During a
recent webcast about new client intake an attendee asked,
“If I answer my phone every time someone calls, am I sending the message that I’m not busy and therefore not successful?"
Variations on this question crop up from time to time and it always makes me smile a bit.
Not because it’s laughable. I completely understand the concern. But it illustrates a classic attorney challenge: focusing on yourself over your client.
Lawyers so often get caught in the trap of thinking about (and
talking about) themselves too much. This question is just another symptom of the same problem. Lawyers think that success looks like inaccessibility. By appearing hard to reach, you’ll appear in high demand. (This is a corruption of the concept of scarcity – a topic covered in one of
our most popular white papers.)
Thankfully the solution to this problem is easy – put yourself in your potential client’s position.
From your perspective, you have too much free time and answer
every call.
From their perspective, you’re easy to reach and answered
their call.
That’s not desperation, that’s just good customer service. Remember, legal consumers are fast-moving, motivated individuals who are looking for
help. They aren’t interested in playing hard to get. So when your firm moves at the same pace as your potential clients, you create a positive experience that focuses on their needs over your ego.
There is plenty more you can read about this topic.
This white paper explores the state of legal consumers in general, while
this paper reveals the psychology that drives them to contact law firms.
But if there’s one thought I’d leave you with it’s this: No one facing a legal issue has ever thought to themselves, “I wish my lawyer was harder to reach.”
