Choosing the best

Recently I had to buy some double-glazing. I shuddered at the thought of going through this rite of passage. Having answered the door to innumerable cold-calling double-glazing salesmen and having been flooded with flyers from prospective contractors this is something

I have always avoided like some dreadful plague. Nevertheless the house was getting colder, the bus that travels along our street was getting noisier and it seemed like a good idea.

But how does one choose a double-glazing salesman? There was a time when I would have simply gone to Yellow Pages or the Thomson Local. Not so in 2008: I simply went to the computer, tapped in 'Which Guide to Double-Glazing', managed to get their authoritative guidance on the best contractors and then simply went to their website.

Comparison online

Solicitors do not have the same means of comparison online although I suspect that a lot of clients now inspect a firm's website before visit in person. The website gives a very good indication as to what the firm is about, who works for them, and if it is the client's first visit probably has a map to assist them in their trip to the office.

I have always been keen on a good website for my firm as the cost of producing a website and maintaining it is significantly less than many forms of mainstream advertising which have never been completely successful and are very difficult to track.

One of the problems with solicitors' websites is that a lot of them seem to be very similar. Most of the lawyers look the same, we all post up lots of recent triumphs which are probably fairly meaningless to the majority of clients, and quite how the punter in the street chooses between half a dozen different firms is difficult to understand or assess.

Not that I am advocating the rating of solicitors firms or suggesting that there should be a league table but it would perhaps be helpful if prospective clients could have a form of impartial assessment of who exactly they are about to pay a very significant sum of money to in respect of their problems. SATS for solicitors?

I am sometimes astonished that people are prepared to pay you £20,000 or £30,000 to sort out a complex matrimonial dispute when perhaps they have never met you before and know very little about your track record or rates of success.

Promoting a law firm by way of a website is not rocket science. I have had a web presence for many years. Although I have to confess to being a little surprised by the very large numbers of law firms, certainly those local to us, who simply do not have a web page or if they do it is simply a one page banner.

Last week I saw the man from Yellow Pages. He was very keen on getting a new advert for next year's volume. This year I had a small advert but it was still costing me a few thousand pounds. All the enquiries from my reception staff and fee earners seemed to indicate that the ad had been largely unsuccessful as a medium for attracting new business. Nevertheless the Yellow Pages man with a desperation brought on only by the fact that, I suspect, he was on a small wage and a high commission seemed keen to sell.

Ultimately I declined to advertise in Yellow Pages and I believe that as a medium Yellow Pages is likely to decline; just as 20 years ago we all had telephone books in our offices, these days we all use the internet to locate phone numbers instead. Of course not all websites are attractive for solicitors.Visit www.solicitorsfromhell.co.uk and you will see just how bitter and twisted a client can become as a result of an unfortunate experience with a firm of solicitors.

So how do clients find the solicitor of their choice, the pick of the bunch, the knight in shining armour to fight their cause and possibly change their life? It is quite a complex process relying as it probably does on discussions between friends, agencies, and other organisations. People come along for a first visit to see if they like the organisation and there is an informal 'beauty parade' and certainly I often see people who have obviously been to other firms and perhaps not liked what they have seen.

Personal connections and personal recommendation has to my mind been the number one way of attracting clients. Nevertheless unless you have a presence which other people can tap into personal recommendations alone cannot pay the rent. There has to be some pressing of the flesh, 'rain-making' and an attempt to market yourself as the one legal adviser the clients want.

Finally, one must not forget the importance of availability. All too often clients ring up wanting an appointment in half an hour or that day.

Offering an appointment in two weeks time simply does not cut the mustard. In my experience if you are only able to offer appointments in the far distant future you are always going to have the possibility of having those appointments cancelled simply because somebody else is available far sooner.

Our firm has a marketing bonus that few firms can match. When new clients come in to the office and see my dog they know that they are in safe hands!