Forming a well-planned approach around how you consider, track & manage your client relationships is crucial to securing the future of your legal practice
Are you treating your client relationships as a strategic good to be thoughtfully managed?
In simplest terms, it鈥檚 probably unlikely 鈥� but don鈥檛 feel bad, you are not alone. A full say that client satisfaction ratings are an important measure of success, but track them.
If it matters, then why aren鈥檛 they tracking it and managing it better? As you look at your own firm, do you recognize any aspects of your business in these stats?
As part of this year-long series on securing your legal practice鈥檚 future, I鈥檝e focused on helping small law firms get better at building and executing their strategic plans. We started with the basic steps: Identify your goals, and then dedicate the resources necessary to accomplish them. In the most recent post, we looked at how to apply these principles to the types of tasks that are central to running a law firm as a business, specifically managing your firm鈥檚 resources. We also examined how the way you manage those resources can impact other strategic priorities, such as your relationships with your clients.
But I also believe that it is vital to have a well-planned approach around how you manage your client relationships of their own accord, not just as a consideration of other priorities. These relationships are a key source of repeat and referral business, upon which many law practices rely for existence. Not surprisingly, they need special attention.
To begin to improve your client relationships, you have to start with an honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses in order to identify what strengths you can build on, and where you鈥檙e weak and need improvement. Let鈥檚 look at a couple of examples of areas that may be ripe for inclusion in many firms鈥� strategic plans to improve client relationships:
鈥淪oft鈥� skills
Most law firms don鈥檛 put enough focus on the 鈥渟oft touches鈥� that impact their relationships with clients. It can be tempting to get caught up in the legal issues at play and forget that you鈥檙e dealing with people who are most likely in a very sensitive and consequence-ridden time in their lives.
As you conduct your evaluation of your strengths and weaknesses, give yourself an honest score for how much effort you put into empathizing with your clients. Do you consistently make an effort to put yourself in your clients鈥� shoes?
Reputation
Another potential area for evaluation is how much effort you put into influencing your reputation in the community. Do you understand the network effects of a bad client experiences?
More than two-thirds (68%) of legal consumers consider 鈥渞eviews from former clients鈥� to be one of the most important pieces of additional information then can gather when considering an attorney. If two-thirds of your potential clients are paying attention, shouldn鈥檛 you?
Setting your goals
If you鈥檝e read my post about setting goals, you know that I鈥檓 a proponent of time-phased goals. What would that look like in the context of managing relationships?
90-day goals
The immediate tasks you need to accomplish to improve your client relationships are relatively basic. First, the strengths and weaknesses evaluation I mentioned earlier. Have an honest conversation with yourself and your staff to evaluate how you currently focus on your clients.
Second, establish a baseline of what your reputation looks like today and be proactive about improving it. When attorneys request reviews, 98% of the reviews left are very favorable (4.5 or 5 out of 5). Getting involved in managing your reputation puts you in the driver鈥檚 seat. Even a less-than-positive review is an opportunity for you to respond and show potential clients what they can expect in terms of your service and your character when working with you.
These two steps form the foundation for everything that follows.
For the rest of this year
Goals for the rest of the year should focus on your genuinely addressable opportunities. These are guided by the ideas and priorities surfaced by your 90-day-goal evaluations.
Your goals will vary depending on whether you have determined if you do a pretty decent job of empathizing with your clients, or if it鈥檚 typically an afterthought. Similarly, if you have an existing reputational problem 鈥� while not likely something you鈥檒l fix in a year 鈥� you can set goals that move you forward on addressing this problem in a meaningful way.
During this phase, consider implementing a program where you and every other attorney at your firm reach out to just five current or former clients every month to ask for feedback. It doesn鈥檛 have to be an extensive interview 鈥� but I would strongly suggest that you ask a few clear, open-ended questions and then just listen, closely. The mere gesture will make a large impact with clients.
What Better Relationships Will Mean
Improving your client relationships, while a worthwhile goal in itself, has a broader impact. Around 40% of lawyers in small law firms said that were a key factor in the success of their businesses over the past year. Similarly, was frequently identified as the single most important factor in increased success. This translates to more business for your firm, which we鈥檒l discuss in a forthcoming post.
Until then, remember that the soft touch of dealing with your clients is probably the single most critical factor to . Treat your clients with white gloves 鈥� every one of them. We as lawyers need to realize and act like we鈥檙e in a people-centric business in all aspects of what we do.
Indeed, lawyers typically have an extensive skill set when it comes to reading people. These are the skills you employ whether arguing your case or negotiating a deal. Use those same skills of perception to treat your clients the way that you actually feel; that is, that you need and value them greatly.
It鈥檚 good business. And it鈥檚 the right thing to do.
For more insights on how to manage and improve client relationships, download the report .
