In this week’s edition of Things I Wish I Knew, New York solo lawyer Joleena Louis shares her top tips for cutting to the chase and finding out exactly what her clients want.
A great part of being a solo is the ability to do whatever we want, whenever we want. For me personally, this has been one of my favorite reasons for going solo.
But it’s important not to forget that we need to take our clients wants into consideration as well. Otherwise, you’ll risk quickly going out of business.
Taking the time to figure out what my clients want has improved my relationships and client satisfaction. Plus my clients are referring new business to me at an even higher rate. Here are some of the ways I achieved this:
Ask For Feedback
One of the simplest and most effective ways to find out what your clients want is to ask. You should always be looking for ways to do things better.
Many lawyers wait until the end of representation to get feedback, but it’s better to do this throughout the relationship. Helping you to make changes immediately.
I have an automatic email that goes out after each consultation with a few questions about the experience. You can use a service like Survey Monkey or Typeform for this.
I also send out a quarterly survey to current clients to see how I am doing. Plus, I take the time to personally ask for feedback after major events in representation, like after arguing a motion or a hearing.
The feedback is not always easy to hear, but it helps me make adjustments to create a better experience for both current and future clients.
Listen to What They Have To Say
One common thing I hear at consultations is that I am the first attorney to take the time to really listen.
While that is certainly nice to hear, it is also a little alarming.
As attorneys, we like to talk, and since we have handled many similar cases it can be easy to just give a client directions instead of letting them talk. But I find part of providing excellent service is allowing clients to be heard, even if I already know what they are going to say or have heard it before.
By teaching them they can trust me to listen from the very start of our relationship, it’s easier to get honest feedback later.
Do Some Research
Another great way to figure out what potential clients want, so you can better market your practice, is to pay attention to the questions they ask. Take note of questions you are getting from current and prospective clients and look for trends.
Also, check out questions and answer sites the Quora, Reddit, and Avvo. These are real people with real questions and if you create content that answers those questions you can lead more people to your services.
Lastly, you want to implement what you learned from all the information you gathered. You can use that info to create content or to provide better service to your current clients. If you know what clients want, you can give it to them and make them happy enough to refer you more clients.
