We need to tell it like it is, and this is delusional.
You can rely on some, not all, family members to remember your firm name and what you do but that’s about it. Possibly a couple of friends could be included too. But that’s about it.
Clients, even good and trusted clients will say to you ‘Oh, I didn’t know you did that work’ when you discover they had just completed some transaction or matter that you or someone in your firm could have done.
So whose fault is that? It’s not the clients.
I was always blown away by a good and long standing client saying something like this. I think the best advice I can give you is to assume that your clients, even your inner circle clients, will forget what your firm does, where you practice, the name of the firm, the name of the person who handles that work for you etc.
How should you deal with this?
To regularly and constantly remind them when you are communicating with them to reinforce all of these things. It doesn’t matter if you are getting sick of repeating it, the reality is that your clients will need to be reminded because it is not up to them to remember – rather it is up to you to ensure they don’t forget.
You should have a website and this should clearly state all of these things your firm does and how you help your clients, but you can’t keep sending the clients your website link. What you can do is to send them useful, relevant, handy-to-know pieces of information about legal matters, as well as recent details about your firm, its values and its people. Communicating with them is the key.
How do you do this? One way is by sending out a regular newsletter, communicating with them and engaging with them.
Why should you do that? Because whilst some will support you, other will say nice things but none of them will love you like your mother. You therefore have to work endlessly on your client relationships and have them think of you when they or their friends need legal help.
How can you manage to do that and run the firm at the same time? That’s why we established our regular client newsletter program for law firms where we write the articles and send out newsletters for you, tailored to your firm’s areas of practice.
