It may not have come as the greatest surprise to you, but the Law Firm Marketing Club research has clearly shown that people’s expectations have shifted over the last year.
It has a been a year of many changes and digital presence has become even more important.
So, if your client’s expectations are shifting and an excellent digital presence is such an important component of the client’s decision-making process, what should you do?
Well at Conscious we have a few ideas.
One of the greatest strengths of humans is our ability to read minds, well, sort of read minds. William Icke and William Tooke introduced a concept in psychology in 1988, known as empathetic accuracy. This is basically our ability to infer another person’s inner state. As people we are exceptionally good at doing this in our personal relationships and usually in our work interactions too. In order to accurately infer another's psychological state, you must be able to both share that state and understand cognitively how to label that state.
That can sound complicated but it’s something that comes to us naturally, if a client is upset, we can recognise and respond to that even if they haven’t clearly articulated it.
Our ability to recognise and respond to client’s state of mind was tested during the seismic challenges of the COVID-19 period. The last two years of enforced physical separation have made us even more cognisant of the value of understanding client’s and colleague’s state of mind.
Which is why research like this from the Law Firm Marketing Club is so valuable, as it helps bridge the gap from the guesswork to clear insights that if understood and acted upon can lead to valuable interventions and strategies.
Thankfully ‘digital’ allows us to be responsive to the opportunities and challenges of meeting clients expectations. A Conscious client recently sent an unprompted email to the team reading:
"One of the things I really like about Conscious is that when I send an email to the Support team, I can then safely forget about it in the knowledge that it will be actioned. With every other supplier I deal with, I always feel obliged to make a note in my diary to check for a response.”
Ian Priston Marketing Manager.
Ian can’t read the minds of our team, but he has built a up a level of confidence in us that we can act on his requirements. Our Client Services team have been trained to act quickly and decisively in response client requests, in fact one of our team mantras is ‘speed stuns’.
At Conscious we understand that to help law firms make more money from their website, we need to build effective channels between the law firm and their clients or prospective clients. One of the many benefits of being industry specific is that we have built a culture in our team of understanding the legal sector. This means we can help law firms position themselves in ways that not only reflects their unique values and personality but shows how the law firms can add real value to their clients by solving complex problems or providing guidance when it is needed the most.
This research clearly shows that clients are making key decisions about which firm to trust by looking at the firm’s digital assets, including the website, and identifying whether it is up to date, easy to navigate, loads quickly, how accurately the photos represent your brand and whether reviews of the firm are easy to find and up to date. That’s lots to think about!
The wonderful thing about digital is that as technology continues to evolve you can tap into all the opportunities it provides and give your clients a 360-degree positive experience.
With the research highlighting that communication was the most important characteristic when selecting a law firm, I hope that the research inspires you to embrace innovative ways to communicate excellently with your clients and if you want our advice, digital offers you an incredible opportunity to do that.
So, the question is, now you know what your clients want, and you have a digital space to answer them,are you going to let your mind reading ability shine through.
This article features in our 2021 What Clients Want Research. For details on how to access the report click here: https://www.lawfirmmarketingclub.com/what-do-clients-want-2021-report