When we talk about communication strategies for law firms, we’re talking about all types of communication, such as internal communication with your team, and perhaps external communication with the public, co-counsel or opposing counsel, court systems, administrative officers you work with, or vendors and suppliers, but most importantly, we’re talking about communication with clients. Firm Forward believes in high-quality client experience, always. Get in touch.
Communication is the Key to a Successful Law Firm
Your law firm’s success will be determined by the client experience, journey, and communication you have with them. As you may or may not know, word of mouth referrals are the most common way for a law firm to gain new clients, and also the most common way for a law firm to lose clients.
So, what’s the bottom line?
Many times, it all comes down to communication skills.
Remember that communication is key to every relationship.
Communication is a process and it will take some time to develop the right communication skills. Law firms can use a variety of techniques to ensure successful communication across the board.
1. Get on the Same Page With the Other Individual
It’s critical to have a consistent, clear, and effective tone of voice at your firm, as well as a policy that governs how you communicate with your clients.
- What are your goals?
- What is the firm’s policy?
- What’s your vision?
- What’s your mission?
- What defines you as a firm?
- What do you have to offer?
- What is your story?
To begin, make sure that your entire team is on the same page, and that everyone understands what it’s like when you’re communicating. It’s also a good idea to set certain ground rules for how attorneys at your firm will contact your clients, such as via direct message or WhatsApp.
Are there any tools that your law firm uses on a regular basis that have been approved?
Is there a step-by-step process of what people can expect from you, or do you have a typical message that you offer as a greeting or a close for each client?
All of this must be clearly stated in a beautiful policy for your firm that brings everyone on the same page, and there are good reasons for this.
You should be concerned about things like ethics and security, as well as their privacy and having everything spelt out so that everyone knows what’s acceptable and what isn’t right from the start is a good idea. That is unquestionably the most effective technique to ensure a secure and effective communication process with your clients and all other parties.
2. Consistency in Messaging and Connecting With Your Audience
The next step is to connect with your audience, which requires consistency in your messaging. This consistency can be achieved by having everyone involved to tell the same story, which is critical when it comes to tone.
It’s not just about tone, but also about body language. Perhaps you have a dress code in place, or you have a certain person assigned to your firm on the internet. You’ve identified the individual in your target audience; now what? How do you connect with them, and who are you attempting to connect with? Which communication channel is the best for you? Those are some questions to think about.
LinkedIn or your website bio is a place to be casual and have some fun with text. No one likes reading in the third person. First-person text with some personal touch is preferable. Turn off that serious lawyer mode and be you!
3. Create a Communication Plan
Consistency is the key to making things simple, and having a policy in place to guide you through the process is beneficial. In the end, you’ll be able to establish safe and effective communication with potential clients, current clients, and everyone else in your circle of influence, which is critical. One of the most significant things you can do to help your firm expand faster is to be aware of the client’s experience when they connect with you.
4. Create an Amazing Client Experience With Useful Tools
You can use a client portal to actually curate a great client experience. Take client portals as an opportunity to create a tool whether it’s on a website or a satellite software or a chatbot where clients can log in and ask questions or get certain information.
5. Responsiveness and Accuracy can Take you a Long Way
When communicating, responsiveness and accuracy are critical and should be a part of your strategy. For example, if you have a specific policy saying you will always respond in 24 hours, you can build a really good reputation for yourself if you know you can count on your counsel to at least acknowledge the communication within 24 hours.
What you accomplish with this is dependability, consistency, and accountability, which promotes trust and fosters the relationships that contribute to your firm’s growth.
6. Give Importance to Training at Your Law Firm
You should invest in the personal development of your professionals so that they understand where those ethical boundaries are, which vary by jurisdiction. For example, do certain things count as advertising when you post on social media?
7. Use Email Marketing the Right Way at Your Law Firm
When you’re dealing with Email Marketing, consider listening. Listen to one another, your clients, and your coworkers, and make modifications along the way. We always recommend completing an assessment to determine what is and is not effective so that you can identify what needs to be changed, and develop that wonderful communication experience for your clients. Firm Forward can help you do that. Just send us an inquiry at solutions@firmforward.com and we will help you in any way possible.
8. Scale-up Your Law Firm With Firm Forward’s RTDB Communication Strategy
Almost all of your time will be saved if you use Firm Forward’s RTDB communication technique: Relevant, timely, direct, and brief communication is required. Use this in every conversation, especially for the US market. Otherwise, you’re just a part of the noise.
Final Takeaways for Better Communication in Law Firms
Having your team fully informed, and creating a tone of voice can really enhance your reputation as people would be confident in what they would get from your firm. And this way you can craft the communication for each client. We help you do exactly that at Firm Forward. Feel free to drop us a message.