Managing clients' expectations is not always easy, but this infographic contains 5 quick steps you can take to manage client expectations better in your legal practice.
Meeting and managing expectations well creates loyal clients. In order to manage expectations well, you need to identify what they are, and to recognize that clients have expectations around both outcome and service.
The client's perception about whether you did a good job as their lawyer will be colored by the expectations they have for the engagement from the moment they walk through your office door. The way you communicate with the client at your first meeting will set the tone for the rest of the engagement.
Clients with "identical" legal problems, may not have identical goals and expectations. Find out the backstory behind the client's matter. Learn about their background, family, business or employment and gauge their emotional reaction to the legal issue at hand and to the discussion as a whole. Each of these factors may influence the client's perception of the matter, as well as the result they would like to achieve.
LISTEN to the client before jumping in with your solution or plan to solve their legal issue or accomplish their goal. Ask questions not only about the client's substantive legal issue, but also about their expectations during the engagement. These might include expectations about how often and in what manner they would prefer to communicate with you about the matter, about the budget and fee, or other non-legal, non-substantive issues that can make or break the attorney-client relationship.
Finally, assess the client's expectations. Are they realistic? Are there potential pitfalls to the course of action the client wishes to take or the result they want to achieve? Provide options and suggest alternatives that might serve the client's overall objectives more effectively.
Excellent tips indeed. When you satisfy customer expectations then you have given service. Listen to them, use "SMART" concept and we deliver. Thank you for such a great post.
Posted by: lornah | July 02, 2017 at 04:15 AM
I love your blogs the posts are very educative
Posted by: Hawi Moore | May 17, 2017 at 05:51 AM