Connection: The New Competitive Edge

Let’s face it. The disruptive economy has shifted the balance of power. It’s a buyer’s market. Customers are more informed. Loyalty appears to be a thing of the past. The customer calls the shots . . . not the firm.

Current conversation about customer engagement tends to emphasize the online experience. Yet, the real differentiator for business today has become human connection. The secret sauce is making people feel special.

Every touch point with you and your firm is another opportunity to create a personal experience and a memory that makes your client feel special. You do this by engaging them in dialogue, remembering what’s meaningful to them and offering them invitations to participate in a significant way.

Deepening connection is the roadmap to loyalty, referrals and the robust practice you want. Here are a few examples of how lawyers and law firms can serve that up, in spades: 

• Create opportunities for face-to-face, real-time interaction.
• Clarify their expectations of you up front so that you understand what has value for them. Now, you can meet and exceed expectations.
• Educate clients. Show them how you provide value.
• Describe what’s involved in a project.
• Explain what you are billing for and, more importantly (as this is where value lives) what you have done that you are not billing them for.
• Walk them through your strategy and how you make decisions.
• Be candid about risks and problems.
  Create opportunities for collaboration.
  • Paint pictures with relatable stories that they will remember.
  • Maximize the interactivity of your website, blogs and other digital assets. Start with those most relevant to your clients and prospects.

Whether a touch point occurs on your web site, via social networks, by phone, or face-to-face, it’s about making people feel special. That’s the new competitive edge.

As Maya Angelou said, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”