How do you bring clients to a law firm?
Referrals bring most new work, and friction loses it. Give each lawyer a booking page, remind both sides before every meeting, and reply quickly from the practice’s address.
Most practices do not win clients through advertising. They win them through people: a past client who tells a friend, a colleague who passes on a matter outside their own field, a banker or an accountant who trusts your work. Bringing in clients is mostly a matter of not losing the ones who are already on their way to you.
Referrals bring the work. Friction loses it.
A referred client arrives warm. Somebody they trust has given them your name. What happens next decides whether they become your client: whether they can reach you, how long they wait, and whether the first contact feels organised. A phone that rings out, an email answered a week later, or a meeting rearranged three times can undo a good referral without anyone noticing that it was lost.
Walk through the path a new client takes, from hearing your name to sitting across the desk from you, and take out every step that depends on luck.
Give each lawyer a booking page
The slowest part of starting with a new client is often agreeing a time. Every message back and forth is a chance for them to go elsewhere. A booking page lets the client pick a time that suits them from the hours you have set, without waiting for anybody to reply.
Give each lawyer their own page, not one for the whole practice. A referral usually names a person, and a client who was told to see a particular advocate should be able to book that advocate directly. Keep each page in step with that lawyer’s calendar, so that a time offered is a time that is free.
Remind both sides
A missed meeting costs twice: the hour is lost, and some of the client’s confidence with it. A reminder before each booking, to the client and to the lawyer, prevents most of them. It also gives the client an easy moment to say they need to move the time, which is far better than an empty chair.
Reply quickly, from the practice’s address
When somebody new writes in, speed matters more than polish. A short, prompt reply that confirms you have their message and says what happens next is worth more than a perfect one that arrives days later.
Reply from the practice’s address, not a personal one, so that the conversation belongs to the practice and a colleague can pick it up while you are in court.
Where Herald fits
Herald gives you and each of your team a booking page, with times kept in step with your Google Calendar and your working hours and days away set once. Before every booking, the client and you each get a reminder. Mail to your practice’s address lands with the client it belongs to, and an enquiry form on your site files into the same place.
Herald is made for practices in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya, and is opening to a small number of founding firms.