For 30 minutes, she held my hand and cried, and I just stayed there with her. It was heartbreaking, thinking about the difficulty she was facing emotionally and financially, and on top of all that, she was bringing a child into the world. These kinds of situations are unfortunately common in personal injury cases, and I’m thankful that I’m often able to at least help them with their financial situation by taking their case and getting them the best settlement, we can. Situations like these are where your compassion makes a clear impact on the client as well.
You want to show the clients compassion. This doesn’t just apply to personal injury, either. No matter what practice area you work in, the client still wants to feel like their lawyer is invested in their case and in them personally. If they see that you really care, they’re going to hire you. So that’s what we try to do. One of my
slogans is, “I know what you’re going through,” because I have been in an accident myself and I have felt the way they feel. That makes a difference to them.
7.) Giving Out Your Personal Cell Phone Number
Most lawyers I know don’t want to give their personal cell phone number out to their potential clients or even their current clients. I disagree with that, and it’s because of what has happened when I do give it out. I bet I’ve given my cell phone number to 50,000 people. Every day, I get a lot of calls, and I never know which one is the next big one. I don’t just give out the number, I also answer it myself.
People call me, people text me. If I’m not in a meeting or on the phone, I talk to them. I try to help and share whenever I can.
Most attorneys give out their office number, which is fine. But here’s the truth: how often are you in your office, able to answer that phone? I’m out of the office a lot, as I imagine you are, too. If people have my cell phone, they can reach me when I’m not in the office. I’m all over the place on most days, in my car or shooting ads or traveling. If they didn’t call my cell phone, they would never reach me.
I think being accessible has gotten me a lot of high-dollar cases. So you don’t have to do this. Just know, though, that if you don’t, you will be missing out on those cases. So much of getting a good case instead of losing it to another attorney is about being accessible when the client needs you.
There are other ways that you can also make yourself and your law firm more flexible and able to be reached by a potential client. For instance: