These are extraordinary times. Mandated social distancing due to the highly contagious COVID-19 coronavirus prohibits the routine face-to-face meetings we schedule with potential clients. How can we optimize client acquisition, retention, and satisfaction given that our charisma and skills in persuasion are suppressed somewhat when restricted to communicating remotely? When this crisis passes and social distancing is lifted, will we find that remote communication is more cost-effective and efficient, and retain it?
Here are three tips to help you connect with potential and current clients that help to overcome the limitations of remote communications now, and when the current health crisis is over.
- Eschew the Phone for Video Conferencing
It is difficult to hold a high-quality consultation with a potential new client over the phone. The client cannot see you and so is deprived of input such as your professional demeanor and appearance. The client cannot see your facial expressions and other body language showing your compassion, concern, and the ease that comes with confidence and expertise. Also, you cannot see the client and make the sort of judgment calls about suitability that is based on the client’s appearance, expressions, and body language.
By relying on the telephone to conduct initial consultations, both potential client and attorney are forced to make a decision as to whether to work together based solely on the voice and the language used. This handicaps both of you.
Frankly, unless you have some skills in cold-call sales, few attorneys can “sell themselves” to potential clients over the phone. The client wants to come into your office, see you doing your job and looking the part, and have the kind of evolving give-and-take that a face-to-face conversation with you makes possible. And what attorney is comfortable taking the word of a potential client at face-value, when an in-person meeting gives the attorney so much more information about the client?
Setting up a video conference is a way to get closer to the quality and quantity of input an attorney, as well as a potential client, would get from meeting in person. Services such as FaceTime, Skype, GoToMeeting, and Zoom offer just this thing. Whether they are secure enough to transmit confidential information is a question only you can answer, by taking a look at the applicable court rules and rules of ethics.
Many law firms have installed a secure video conferencing system and many more will do so out of necessity if the pandemic continues much longer. It will be a good investment that will pay off far beyond the end of quarantine because you will be able to meet with new clients, continuing clients, and other attorneys and staff remotely and with ease.
- Keep in Contact with Clients at Least Once a Week
People are nervous – not just your clients, everyone. The death rate among victims of the coronavirus is hovering around 4%, meaning that one in every 25 people who contract the disease die from it.
Even if you have no update on their particular matter, your clients would appreciate hearing from you. They need current information about government action to curb the spread as well as implement economic stimulus policies and laws. You have a blog – use it to disseminate this information to your clients, and send out an email blast once a week to let them know what information you have for them if they need it.
The CARES Act and actions that your state government is taking are valuable starting points for blog content that is relevant to your clients’ needs and situations, as is evolving news on how new procedures are being created from these new policies, and how well and how soon that is being done. With just a bit of attention to current events from reliable sources, you can easily blog about:
- how unemployment insurance eligibility and benefits are now expanded and extended;
- automatic student loan forbearance for certain federal student loans;
- the foreclosure moratorium;
- the availability of grants and loans to small businesses and the self-employed;
- the FHA’s forbearance on landlords’ mortgage payments should they refrain from evicting non-paying tenants;
- up to 6-months’ forbearance for federal mortgage loans.
- how that You Care about Your Clients as People, not just Commodities
Just keeping your clients in the loop regarding the government’s reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic will go a long way to assuring them that you are looking out for them. Periodic emails, phone calls, or video conferences about their cases will bolster their confidence in you and show them that the health crisis has not affected your ability or determination to get the best outcome possible for them in their legal matter.
A small but highly-effective change to the way you begin an email these days would be to start with something like, “Hi Mr. Jones, I’m emailing to update you on some developments in your case and to schedule a phone conference so we can discuss, however, I want to ask you first, how are you and your family doing? Let me know when you reply with which of the dates and times are good for you, below.” Allowing the client to answer with something personal and perhaps directing him to a helpful blog post when you speak is not only good for the client, but for your client satisfaction and retention.
There is no doubt that the pandemic has thrown a wrench in the works. We can’t just do business as usual, that will not be effective. Instead of bemoaning the lack of face time with clients and the necessity of change, look at this as an opportunity to invest in some tech, expand your blog, and increase client satisfaction, retention, and ultimately, client referrals.
About the Author
Veronica Baxter is a legal assistant and blogger living and working in the great city of Philadelphia. She frequently works with Todd Mosser, Esq., a busy Philadelphia appeals attorney.
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