Running a successful personal injury firm requires juggling responsibilities that too often detract from your firm’s primary focus: driving positive client outcomes. In today’s landscape, personal injury firms experience significant pressure to keep up and set themselves apart from other law firms in the same market.
According to a recent study, 84% of participants said when in search of a personal injury attorney, they would ideally need to talk to around three firms before deciding on which one to hire. This begs the question, in such a competitive market, how can your firm establish strong relationships with your existing clients, so you can drive more business in the future?
Paid and organic marketing efforts play an important role in attracting prospective clients. However, despite the importance of technology in building your brand, person-to-person interaction and connection prove to be the most effective for your firm’s success. At the end of the day, your clients tend to be in particularly vulnerable stages of their life. The more you establish a sense of trust and ensure every client feels special, the greater success will find in growing your clientele.
The importance of relationship building for PI attorneys and firms
At its core, your personal injury firm works with clients that have undergone particularly traumatic or life-changing events. While it can be easy to get wrapped up in day-to-day digital marketing efforts like keeping your social media updated or optimizing your paid advertisements, starting with the human element behind your practice is a must to differentiate yourself from your competitors. The following tips are a great place to start to nurture your relationships with clients.
Reconsider your marketing spend
Is your marketing spending bringing in high-quality prospects? It’s no secret that you work in a particularly competitive industry. In fact, it can cost a PI firm up to $935.71 every time a potential client clicks on their Google Ad. This begs the question, how valuable are these prospects, and do you find their interest beneficial to your ROI?
If your answer is no, it might be worth considering investing in networking opportunities that can help establish your firm’s reputability in the future. One way to connect with other professionals and potential clients is to increase your firm’s community involvement. Encouraging members of your firm to volunteer at community events or local business gatherings and conventions will foster face-to-face networking opportunities. Bringing a personal interaction to your prospect’s discovery process will help them resonate with your organization and perhaps reach out should they need you in the future.
Increase geographical coverage
A key component of effective marketing for your firm is to increase your reach and build awareness. This means that while nurturing relationships with local businesses and citizens is important, you will need to think outside of your community. The clients who find your firm through using Google or social media are within your locality (state, county, city, etc.) This is because when they're seeking legal representation, they're most likely to choose attorneys within their jurisdiction.
This is when taking part in a referral network will help your firm connect with other lawyers and PI firms will help you grow the number of cases to take on. Not only will it bring in more clients, but help you grow outside of your local community.
Joining a referral network will also add to your firm’s credibility. This is in part because if an organization cannot take on a case because of bandwidth or a case is outside of their primary practice area, they can recommend your firm to a potential client. This shows that your peers trust you and in turn help you gain the trust of prospects.
Types of referrals for PI firms
Now that we’ve walked through the importance of building relationships, let's narrow in on the different referral methods you can tackle for your personal injury firm. As we mentioned above, there are several ways of getting referrals.
Peer referrals
Peers are one of the sources that can bring you a stream of constant referrals. However, it's not a hands-off process. You have to key in effort and time to nurture rewarding peer relationships. This might involve creating a separate marketing campaign to engage and attract firms that aren’t direct competitors. It’s important to note that fellow attorneys have to be confident about your expertise to recommend clients to you, so you need to nurture these relationships just as you would with prospective clients.
Joining the local bar associations can give you a chance to meet attorneys both in personal injury and other areas. It also opens up opportunities to speak at the association events or write articles for the bar's newsletter. From participating in panels to conducting presentations at events, you have the opportunity to network with your peers and establish your firm as a thought leader within your niche.
Client referrals
Nurturing a continuous relationship with your clients can provide a means to garner future referrals. We are not suggesting you spam them with constant emails. If anything, that can be potentially harmful and may end up driving them away.
Effective communication with your clients requires some legwork to understand them and, more so, the challenges they face. Once you have the audience segmented according to their personas, then you can send them content that would resonate the most with them, such as newsletters.
Providing helpful information regularly can enhance their appreciation for your firm and increase the chances of them working with you again in the future. But even better is they are more likely to recommend you to their family and friends should they need a personal injury attorney.
For clients that you build an especially tight relationship, you can ask them for a review of your services. Positive feedback is social proof you can use on your website to attract new clients and establish trust.
Medical professionals
You might also consider developing links with competent medical professionals. Developing a solid mutual working relationship with a medical professional you can trust can be extremely beneficial. Should one of your clients need treatment for an injury, you can refer them to a trusted doctor in your area who understands the litigation process.
The result? The medical professional can help increase the value of the claim, as they are familiar with the process, while you get more opportunities for increased referrals. Should the doctor treat somebody for an incident they believe might require legal representation, they can refer their patient to your firm. It’s a win-win.
Family and friends
Lastly, if you're great at what you do, you can count on your family and friends to refer clients to you whenever someone seeks their recommendation for a personal injury attorney. But this may not always be automatic. You may need to nurture a good relationship with them and extend appreciation whenever they refer someone to you.
One suggestion we have is to improve your social media presence. You can ask friends and family to follow your different pages and accounts and share the content you produce with their own followers. This is an organic and cost-effective way to increase your visibility, without too much of a headache.
Start building personal injury referrals
Knowing how to get personal injury referrals is one thing, but finding new ways to generate referrals and attract prospective clients takes consistency. How well you handle the cases is the defining factor of your success. For this reason, it's crucial to work only on cases that you are confident of their outcome. If a case doesn't look strong enough or is too complex, the most prudent thing is to decline or refer it to another firm.
In a nutshell, building your referrals is not an overnight process. It takes time, patience, and dedication to your clients. If you would like to learn more about growing your personal injury law firm's referrals, talk to us today.
About CASEpeer
CASEpeer is the leading cloud-based case management solution built for personal injury attorneys and their firms. With a turnkey solution tailored for the unique needs of personal injury law and backed by industry-leading support, your firm can onboard and hit the ground running that day. Gain visibility across your entire firm’s operations, from case management and calendaring to employee performance, pipelines, and profitability. Built around the feedback of successful PI law firms nationwide, CASEpeer provides everything your PI firm needs to succeed.