Attract maybe 9 times as many clients
(or fewer) and be more choosy

"...only one in ten people experiencing legal problems instruct a solicitor or barrister". (SRA Report: Consumers of legal services – levels of unmet legal need)

Would you want to attract some of those other nine?

How about 3 new enquiries for every client who does instruct you?

Then you could be more selective - evolve your list (slowly and carefully) toward the most suitable.

That will help you utilise resources to their best advantage - for everyone!

What stops people with a legal need from approaching a solicitor?

People are naturally nervous about the unknown.

Most people only use a solicitor a few times in their whole life.
Certainly, on the first time, it is very unfamiliar territory. And maybe on some later occasions, if the firm, or type of service is different.

If these nerves stop too many would-be clients from contacting your firm, it must be worth revising things to build up the trust they need.

One way to help is to build trust to reduce the sense of unknown.

An obvious place where hesitations will stop people at the last minute is your Contact-Us page. If people visit your website but then don't get in touch with you, all your work has been wasted. 

Revise your most important page

While you can provide reassurances in many places throughout your website, consider doing it again (or more) on your Contact Us page.

This is the last of the five stages in the marketing formula 'AIDA'.
It is about Prompting Action - ie asking potential clients to contact you for an initial consultation.

The plan is to prepare people who are actively considering contacting you for the early parts of the process. The more they know, the less anxious they are likely to be. 

• And feel more cared-for during what is probably a difficult time
• And become more likely to return with other matters, tell friends and colleagues about how caring you are
• And even write positive online reviews about their experience

How To Build Trust

Nearly-clients may feel you can provide the legal skills - other pages on your website will usually address that issue.

But worries about how well cared-for they will be during the process may be the cause of hesitations.

Here are seven simple things you could do to build trust.

They are very cheap and reasonably easy too. Mostly they only need doing once on the website – an easy step forward!

(There are many more things you can do, and on pages other than your Contact-Us page.)

Give reassurance directly
Give immediate reassurance to people who have never been to a solicitor before. You can speak to them directly and say you recognise that on top of their pressing legal problems, a solicitor's office may be so unfamiliar that it's causing worry.

Confirm that you want them to enquire
Even if they are not sure what to ask for, or who, or how... you still invite them to get in touch.

Provide photos of your place
Many solicitors display a photo of their frontage, which might help pedestrians. But adding photos of your car-park, your reception area and your meeting room would reassure so many more people.

Include a more detailed map
You don't have to show the map on the website, but you can explain that you will send them a map by post or email. You can say that it shows routes to your office from the bus station, train station and by road from surrounding towns. And it might also mark local car parks in case yours is full (or if you do not have one).

Prepare an agenda for the first meeting
Describe to people who will be present, what you will talk about, how they can ask questions, and how long it usually lasts will give them a good idea of what to expect.

You can even tell them how you greet them
Will you personally find them in Reception, or will a secretary show them to your room? How many can you seat for the meeting? Will you offer them a hot/cold drink? Might it help to warn them that you have building works or noisy neighbours if that might be off-putting at the time?

And you can explain process as it continues
What happens after the first meeting? What happens along the way? How long is it likely to take? What else might become important? And so on...
 

How To Use These Confidence Boosters

You don't have to list all these on your Contact-Us page.
If your website has accordion blocks functionality, it will be to hand for those with these sort of questions. (These enlarge or shrink after a click when you want to toggle between hiding and showing large amount of content.) 

Or you can put the list on another page with a link like “Have you got any further questions about our first meeting?”

Much of mine is on my Services page.

Your Second-Most Important Page