Latest / Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love / The Secret to Lifetime Clients

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The Secret to Lifetime Clients · Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love

• 0:03
  Unknown: Hello, I'm Davina Frederick. And I'd like to
• 0:05
  welcome you to the wealthy woman lawyer podcast. If you've been a
• 0:08
  fan for a while now, thank you, we so appreciate you. If you are
• 0:12
  new to the wealthy woman lawyer podcast Welcome. I'm so glad
• 0:15
  you're here. The welcome wealthy woman layer podcast is sponsored
• 0:19
  by wealthy woman lawyer, a company that helps women law
• 0:22
  firm owners scale their law firm business to and through a
• 0:26
  million dollars in gross annual revenue with total ease. So you
• 0:30
  can fully fund and still have time to enjoy the lifestyle of
• 0:34
  your dreams. If that sounds like something you'd like to do, then
• 0:38
  come hang out with us in our Facebook community, wealthy
• 0:41
  woman lawyer or follow us on Instagram at wealth woman
• 0:44
  lawyer, you also can connect with me on LinkedIn or visit our
• 0:49
  website at WWW dot wealthy woman lawyer.com. Today, I wanted to
• 0:55
  share with you a short story. So recently, I hired a vendor to
• 0:59
  handle a design project for me. And she came highly recommended
• 1:03
  from a trusted source. Right from the start, she had very
• 1:07
  clear process and rules for working with her. And one of
• 1:10
  those rules was not to make changes in her design myself
• 1:15
  while she was working on the design online on the website.
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  And I agree that that was a smart rule because changes can
• 1:23
  be lost if we were working on top of each other. So after a
• 1:27
  few days, she sent me the project for my approval. She
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  also sent an email telling me she was not able to upload
• 1:34
  videos and asked me if we could do it if my team and I could do
• 1:38
  it. So we did. And it was not the only revision that needed to
• 1:41
  be made. But it was the only quote unquote change that we
• 1:45
  made on the site. Otherwise, I just gave her feedback. And so
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  we did this based on her request of uploading videos. But since
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  she only had two placeholders for videos, we needed to upload
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  four videos, it affected her design. And I just had to put
• 2:04
  them somewhere on the page and then with the expectation that
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  she would design them thought design around them and get them
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  into the place that they needed. In my mind, this was a really
• 2:14
  easy fix, and shouldn't take her too long to do. So I was
• 2:19
  expecting her to say thank you. And instead I received a really
• 2:23
  school D email from her re emphasizing her rule about not
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  working on a project. While she was I was pretty incredulous,
• 2:32
  because number one she asked me to upload the data. And number
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  two, she was not working on the site at the time because she was
• 2:41
  waiting for my feedback and approval. So there was no danger
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  of be working on top of her and sort of losing any of her
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  changes. Now, if you know me, well, you know that I do not
• 2:54
  like to be scolded. Quite frankly, I don't know anyone who
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  does. But I especially do not like to be scolded when I had
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  paid someone 1000s of dollars to handle a project for me. So I
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  didn't take it very well. But you know, we we worked through
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  it and moved on. And we were able to get the project
• 3:14
  completed without too much incident. But this got me really
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  thinking about how companies use their processes and procedures
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  of policy, not as a means to create a better client
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  experience, but as barriers to relationships with between the
• 3:33
  service provider and their clients. As you know, I am a
• 3:37
  huge advocate of creating and implementing systems in your law
• 3:44
  firm business. In fact, I think if you do not have good systems,
• 3:48
  your clients will immediately lose confidence in you, your
• 3:52
  team and your law firm systems tell us that you know exactly
• 3:57
  what you're doing that you have got got a handle on this, right.
• 4:01
  So it immediately elevates a client's confidence if you have
• 4:05
  IT systems because they just can breathe a sigh of relief knowing
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  that somebody else has got this. It really positioned you as a an
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  experienced expert. We've done this before. We've done it so
• 4:17
  many times that we actually have a system around it. But
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  sometimes we can take that too far. And here's what I mean.
