Do Your Clients Know You Care

Developing the Next Generation of Rainmakers Do your clients know you care? I am staying at the I Want to Be Like Bill Richardson, Jr. I thought of Bill when I got this email from Atlanta lawyer, Tom Grant. I met you once in Atlanta at my old law firm and have thankfully benefitted from your blogged marketing advice for years. Now that I’m involved in the right trade associations and am starting to see some benefit from my networking and marketing efforts, I’m also seeing what an edge it is to actually care about people and let them know I care and want to help them solve their problems. I’m starting to see that, as much pride as I have in my legal skills, what seems to really bring clients back and has them singing my praises is that I care, am respectfully available to them, and shoot straight. A friend of mine in sales says it’s all about “MMFI”â€"to the customer, “make me feel important.” On a similar tangent, I think of that famous quote about how “they may forget what you said but will never forget how you made them feel.” All that kind of came together this morning when I saw:  Penn State postman delivers lesson in happiness  following piece on CBS Sunday Morning. Mike, the postal clerk cares so much for his customers that somehow peopleâ€"impatient college kids, to bootâ€"actually choose to come to the Post Office to wait in line and get stamps from him even though there are quicker, easier alternatives. I’m a business and technology litigator. Just as no one wants to go to the post office if they can avoid it, so too do business people hope they’ll never see me and be embroiled in expensive, distracting litigation. Seeing how just a little honest care can go so so far in affecting people positively, I’ve resolved to double-down in this regard and try to care a little more. Anyway, the CBS piece reminded me of you and your advice. For me, at least, this was kind-of an “a ha” moment where much of what you have preached came together and clicked for me. Clients rarely enjoy seeing their lawyer. Yet, we still have the opportunity to let clients know we care about them and we want to serve them and help them. In 2013, connecting with clients on those terms will make a big difference in your career. One final piece of advice: Next time you meet with a client or speak on the telephone, end the conversation with: “What else can I do to help you?” Thanks as always, I practiced law for 37 years developing a national construction law practice representing some of the top highway and transportation construction contractors in the US.