Reassure Your Clients in Tough Times
By Stacy West Clark
The news is bleak and the trickle-down effect is in full force. Businesses and professionals at all levels in most industries are feeling the economic turmoil. What should you be doing now for your clients – even if they are not contacting you with a new matter?
First, visit them on your nickel. The surest way to new business is meeting with your clients on their turf for free to find out how their business is going.
Pick up the phone today and arrange to take a tour, provide a free briefing or take your client to lunch near his or her office. Explore how the recession is helping/hurting his or her business. Learn what some of the client's professional and personal challenges. Listen. Ask. Listen some more. Then, return to your office and immediately act on what you heard. Try to be of help quickly.
Second, consider how secure your client's position is within his or her company. Today, many individuals fear for their jobs. If one of your client's situations seems precarious in some way – try to be of help. Make introductions for them. Treat them to something entertaining and fun. Be a friend during the bad times and they will remember you fondly when the crisis has passed.
Third, go out of your way to ratchet up your level of service. Make the last quarter of the year truly "all about the client." Look for ways to improve your communications, responsiveness, knowledge of the client’s business and industry and more.
Fourth, forget the holiday card this year. Instead, take the money you would have spent on cards and take your clients out for coffee or a drink. Now – and for the foreseeable future – one-on-one contact activities will be much more important and fruitful than any impersonal communications. If you have to send a holiday card, write one out in your hand with a very personal message.
As I like to say: get set, get up and get GOING!
Stacy West Clark, Esq. is president of Stacy Clark Marketing LLC, a firm dedicated to helping lawyers and law firms grow their business. She can be reached at: www.stacyclarkmarketing.com. Stacy is on the Steering Committee of the Delaware Valley Law Firm Marketing Group, a free group that holds monthly lunch programs for lawyers and marketers on important marketing topics. If you would like to receive invitations to upcoming events, please email Stacy or go to www.dvlawmarketing.org.