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  Have you ever had an experience with a company where one or more
• 4:29
  of their employees as told you? We can't help you because it's
• 4:33
  against company policy? So how did that make you feel? It make
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  you feel frustrated? Did it make you feel angry? Usually that's
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  what happens when you're being stonewalled by a company and
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  they use the excuse of their policy to not be able to solve
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  your problem.
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  This response is why so many people go postal on large
• 4:55
  companies. In many cases employees just aren't empowered
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  to solve a part have their hands are tied by policies and
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  procedures to which they must adhere. And in some cases,
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  policies, procedures, processes all that is great, and it's
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  necessary. So don't don't misunderstand me. A lot of a lot
• 5:17
  of these things are necessary. However, just as it is with the
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  law, you remember how we learned in law school that for every
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  rule, there are exceptions. And oftentimes, there are exceptions
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  to exceptions. Having the ability to recognize those
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  exceptions and make other choices can make a huge
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  difference in the client experience. This got me thinking
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  about how, why it isn't so many small business owners today that
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  I've encountered that I've been dealing with are so inflexible
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  around their policies and their procedures. And here's some of
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  the reasons I think that may be I'm sure, there are many more,
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  but here's some that occurred to me. One is that perhaps they see
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  everyone talking about policies, procedures, and processes and
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  systems. And they think this is the be all end all of running as
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  far business. Okay, so no exceptions ever. Or maybe it's
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  because they invested a lot of time and effort into setting up
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  systems. So now there's no flexibility, we must follow the
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  rules, precisely, no exceptions. Perhaps. They're just rule
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  followers, and it never occurred to them, that there is another
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  way, I know, there are a lot, I'm a I'm a rule follower
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  person. I know this is certain, certain ones of us have this
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  sort of personality, if we know the rules, we can follow the
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  rules. And if we don't know the rules, you know, that's a
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  problem. So maybe it's that maybe they fear they'll be
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  perceived as a bad business person, if they make exceptions.
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  So I draw these boundaries and set these policies and set up
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  the systems. And if I go back on something, then somebody's going
• 6:59
  to take advantage, and I'm going to be a bad business person. Or
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  maybe they just prefer to hide behind the keyboard to avoid
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  uncomfortable conversations. And so you know, we can just blame
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  it on my system, right. I think the biggest thing, though, is
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  that so much small business owners these days often focus on
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  their own comfort, and not the experience their client is
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  having. In the, in the case that I was talking, I told you at the
• 7:29
  beginning, I do believe that
• 7:32
  the vendor that I hired was very introverted, she's very process
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  oriented. And, and so for her, this was all about her comfort,
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  and she wasn't really considering what the reactions
• 7:47
  would be would be of someone who receives the school the email
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  from her. So I get it, I mean, I'd love to just think about me
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  and mining, it's, I really would, and I know it that, like
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  we just want to build a business around ourselves and our needs.
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  But the reality of business is, is that there's got to be a
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  balance, you definitely have to have boundaries for yourself.
