Your client just signed the fee agreement. They went through the hand-wringing process of talking to multiple attorneys, knowing this was going to be expensive, and finally made the decision to hire you. They’re nervous. They’re stressed. And right now, in this moment, you have a choice that will define their entire experience with your firm.
You never get another chance to make a first impression. A really good onboarding process sets everything up for success from the get-go. The opposite? Now you’re spending your time recovering from a poor first impression instead of moving their case forward.
Start with a Blank Page
When I work with law firm owners on their onboarding process, we start with something surprisingly simple: a blank piece of paper. We script out the entire experience from the client’s perspective. If you were a client coming into your firm, how would you want this process to go? What are the different steps?
We map it out, go back to it a couple of times because there are always little gaps and holes, and once we have it fleshed out, then we can start implementation.
This first piece where you script it out and write it down is so important. Once you have something written down, it becomes real. You can start to shoot for it and make it happen. The other thing it does is bring to light gaps in your thinking.
This is similar to implementing scalable law firm systems—you have to document the process before you can improve it. If you’ve ever had a business idea that sounds great in your head but falls apart when you try to implement it, you know what I’m talking about. Writing it down reveals all those little disconnects before they become real problems with real clients.
The Gaps That Derail Great Intentions
One thing that happens at the very beginning, right at the end of the consultation assuming the client has signed the fee agreement, is the handoff. It’s really tempting to just take that signed fee agreement, get the check, and say “okay, we’ll be in touch.” But highlighting what they’re going to expect next, who’s going to contact them and when, and what you’re going to need from them—that brings down their anxiety and stress immediately.
Here’s a common gap I see: a lot of my clients like to send some sort of welcome email. Great idea. But who’s going to send it? Once we’ve identified that person, how are they going to know to send it? It sounds really small, and that’s the challenge with these things. These little details can get in the way.
You can be busily signing up clients, but maybe the person who’s supposed to send the welcome email doesn’t know how to send it, doesn’t have a template, or most often wasn’t even told that a new client has been onboarded. They don’t have a trigger to send off that welcome email. That’s just one example—there are a bunch of these kinds of things that happen.
The Motel 6 Principle
Here’s a point I really want to make for attorney entrepreneurs: when we think about a great client experience, we immediately jump to a Ritz-Carlton, five-star experience. But one of the best experiences people get in the hotel industry is actually through Motel 6.
Why? Because it’s affordable, clients know what they’re going to get, and they get exactly that. A clean room, a clean bed, a clean shower, cable TV, and internet. That’s good.
You don’t have to deliver a five-star experience if you’re not trying to command five-star prices. For those of you doing work that’s more volume-driven, the focus should be on reducing friction points, making it as easy for your clients to interact with your firm as possible, being predictable, and setting it up in a scalable way that doesn’t disrupt your margins.
If you’re more of a boutique practice, you’re going to want that high-touch experience. But even that can be really simple. The key is matching your onboarding to your positioning, just like you want your marketing to authentically reflect your firm’s strengths.
Why This Matters More Than You Think
Here’s the crazy part: clients will infer your ability as a lawyer based on how they’re treated as clients—nothing to do with the legal aspects of their case or the counsel they’re receiving. They will judge your ability as a lawyer based on the client experience they’re getting.
I know that doesn’t necessarily make sense, but that is absolutely what happens. If you treat them well, they’re going to think you’re a great attorney. If you treat them poorly, they’re going to think you’re not. And the nice thing is, that issue—how they’re being treated—is totally up to you to define.
Think about your own experience with accountants, CPAs, or bookkeepers. The responsiveness is often terrible. You don’t know what’s happening next. The follow-through is hit or miss. You have to reach back out and ping them about status. It feels like someone behind a curtain pulling levers and pushing buttons, like the Wizard of Oz, instead of a well-oiled machine.
Give Yourself Grace—But Start Now
Here’s what I want you to know: you don’t have to do it perfectly to get a huge return. The attorneys who have dialed-in onboarding processes didn’t snap their fingers and do it perfectly overnight. This is something you work toward and improve over time.
Get the right people, put in the right processes, and it’s going to become a game-changing differentiator that sets you apart from the competition. It may not happen overnight, but you’d be surprised at how much of a difference some of these small changes can really make.
Start by identifying the trigger that kicks off your client experience. Is it signing the fee agreement, or is it something else? Once you identify that trigger, figuring everything else out gets much easier.
Those little touches—a beverage menu in the lobby, a thoughtful welcome packet, a clear explanation of what happens next—they don’t have to be expensive or time-consuming. But that attention to detail shows people that you care about the business, which means you care about them. And doing a good job for your clients translates directly into how that entire process is going to play out.
Ready to map out your firm’s client journey and create an onboarding process that sets you apart? Book a strategy call with Law Firm Success Group and let’s get started.