…keep it simple
Everything a firm does is, in fact, marketing. This is true for the seemingly little things like how tidy you keep your lobby, how you show appreciation to your clients, or how you handle your billing. 
We all know that maintaining a notable reputation is the bread and butter of growing your law practice. Will doing the simple things better than anyone else have a huge impact on your reputation? You bet it will. So, how can you be simply better?
Deliver on the basics.
We live in a time where consumers (law firm clients) seem to have unprecedented and unlimited choice.
Truth be told, as a service industry, law firms are not as client-focused as they’d like to think they are. Client surveys often bear that out. Still, their marketing communications hammer away at the importance of this or that unique practice area or one of a kind depth of experience.
So? When it comes to marketing, law firms may be doing a lot of head banging and still be missing a real opportunity. Is it possible that what a client really wants is for their law firm to be the very best at the basics? So good at the basics that they would tell others how great their law firm is at the seemingly little things?
In marketing, law firms often make two assumptions that I believe are wrong.
1. Law firms assume they need to offer something unique to attract business.
2. Law firms assume that the legal market has matured to the point where service is a commodity.
The reality is that a law firm can differentiate themselves by simply being the very best at the basics. Being the best in class on that which is, at the lowest common denominator, expected of all law firms, instead of trying to do something radically unique, presents an opportunity to give you a leg up on the competition.
WOM
Let the client’s satisfaction be your most powerful marketing communication. This is WOM. Word of Mouth Marketing. When a law firm delivers a great merger deal or a advantageous settlement, it’s not always the case that you can shout about it from the roof tops. Sometimes it’s even confidential. And, if it’s not, after the press exploits it and your result becomes old news, you’re only as good as your last victory. But being best in class on the basics never stops getting noticed and your clients will talk about it.
Get close to your customers, understand what matters most to them and then simply provide it better than the competition. While it is not possible to predict exactly how each interaction with clients or prospects will play it self out, sometimes even little modifications can have a big impact.
Control that which you can control.
Let’s review, for a minute, the basics that you can control, but that often get missed by your competition.
What are the basics? They are those things that all clients expect a law firm to provide, even before they start looking at expertise. Here are the top 10.
- Bills
- Phone, fax, mail, and email communications
- Returned phone calls, well routed phone calls
- Legal documents
- Conference space
- Reception etiquette (not just for receptionists)
- Case management
- Timeliness
- Confidentiality
- Ethical behavior
Carefully decide what you can and cannot deliver in these ten basic aspects of service. Then frame the issues to be best in class and guard consistency as it were the lifeblood of the firm -because it is!
If you need help getting the basics back to work for your firm, contact us for a consultation. If you would like to add a getting down to basics presentation for a partner retreat, we can do that too.
Contact Jayne Navarre @ 786-208-9108 or jln@lawgravity.com
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