Category Archives: Client Development

What Makes Exceptional Customer Service (infographic)

What do you think about your customer service process? Does it work well, and can your employees conquer any hiccups—big or small—that pop up along the way? Even if you feel like you have exceptional customer service, it’s important to analyze it regularly for new issues and new challenges that you can address.

That starts by thinking about the qualities that are essential to great customer service. Some of them may surprise you—empathy, for example, or generosity. Timeliness shouldn’t, nor should the solutions that customer service needs to be focused on.

Here’s the thing to know about customer service: It’s something that you can always work on. This graphic can help.

How to Ensure the Very Best Customer Experience Every Time

Via Salesforce

Blogging Tips for Lawyers

Blogging tips for lawyers

Follow these tips and you'll always have something better to say than this!

Blogging is an easy way to attract more attention to your website. Lawyers’ blogs can be extremely popular and informative if published correctly. There are several things you can do to increase your law blogs’ popularity.

Not publishing consistently is one of the most common mistakes made by bloggers. Readers want to see consistent posts. If you let too much time pass in-between posts readers may think you’ve abandoned your blog. Worse yet, if your blog is linked to your website potential customers may assume your website is also out of date, rendering all of your valuable information useless.

Another common mistake bloggers can make is lack of professionalism in posts. Readers don’t want a lawyer that can’t produce a professional blog. If you want to write about something personal or anything you’re opinionated about, keep a blog separate from your firms’. Keeping a personal blog anonymous may also be a good idea. Your legal blog should only contain objective and helpful information.

Bringing community affairs into your blog is a great way to invite locals to visit your blog. Post information related to the legal issues surrounding top news in your community and readers will be flocking to your blog to keep up to date on current affairs. Just be sure to keep it objective and stick to the facts. Don’t let your opinions or emotions override your good judgment when writing, and responding to, posts.

If readers can’t understand what you’ve written they won’t be in a big hurry to visit again. While legal terms may be second nature to you, they’ll easily leave your readers confused and stressed out. Thoroughly explaining any legal jargon and using simple terms when possible will help your readers understand the topic at hand.

Using some common sense and following these simple tips will help you to use your blog to your firms’ advantage. Thinking before you post could easily mean the difference between a few sporadic page views and hundreds of loyal, weekly readers.

Website Video Tips for Lawyers

clapper board for moviesNo law firm can expect a user to visit YouTube and search for lawyer videos, but there are many reasons why a website video is near critical for your online client development efforts.

In an earlier post about marketing during a recession, I suggested recording short, informative movies and clips about your business. I’ll add to that by recommending you be genuine, passionate and energetic in front of the camera.

Video offers an opportunity to make you more personable and approachable, all of which influence that first client meeting.

Video Makes Your Website Sticky
Since it’s not uncommon for a website visitor to leave almost as soon as they click through to your website (just look at your Bounce Rate on Google Analytics if you don’t believe me), you immediately engage with video and keep them looking longer. So instead of viewing just one page, they’re more than likely to read on once they’ve viewed your video.

Here are some additional thoughts on using website videos to grow your practice:

  • Keep videos short. We’re used to consuming content in bite-sized chunks, so try to keep your video under 30 seconds. Of course, if yours is longer, record the most important information first.
  • When posting videos on your web pages, make sure to include content within context around the video. Consider posting a transcript as well.
  • Now that you’ve recorded one or several videos, create your own YouTube channel and upload. Also use a service like TubeMogul for distribution to several dozen video search engines. Website videos are proven to increase your exposure on search engines. And if you’re listed attorney on Lawyers.com, add your video to your profile.
  • Don’t forget a clear, call to action at the end of your video. Viewers should be invited to call or message you for further information about their particular legal needs.

And for those of you wondering where my videos are, stay tuned!

Photo credit by t9t.

What’s better than a client referral?

Professional service providers win when their efforts provide immense value, and thrive when their clients refer other like-minded people who have similar needs. So what could be better than a client referral?

A client testimonial!

An Econsultancy article from July 2009 refers to a Nielsen survey showing that 90% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know and 70% trust opinions of unknown users. The client referral pays you once (maybe twice), but the client testimonial earns it keep every time it’s used.

Here is a sample template you could use (where permitted and based on your profession) to solicit better testimonials:

  1. Why did you retain (business name) for your (service provided) needs?
  2. Please list three things you like most about our services. Why do you like them?
  3. What, in your opinion, is the strongest feature of our services? Why?
  4. Is there anything about our services you would like to see changed?
  5. May we use your comments for promotional purposes?

Once you get these back, have them signed and dated for everyone’s benefit. Then use them on your website and in other promotional materials.