By Nancy Roberts Linder of Nancy Roberts Linder Consulting
As I was reading a legal industry publication over the weekend, I was rather disturbed to see an ad for a law firm consulting company promoting that they "do nothing but law firm marketing so you can do what you should be doing - practicing law." What is alarming about this approach is the impression it reinforces in the legal community - that you can hire someone to do your marketing and client relations for you.
Consultants play an important role in facilitating the development of law firm business as well as the maintenance of important client relationships - but they cannot do it alone. Practicing lawyers themselves must make a personal investment too. As I like to remind attorneys, "you are in the relationship business." Care and feeding of client relationships is critical to ensuring that you have sustaining business throughout your legal career.
How Not Being Involved Affects Your Client Relationships
There are a number of marketing issues that attorneys tend not to pay attention to - issues that have a significant impact on establishing, maintaining and preserving client relationships:
-
Lack of Communication and Follow-up. With the popularity of electronic communication no one has an excuse anymore for not responding to an inquiry. To make matters worse, the use of the Internet has created an expectation of "instan...