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  But you also need to consider the experience your clients are
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  having, because your clients are the ones who pay you and
• 8:16
  actually make your business dream possible. So we can
• 8:20
  certainly do that we can certainly just focus on on our
• 8:23
  own needs only. But when we do, we're setting our businesses up
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  to be transactional in nature, and not built on enduring
• 8:31
  relationships with our ideal clients, relationships that
• 8:35
  could feed you and yours for years to come. So in the example
• 8:41
  that I gave you, I'm less inclined now to hire this person
• 8:45
  again. So she just had a got paid to do one thing. And it was
• 8:49
  a very transactional experience. But because of the way it made
• 8:53
  me feel unlikely to go seek out other people who can do what she
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  does, and there are many, many of them. And look for somebody
• 9:02
  who's more relationship oriented, somebody who's more
• 9:06
  likely to want to keep a relationship with me over the
• 9:10
  long term. And they as a result are likely to make a lot of more
• 9:15
  money than she what she made. So to give you an example, my
• 9:19
  clients are busy women, law firm owners as as all of you know,
• 9:23
  many times, they will have scheduled meetings with me on my
• 9:27
  calendar, only to have to cancel them the day before, even the
• 9:32
  day of sometimes. Now my private coaching process lays out a very
• 9:37
  specific schedule for them. However, if I were not able to
• 9:41
  be flexible and unbothered when a client cancels that last
• 9:45
  minute, because perhaps they got caught up in court or in traffic
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  or dealing with emergency at home, or maybe they just weren't
• 9:53
  in the right mental space that day. How long do I think I will
• 9:57
  keep those relationships? Now I understand there canceling, and
• 10:01
  we conduct our meetings over zoom. So it's not like I get in
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  the car and drive someplace and then somebody cancels because I
• 10:08
  can understand if people did that, I'd have to come up with a
• 10:11
  new process because that would not work for me. But it does
• 10:14
  work for me. Because if they cancel, then I just move on to
• 10:18
  something else, I don't get upset about it, right. So they
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  might, they might adhere to my requirements. If I required
• 10:26
  this, they might adhere to my requirements for the term or the
• 10:29
  contract. But rest assured as soon as that contract was up and
• 10:34
  never renew many of my clients renew year after year, and part
• 10:37
  of the reason why is because I prioritize the relationship over
• 10:43
  one particular transaction one particular moment in time. It is
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  more important to me that my clients feel supported and
• 10:52
  accepted than it is to enforce that particular policy. Other
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  policies and procedures are necessary for their success. So
• 11:00
  I'm not suggesting that we throw the whole baby out with the
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  bathwater. There are deal breakers to be sure. Let's think
• 11:10
  about it. In terms of etiquette, though, if you're familiar with
• 11:15
  Emily Post and the rules of etiquette, you know that there
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  are societal rules governing proper behavior in certain
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  settings. So obviously, this in 2022, we don't have the same
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  types of social rules and etiquette behaviors as we used
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  to have, you know, in our society, they changed. And we
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  also have rules of etiquette that never would have even
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  entered anybody's mind a decade or so ago. For instance, all the
• 11:44
  etiquette around social media. But, for example, if if you're
• 11:51
  going to attend a formal dinner with people you'd like to
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  impress, you might want to brush up on your table manners, you
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  want to note proper etiquette for a formal dinner. The purpose
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  of etiquette is not to make anyone who does not no proper
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  etiquette feel excluded, though, the purpose of etiquette in and
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  we're going to paraphrase the words of etiquette expert, and
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  we post I mentioned is to make others feel comfortable in our
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  presence. For instance, a person with good manners would never
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  point out to another
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  that they picked up the wrong fork at dinner. Only people with
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  poor etiquette shame or scold others who don't know any
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  better. So it's the same for you and your clients. The purpose of
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  your systems is to ensure that client has a good experience and
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  working with you, your team and your law firm. Of course,
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  systems have many other benefits two systems can help minimize
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  human error. They can prevent miscommunications, they can
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  provide a level of consistency and reliability. They can keep
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  us from getting grieved by the bar or sued for malpractice,
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  there's a whole lot that systems can can help us accomplish.
