Include subjects that encourage preventive legal work such as, "Ten Good Reasons To Have Your Will Updated" or "Preventive Measures For Avoiding Employment Litigation." Give them just enough information to whet their appetite.
Newsletters should be sent out a minimum of once per quarter to be effective. You should mail to desirable clients, networking contacts, prospects and anyone else you think might be a source of business or a source of referrals. Such letters sometimes bring back referrals worth ten to twenty times what was spent on the newsletter.
The Internet
With the rapid growth of the Internet, E-mail and the World Wide Web are now being utilized by an increasing number of people and companies. Having a Web page for your practice is a good idea (you're reading one now!). Though most local practices will not benefit by using the Web as an advertisement for new clients, it can be an effective and inexpensive way to present your newsletter. There are no envelopes to stuff, paper to collate or address labels to print. You simply write your newsletter article and upload it to your web site.
Keep an address book of e-mail addresses and copy everyone on your list with a short note telling them about the article and how to access it. Also, since you can archive previous articles on your web site, clients can refer back to one if that issue suddenly becomes germane. This is an advantage over paper newsletters that are almost always discarded after they are reviewed.
Other Methods of Maintaining Client Contact
You should maintain regular contact with you best clients. Give them frequent Howdie Doodie calls (a call just to see how they are doing) and inquire if there is any way you can serve their legal needs. Take them to lunch or a sporting event periodically, even though they are not currently active.
Maintain a list of birthdays for all the clients and contacts on your follow-up list. Many attorneys send Christmas cards but I don't recommend this. People get dozens of Christmas cards but they might get only two birthday cards. Christmas is a day that belongs to everyone. Birthdays belong only to them. Make sure you write a short hand written note in the card wishing them well. One of my clients tried this and said he had a client call him up in tears saying the only birthday card she received this year was from her attorney. Needless to say, she referred him a number of cases.
Conclusion
Your most precious commodity is your clientele. The good job you do for clients and the good relationships you build will come back to you again and again in the form of additional business. Invest a little time in the personal approach. You will never regret it.
Copyright © Art Italo, 1996. All Rights Reserved
Related Article:
Effective Communication With Clients
Select
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
For more articles, return to the Italo
Consulting® Home Page
You are visitor # Thanks
for coming!
Counter provided by 