Client Service

Providing superior client service is one of the best ways to get repeat business and client referrals. Doing so involves understanding your client’s true agenda, timetable, and specific wants and needs. If you can go above and beyond what the typical law firm provides, you can differentiate your services and build client loyalty. Here are four ways lawyers can take a proactive role in improving client satisfaction. continue

Client at the Core: Marketing and Managing Today’s Professional Services Firm
by August Aquila and Bruce W. Marcus
Publisher: Wiley (August 4, 2004)
ISBN: 0471453137

Most books on professional services marketing focus on how to advertise or put up a website to market your business. Consultants August Aquila and Bruce Marcus have written a book that goes a step further.

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Your law firm marketing plan is more than just advertising your services. It should include the actions you will take to inform others about what you do and prove to them that you can do what you say you can. When you create your marketing plan, think of how you can reach these three types of people: continue

When people buy your legal services, they are hiring you as their trusted adviser - someone who is knowledgeable, trustworthy, and experienced. Yet hiring an attorney can be a very risky endeavor for someone who doesn’t have much legal experience.

How can they be sure they are making an informed decision about which attorney is right for them, can do what they say, and will provide the best value for their money? In other words, why they should they pick you to help them over all the other options available to them? continue

I’m often asked by lawyers looking to start their own practice, or those who have just gone out on their own, what it takes to establish a successful law firm. In law - just like any small business - there are three areas you must master if you want a successful law firm. These are:

Develop a Niche

Today’s general practice attorneys are barely scraping by. That is because today’s clients demand specialists. They don’t want a lawyer that has done a couple of cases in every practice area out there. They want someone who handles their specific problem. They want someone who has handled cases for clients just like them and have proven over and over that they can get the job done.
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Rarely is marketing a one time event. It is not a quick fix or magical formula to flood you with new clients for little investment on your part. Rather, it is a series of interactions you have with prospects as they try to solve their problems. Here are the 5 steps prospects take when deciding to hire you as their attorney. continue

With the current trend towards cutting costs, FSTE 100 firms are looking to reduce their legal costs. A recent Legal Week article cites some good tips on how law firms can combat the price crunch to add value.

The most important out of 12 criteria? “Understanding the client’s legal requirements in a commercial context.” Unfortunately, when clients grade their firms, this ranks 7th, emphasizing the need for law firms to understand their client’s business.

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An article in this month’s Direct Magazine discusses how B2B service firms can approach determining customer value. The example included is a print/mailing house, but the model can be applied pretty well to B2B law firms.

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In a rather bizarre (imho) case in New York, it appears that a young lawyer from one law firm pretended to be a partner in another law firm and intercepted calls from prospects. He then got them to sign retainer agreements with his law firm…

» Price of stolen law clients: $1.4 million

The level of dissatisfaction with lawyers is at an all time high. A recent study of 600 Corporate Counsel from BTI Consulting Group found that there is a big gap in what clients expect and what law firms deliver. They then asked clients what ‘client focused’ meant to them. continue