How Running A Firm Is Like Being A Parent, Part VI (Clients)
Continguing the ‘parenting’ series, relating the ‘Nanny 911’ commandments to clients, here are commandments 5-8 (you can read the first four commandments here):
5. Don’t Make Promises You Can’t Keep. If you tell them you can recover $1 million, you’d better be sure you can do it.
This is a huge problem for some lawyers. I encountered it when I was practicing, and I still know some lawyers who are notorious for violating this rule. Simply put, it’s a bad idea. Making a promises that you can’t keep destroys the relationship of trust between attorney and client. It creates expectations that can never be met, and ensures the client’s dissatisfaction.
Clients are not likely to forget what you’ve promised, particularly if those promises involved specific results. No lawyer can guarantee results, and claiming otherwise is playing with fire. But even when the promises don’t involve specific results or amounts, lawyers should be cautious about what they tell clients. Back in the days when I was litigating, I often encountered a familiar lament of plaintiff’s counsel – the offer of settlement was reasonable, and the cost of litigating further was prohibitive, but they just couldn’t convince the client to take the offer. Why not? It was those expectations again – and many times those expectations were specifically set by a lawyer who made a promise that was impossible to keep – even if it didn’t seem that way at the time. As a result, both the lawyer and the client were hurt.
Two areas in which many lawyers run into problems are in estimating fees and time demands of a particular matter. Although it makes sense to give clients a benchmark at the beginning of an engagement, there are often unforseen circumstances or delays that can affect both the timing and the fee involved. Where these changes occur mid-engagement, it’s wise to advise the client right away. But even wiser is to advise the client at the outset of the possible ways in which these estimates can get off-track. If you can’t control the court’s calendar, make sure you don’t promise the client that his case will be completed in six months.
Thomas Leonard, a leader in the coaching world, advocates underpromising. In his book, The Portable Coach, he says that overpromising “makes you become either a workaholic or a liar,” while underpromising means you’ll always impress the client. Although he advocates underpromising, he also makes it clear that the value in underpromising is in always delivering more than the client expects.
6. Listen To Your Clients. Acknowledge their concerns. Be open to their input. Then take the time to listen and understand.
This applies in many areas, from marketing to client feedback to day to day handling of client matters. The law firm that truly listens to its clients (as opposed to merely paying lip service to listening) sets itself apart. It may well be the most important tool in the lawyer’s arsenal.
Listening, to be effective, must not be merely passive. To truly listen and understand, the lawyer has to put away his or her agenda and stand in the shoes of the client, at least temporarily. To listen effectively, the lawyer must be able to articulate the client’s concerns back to the client. The lawyer must also be able to openly accept input from the client, and allow the client to be involved in decision-making.
A good lawyer can listen for and address the client’s emotions, not just the intellectual and technical aspects of the job. It involves understanding the client’s perspective, and the client’s wants and needs. Sometimes those wants and needs are not articulated by the client and require some probing, or long-term listening. Listening effectively allows a lawyer to anticipate obstacles and predict a client’s reactions, fears, and concerns, and deal to with them in advance. Ultimately, the client always wants to know how the legal issue will affect his life or his business, and for the lawyer to address these concerns, the lawyer must listen and learn what is most important to the client.
To be most effective, listening must become a part of the firm’s routine. It must take the form of periodic and regular communication with clients before, during and after the engagement. It involves tracking of performance by the firm and gathering information from the client. It often involves thorough research into the client’s business so that the lawyer can truly understand the client’s perspective.
7. Establish a Routine. Routines make people feel safe and give structure to their time.
Routines are another way of managing expectations and making clients feel comfortable. The worst part of any new endeavor is not knowing what to expect. A lot of the practice of law involves routine. As lawyers who have been practicing for a while, we’re used to the routines. But often, clients are not. The law is like a foreign language to them, and they’re confused and disoriented. The more we can establish routines for the client, and make them familiar with our routines and the routines involved in our area of practice, whether that’s real estate, litigation, or any other practice area, the more comfortable a client will be.
Taking a client step by step through the process is an invaluable part of establishing a trusting relationship. If the lawyer can tell the client what to expect at each stage of an engagement, the trust relationship builds as the client sees that what the lawyer said would happen (or might happen) comes to pass. Leaving a client floundering and uncertain about what will occur is simply poor client relations.
Routines can and should be established in communications between the lawyer and the client. If the client knows that there is a particular routine about contacting or visiting your office, the client will feel at ease much more quickly. They’ll understand that their phone calls are returned at a certain time, or that they receive communications with a certain frequency. A client that is at ease with the lawyer is more open to receiving the lawyer’s counsel and participating effectively in the process. A client that is distracted by uncertainty is one who cannot help her lawyer or is not focused on the task at hand.
Routines are to the benefit of both sides of the attorney client relationship when they are established for billing purposes. When the client knows that the bills will be accurate and arrive at a specified time, the client is more likely to be ready and willing to pay the bill when it arrives. When bills arrive sporadically and are not consistent, the client will be less inclined to pay in full and on a timely basis. Leaving clients wondering when the next bill will arrive reduces the level of trust in the relationship.
8. Respect is a Two Way Street. If you don’t respect your clients, they aren’t going to respect you.
David Maister posted a comment on my earlier post about thinking of clients as dependent upon our care, guidance and protection. He was concerned that my posts about treating clients the way one would treat one’s children might lead to lawyers treating clients in a condescending manner. Nothing could be further from my mind. As this commandment notes, if you don’t respect your clients, they won’t respect you.
Some lawyers are disrespectful to clients or potential clients in everything from their marketing to their billing practices to the way clients are treated on the phone or in person when visiting the lawyer’s office. There’s simply no excuse for this kind of behavior. Respect is an essential ingredient in establishing trust. If you’ve come to an impasse with your client, if it’s possible and appropriate for that stage of the engagement, many times you’d be doing yourself and the client a favor to suggest that the client obtain new counsel, rather than proceeding in a relationship where there is no respect.
Listening to your clients (see commandment #6) and seeking their input is a great way to demonstrate respect.