When clients do business with your law firm, does it feel like they're doing business with the DMV or the Social Security Administration?
Are you micromanaging the client experience? Do they feel welcomed, recognized, and appreciated?
Or do they feel like they’re standing in line, confused about what comes next, hoping someone eventually calls their number?
The experience clients have with your law firm matters more than most attorneys realize.
Recently, I had to take a trip to the Social Security Administration with a young man who is living in our home, Alex. He’s here on a work visa from Mexico and is training with our team to take on a management role in our firm. We’re mentoring him, helping him understand American culture and the culture of law firms here. He’s an incredibly talented person, and we’re excited about his future.
But before he could fully get settled, he needed a Social Security number, so we went down to the Social Security office early in the morning, thinking we’d beat the rush.
We didn’t.
The line was already wrapped around the block.
Eventually someone announced that people with appointments should go to a separate line. I didn’t even realize appointments were an option. That was my mistake. So I asked the security officer how long it would take if you had an appointment.
“About an hour and a half,” he said.
Then I asked how long it would take without one.
“Four to five hours.”
I walked back to Alex and explained the situation. We could schedule an appointment for the next day, or he could stay and wait.
He shrugged and said, “Four or five hours is normal in Mexico. I’ll just wait.”
Before leaving, I checked with the administrator to make sure we had every document required. They assured us we did.
So I left for my meeting.
Not long after, I received a text.
“Good news, I’m done. Bad news, they rejected my application.”
When I returned to the office with him, the experience only got worse. They now needed a document they had previously told us we didn’t need. We had to go to FedEx to print it because digital copies weren’t accepted.
When we came back, we were told to stand behind the window where we had originally been helped. Then someone scolded us in Spanish (despite me not speaking Spanish and Alex speaking to her in English) for standing there and told us to take another number. I felt like I was being scolded by my grandmother for running through the house with muddy shoes on.
We went back to the front desk and asked what to do. They told us to take another number.
But the waiting room was full. If we took another number, it meant waiting another four hours.
Eventually someone tried to help, security told us we couldn’t stand where we were standing, and we were shuffled around the office until finally someone found us again.
It was confusing. It was frustrating. And at no point did it feel like we mattered.
Now to be clear, I’m not condemning the people who work there. They deal with a massive volume of people every day, many of whom are confused, frustrated, or dealing with serious issues.
But most of us expect that the experience at the DMV or the Social Security office isn’t going to be great.
So What Does It Feel Like to Work With Your Law Firm?
Is working with your law firm more like visiting a high-end restaurant where people greet you by name and make you feel special? Or does it feel like navigating a government office?
If your answer is, “I don’t know,” that’s a problem.
Because the client experience inside your firm should not be left to chance, it should be intentionally designed.
For years, I’ve taught our members that they must micromanage the client experience.
Not the legal work, the experience.
There are dozens of touchpoints between your firm and your clients, starting before they even become clients.
Consider the first phone call.
Who answers it? Is it someone who sounds like they’ve smoked two packs of cigarettes and drank a bottle of whiskey before lunch, impatiently trying to get the caller off the phone?
Or is it someone who is building rapport and making the caller feel understood?
What about the appointment reminder call?
Do clients feel like they’re receiving a warm welcome or a cold reminder?
When they arrive at your office, what happens next? Are they greeted immediately? Does someone offer them a drink? Does your office smell clean and inviting? Are testimonials visible? Are your books and credentials displayed? Does the environment reinforce your authority and professionalism? Do you control what clients see, hear, and feel?
Even small details matter… What magazines are in your waiting room? What’s playing on the television? What’s the background on your Zoom calls? What do your voicemail messages say?
Every one of these moments shapes how a client feels about your firm. And feelings drive decisions.
The Details Create the Experience
Some firms take this idea very seriously.
One of our longtime clients offers a menu of drinks when clients arrive and carefully manages what’s on the television and what materials are in the office.
Another installed a waterfall in the office to control the sound environment and create a calming atmosphere.
Years ago, we even baked Otis Spunkmeyer cookies so the office always smelled like fresh cookies when clients walked in.
Those cookies disappeared quickly, but they made people feel welcomed.
Today, more interactions happen digitally.
Which means the experience must be managed differently… Your Zoom backgrounds matter. Your responsiveness matters. Your voicemail messages matter. Your follow-up systems matter. Your client communication matters.
When you lose the ability to impress people with a physical environment, the little details become even more important.
When you intentionally design the client experience, several things happen:
- You get better reviews.
- You generate more referrals.
- You build long-term relationships with clients.
- And when those clients need help again (or someone they know does) they come back to you.
Because they remember how well they were treated.
So here’s the challenge… Don’t let doing business with your firm feel like standing in line at the DMV.
Instead, micromanage the client experience. Pay attention to the details.
Because small changes, what I like to call little hinges that swing big doors, can transform the way clients experience your firm.
And when clients feel valued, they stay, they refer, and they return.
Which ultimately leads to a better law firm and a better life for the owner.
