As is the case in most professional services industries, client relationships are pivotal to success in the legal sector to help support fee earning activity and to help build your firm’s reputation through word of mouth. This is why it’s crucial that your relationships are nurtured continuously by building trust, taking a personal approach to your clients and why you should continue to enhance your communication skills for both face-to-face and remote working environments. This element of your service cannot be ignored and will continue to be valued. After all, it’s the ‘human’ side of the law. So, for our blog this week, we’re sharing our top tips to help you nurture your client relationships in the legal sector.
Build trust
Forbes reported that trust in business is defined by the ‘absence of doubt.’ It’s a vital component of any relationship whether that’s personal or professional – and can help to ensure that the relationship has longevity. After all, we have to be able to trust those that offer such a crucial service such as legal advice and representation. We believe that one way to help nurture trust is through consistency. After all, if clients know what to expect, and that they can rely on you, they will feel more inclined to continue working with you.
Personalise your approach
We know that fee earning activity can leave you incredibly busy and all clients like to feel as though they’re your top priority. Although this may not seem like a possibility on some occasions, taking a personalised approach to cases or client accounts can make a difference. Simply by adding personalised advice, picking up the phone instead of emailing or asking meaningful questions, can help you to understand their future plans and aspirations and perhaps their life outside of the office environment. Of course, some firms will also opt for additional face-to-face contact with larger clients wherever possible which can help build a better personalised repartee.
Share great advice
It may be easy to forget during the busyness of your working day, but the greatest value you can add to your clients is advice that goes beyond the obvious solution. This can help them to solve bigger commercial problems, potentially helping them to save money or protect their organisation and their people and can provide them with a wider understanding of legal insights. 86% of customers would pay for a better customer experience when it comes to their paid services so this could help you and your firm to differentiate yourselves against competitor law firms.
Build your personal skills
Personal skills are incredibly important in the legal profession and according to Blue Source, 97% of employees surveyed believe that communication has an impact on tasks performed every day. As a solicitor, this can include practicing advocacy in the courts or managing your clients and team members within your firm. This is a skill which will need to be honed throughout the course your career and one which can be continuously improved, which is why it’s an important element of many Continuous Professional Development (CPD) courses, including Management and Leadership or Pitching With Impact.
Ongoing personal development is essential to success in any professional organisation and particularly so in the legal sector. Skills such as communication will always prove vital and can help to secure ongoing client relationships, bolster revenue for your firm and help you as an individual and as part of your firm to nurture a positive industry reputation. So if you’d like to enhance your development with our upcoming CPD courses, contact a member of the team today via infoaltior@barbri.com or call us on 02920 451 000 for more information or to book a place.