Media star and futurist, Peter Shankman, says that your goal should be to be “one level above crap” when it comes to your clients’ experience with your firm. Peter explains that virtually all businesses are bad at client relations, you simply must be slightly better than your peers or “one level above crap”. While Peter is right, perhaps you might consider being more ambitious.
After graduating from college, entrepreneur, Gary “Vee” Vaynerchuk, grew his family’s retail liquor business from $3 million to $60 million in revenue primarily by hosting a video blog on his YouTube channel, called “Wine Library TV”, with tips about his favorite wines. Gary Vee strived to give his customers an experience unlike any other retail liquor company.
St. Louis immigration lawyer, Jim Hacking, Esq., answers immigration questions and features video stories of client success stories on his firm’s YouTube channel. Jim answers every question he can about the immigration process and shares stories of his clients that are heartwarming and engaging. Jim estimates that he gets 40% of his firm’s revenue from his YouTube channel and without mass advertising, he attracts clients from across the country.
The Keys to Success (that no lawyers are doing)
What are the 2 common denominators for Gary Vee and Jim Hacking, Esq.’s success? TRANSPARENCY and CONSISTENCY. Gary Vee and Jim Hacking, Esq. are transparent about what they do and give away all of their knowledge without asking for anything. Perhaps most important, Gary Vee and Jim share new videos with their fan base at least once a week. Seems simple, but is anyone else doing this?
What can you do that won’t cost a dollar? Share everything you know and do it consistently at least once a week on your YouTube channel. Do this 1 thing and you’ll be head and shoulders above your peers. Be patient, stay consistent and continually give more value for your prospective clients.
Your Bow-Tie Funnel for New Clients
With every new client, you should show them that they came to the right law firm. The primary focus of every interaction with your new client should be KINDNESS, COMPASSION AND CONCERN. More than anything, your clients want to know that you care about them.
With every client interaction, think about how you can add more value for your clients. Be different, share your knowledge and try to differentiate your law firm from every other law firm.
Day #1: Welcome New Clients with a Video Email
Welcome new clients with a customized video email. With the software BombBomb (www.BombBomb.com), you can quickly and easily create a video that is embedded into an email.
A few tips for video email:
“Thank you for taking time to call us.”
“We know this is a new experience for you and we want to ensure you always have access to our team. If you have questions at any time, please call 845-802-0047 and our a member of our intake team, Danielle Ascani (dascani@fishermalpracticelaw.com) and Serena Mirrow (smirrow@fishermalpracticelaw.com) will be happy to speak with you.”
“If you have any questions or concerns, I want you to call me directly and I will be happy to schedule a time to speak with you. I make time for appointments between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. almost every day. You can call our team to schedule a time for us to chat. And of course, you can reach me any time via email at jfisher@fishermalpracticelaw.com.”
“Thank you for the opportunity to serve you. We take this responsibility seriously and we will do our best for you.”
Sincerely,
John H. Fisher
Day #2: Provide Informative Videos about Your Intake Process & Your Law Firm
In your initial client welcome email, you should provide your new client with a series of educational videos that explain your evaluation process and what they can expect next.
“We know you have questions and we want to help you. We created a series of videos about medical malpractice that we thought you might find helpful.”
“To help you get started, we created 7 informative videos about medical malpractice. To watch the videos, click the links below. When you have a spare moment, check out the videos and let us know if they help.”
- “Medical Malpractice Lawsuits Explained Clearly”
- “4 Simple Tips about Your Rights that Every Malpractice Victim Should Know”
- “How We Evaluate Your Malpractice Case”
- “3 Big Secrets that Your Hospital Doesn’t Want You to Know”
- “What is Your Malpractice Case Worth?”
- “Why We Practice Law”
- “The Difference between a Trial Law Firm and Every Other Law Firm…And Why This Should Matter to You”
“If you find the videos helpful, we have a lot of free videos on our firm’s YouTube channel. We create a new video about medical malpractice that is posted to our YouTube channel every Thursday at 1 p.m. EST. If you’d like to learn more about medical malpractice, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at www.YouTube.com/JohnHFisherPC” or www.Lawyer-Alert.com.
“As always, please feel free to contact us at any time at 845-802-0047 if you have questions. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve you.”
Sincerely,
John H. Fisher
With these informative videos, you are giving away everything you know about your specialty and sharing unlike any other law firm. Don’t worry about whether your client will watch the videos. You’ll be surprised, many clients will watch the videos. And for those who watch the videos, you won’t have to answer the same questions about your firm’s processes and this will save time for your intake team.
Day #3: Provide New Clients with a Digital Copy of Your Client Welcome Package
How can you add more value for your clients? Create a small guide explaining their rights. You might send a video explaining the retainer agreement or your firm’s client portal.
“Just touching base to thank you for the opportunity to serve you.”
“We know you have questions and we want to answer them for you. Attached is a digital copy of our welcome package that describes our processes and what you can expect from our law firm. We put everything we’ve got into this welcome package and we hope you find it helpful.”