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  Certainly, they improve the experience for everyone involved
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  in our business, including you and your team. Or at least they
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  should. Occasionally, there will be a moment when a client
• 13:18
  doesn't fit into your process or your system. And you certainly
• 13:24
  can bounce them out of your business and your life hits that
• 13:27
  if that's the case. And in some cases you should. So for
• 13:30
  example, if a client is harassing one of your employees,
• 13:34
  or they're lying to you, or they refuse to pay the bill, no
• 13:38
  matter what solutions you offer, those are all good reasons to
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  bounce that client and just say, You know what, this isn't a good
• 13:46
  fit. However, if we want to prioritize relationships over
• 13:51
  transactions, so that you're creating clients, for a
• 13:55
  lifetime, instead of a moment in time, then sometimes the wiser
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  choice is to offer up some grace. Everyone, you and me
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  included, require. All of us require a little bit of
• 14:09
  flexibility now, man, it's okay to allow others to be
• 14:13
  imperfectly human, and for you to be imperfectly human as well.
• 14:19
  Before I go today, I just want to leave you with one last
• 14:23
  little story. A few years ago, around the new year, I made
• 14:27
  myself a promise that this year, I would not shy away from hard
• 14:32
  conversations. And I would have faith that a little direct
• 14:35
  communication can go a long way. I did this because I was I had
• 14:42
  some boundaries that were a little too permeable. And I
• 14:45
  wanted to get better at sort of drawing boundaries for myself to
• 14:50
  make sure I was protecting my own needs instead of just to but
• 14:54
  instead of just discarding relationships with people who
• 14:56
  made me uncomfortable, because they disagree with me. At some
• 15:00
  point or another, or they can find me on issue or I felt like
• 15:03
  they're pushing boundaries, I committed to have our
• 15:07
  conversations, to put in the work to try and understand. I
• 15:12
  also really honored my boundaries, those are important
• 15:15
  too. And I made room for acknowledging that maybe if I
• 15:24
  had a conversation with someone, that we could get past our issue
• 15:32
  and work on our relationship and have a longer term relationship.
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  And it is amazing, every time I applied this tech B, the outcome
• 15:43
  turned out even better than I expected. Because I think at the
• 15:47
  heart of it, we need to remember, remember that we are
• 15:50
  working with people. And if we can cut through all the noise of
• 15:55
  the processes, and all all of the clutter going on, and where
• 16:00
  all the information clutter, and just have conversations with one
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  another, sometimes we really can come out on the other side, much
• 16:08
  better for it. Now, I know that there, there are certain things
• 16:13
  that are deal breakers. So if you are somebody who struggles
• 16:19
  with boundaries, and you're trying to set some boundaries
• 16:21
  for yourself, and you're listening to this, and you're
• 16:25
  thinking, Oh, my goodness, now I need to go back on my
• 16:27
  boundaries. That's not what I'm suggesting. What I'm suggesting
• 16:31
  is, is that we need to look more holistically at the situation.
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  And don't be afraid to have a conversation with somebody.
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  Because the worst that can happen is, you know, you may in
• 16:43
  the relationship anyway, or you know, somebody might get hurt
• 16:46
  feelings. But you're also going to grow out of the experience of
• 16:50
  having conversation, you might learn something about yourself,
• 16:53
  you might learn something about the other person. You can have
• 16:57
  them both though, you can have boundaries, and you also can be
• 17:04
  open to hearing another person's viewpoint. And maybe growing
• 17:12
  from that experience, you might be amazed at the benefits. So
• 17:17
  that's it for today's episode, I would like to know, if you would
• 17:21
  like to know more about how to set up systems that not only
• 17:24
  support you and your team, but your clients as well, then check
• 17:28
  out my new training. It's called seven essential systems, every
• 17:31
  law firm needs to scale to seven figures. Plus three mistakes to
• 17:35
  avoid. The registration link is in the show notes. I thank you
• 17:38
  all for being here today. If you enjoy this podcast, as always, I
• 17:42
  invite you to please share it with other women law firm
• 17:45
  owners. That's a super easy thing to do right from the app,
• 17:48
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• 18:03
  the app. So more people can get exposed to the podcast and maybe
• 18:09
  buying some little gold nuggets here that will help them in
• 18:13
  scaling their locker businesses. Thank you so much for being
• 18:16
  here, and we'll see you next
• 18:18
  week.