“Attached is a digital copy of John’s book, “The 7 Deadly Mistakes of Malpractice Victims”. We hope you find this book helpful in answering your questions about medical malpractice, including the process for retrieving the medical records.”
“As always, we will be happy to speak with you if you have any questions. Please call us any time.”
Sincerely,
John H. Fisher
6 Tips for Creating an Amazing Client Experience
Your goal is to provide an amazing client experience (sorry, Peter Shankman, we differ on this). Where do you begin? CLIENT COMMUNICATION. Your clients want to know that you are about them and the best way to show that you care is by communicating regularly with them.
Try to make your client interactions as personal as you can. A phone call will always beat an email or text message. You don’t want your client to complain, “I have no idea what’s going on with my case.” Be obsessive about delivering a better experience for your clients and they will reward you with Google reviews and referrals.
Tip #1 for an Amazing Client Experience
Update Your Clients with Personalized Video Emails
Whenever you have any updates about their case (e.g., court appearance or defendants’ depositions), send your client a video email. With the software, www.BombBom, you can send a video email from your cell phone. This takes much less time than writing an email.
A video shows your personality, while a text email is boring. Be different. When a referral partner refers a new client, thank them with a video email. Is this a waste of your time? BombBomb tracking and analytics shows whether your clients watched your video and how long they watched it.
Tip #2 for an Amazing Client Experience
Random Acts of Kindness
Don’t wait for your clients to call. Be proactive with client communication. Set aside 2 hours and randomly start calling your clients. Your clients will love hearing from you. Small touches go a long way. (Credit: New York plaintiff’s lawyer, Neal Goldstein, Esq.)
Add your clients’ birthdays and wedding anniversaries on your calendar and call them on their big day. Your clients will love this! No other lawyers do this and this will instantly set you apart from your peers.
Tip #3 for an Amazing Client Experience
Create at least 1 Video Every Week on your Firm’s YouTube Channel
YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. Ignore YouTube at your peril It won’t take much time to record a 3-5 minute video with your best legal advice and you can add every video to your website’s Video Library. Hire a video editor to make your videos shine with graphics (Jacqui Wederer, a video producer/editor (www.jwederer.com, Jacqui.wederer@gmail.com) is excellent!)
Quick tips for video:
- Speak with sincerity and enthusiasm and smile
- Stand up to increase your energy
- Hold the cell camera horizontally, so the video is not cut off at the left and right sides
- Record the video while walking around town to show things other than your face
- Record the video at wreck sites to make them more interesting
- Tell the stories about your cases
- Entertain or die!
Upload the videos to your website and your LinkedIn feed. You can use the videos to welcome new clients and explain your firm’s evaluation process. Add a video thumbnail to your email signature. Send a monthly video email through your CRM to the subscribers of your email newsletter.
Tip #4 for an Amazing Client Experience
Grow Your Firm’s YouTube Channel
Invite former clients and lawyer referral partners to subscribe to your YouTube channel. Send a mass email to current and former clients inviting them to subscribe to your firm’s YouTube channel, e.g., “A Special Invitation for You”. “Go to our YouTube channel to learn more about your rights.”
Subject Line for Email: “A Special Invitation for Our Friends: OUR TOP 25 SYSTEMS for Marketing and Managing a Catastrophic Personal Injury Law Firm REVEALED”:
Content for Email: “I will share 1 video of our TOP 25 SYSTEMS for marketing and managing a plaintiff’s personal injury law firm every Friday at 1 p.m. EST. These videos will only be available on our YouTube channel (and will not be posted or shared anywhere else). I will give you everything I’ve got.”
“If you subscribe to our YouTube channel, I will mail a free, signed copy of my book, The Law Firm of Your Dreams (just send an email to jfisherlawyer@gmail.com with the subject line, “I want the book” and provide your address).”
“Subscribe to our YouTube channel at www.Lawyer-Alert.com or www.YouTube.com@JohnHFisherPC”.
“Let’s build an amazing law firm for you one system at a time.”
Tip #5 for an Amazing Client Experience
Video Testimonials from Clients
Nothing is more precious to your law firm than client testimonials. Prospective clients will devour your Google reviews, but what’s better? Video testimonials from your clients.
Using a split screen using Zoom or eCamm Live, interview your clients by asking 3 questions:
- Why they came to your law firm?
- What you did to help them?
- The results that you got for them.
Make the video testimonial conversational in an interview format. You will add the video testimonials to the Video Library on your website and you can feature the videos in social media. Video testimonials are marketing gold!
Tip #6 for an Amazing Client Experience
Client Appreciation Parties
If you could do one thing to promote your law firm, what would it be? Easy, a client appreciation party. You might invite your former and current clients and referral partners to a dinner at a local restaurant or a cocktail hour.
To promote our books, we have a blues cruise on the Hudson River. It’s fun, our clients get to see our personal side and most importantly, they realize—perhaps for the first time—that they are more than clients, they are our friends. You’ve got to try this!
Reaping the Rewards of the Amazing Client Experience
Never forget, you are in the customer service profession. You must do more than simply delivering a result—you must deliver the result with an amazing client experience. And if you do that, your clients will reward you with testimonials, Google reviews and referrals.
