The ability to communicate effectively is perhaps one of the most essential skills that you, as a lawyer, can possess. You need good communication skills to speak appropriately with your client. From maintaining good eye contact, to demonstrating a varied vocabulary, tailoring your language to your clients’ level of understanding, presenting your ideas appropriately, writing clearly and concisely, and having excellent communication skills could help anyone with his or her career growth, let alone a lawyer. Excellent communication skills prevent misunderstanding. It gives clarity and direction and provides clear and well-defined policies.
As your career progresses as a lawyer, the importance of your communication skills increases; the ability to speak, listen, question, and write with clarity and conciseness are essential for you.
Effective communication with clients is not something that most lawyers consider paramount, however, it is advisable that lawyers create a good rapport with their clients. Effective communication includes honesty, trust, bonding, openness, and sharing of information between yourself and your clients to make them comfortable and trust you with their cases.
The lawyer-client relationship works best when both parties can communicate. It is challenging for a lawyer to represent a client effectively without knowing the kind of client that he or she is dealing with.
Effective interpersonal communication skills such as listening and making eye contact could give a boost to your personality. Your success at getting your point across can be the difference between sealing a deal and missing out on a potential opportunity. Effective communication can help you foster a good working relationship with your client, which can, in turn, improve your morale and efficiency.
You, as a lawyer, can use communication skills, such as active listening, interpreting non-verbal signals, maintaining eye contact, assertiveness, being mindful of people’s personal space, using positive body language, dealing with different points of view, and understanding the benefits of a positive attitude to build interpersonal relationships with clients. Moreover, this will enhance the trust that your clients have in you and strengthen your bond with them.
Excellent communication skills are essential in your everyday life, as a lawyer, to become successful. Mastering excellent communication is vital when working with clients, as you need to be able to build relationships and engender confidence, which will make you even more likable. Many lawyers do not communicate effectively with their clients once they take on a job; they do not find time to bond with their clients. Many clients even complain that some of their lawyers do not call or bother to find out about them.
The truth is that most clients like to feel comfortable with you, as their lawyer. They want to be able to confide in you, and for this to happen, there must be an establishment of trust, which can only occur when you communicate and bond with them. When you communicate humbly with your clients, it showcases how great you’re at your job.
Below are four steps that you can take to communicate effectively with your clients;
1. Be positive
As a lawyer, you are more likely to achieve positive outcomes when you use positive, rather than negative language. Positive language is helping and encouraging; it suggests alternatives and offers solutions to problems. It would help if you always try to speak with a positive voice – avoid monotonous responses or talking too quickly or too slowly. Be as clear as possible, and try to engage the listener, as this is far more likely to promote the response you are after than if they leave the conversation deflated. People you speak to can be motivated by a positive speaking style, just as they can be put off by negativity.
2. Take time to listen
Being a good listener is one of the best ways to be an excellent communicator. No one likes communicating with someone who only cares about uttering words but does not take the time to listen to the other person. If you’re not a good listener, it is going to be hard to comprehend what you are being asked to do.
3. Practice active listening
Active listening involves paying close attention to what the other person is saying; it consists of asking and clarifying questions and rephrasing what the person says to ensure a clear understanding.
4. Use a case management solution
eIMMIGRATION and eCMS, the two case management platforms from Cerenade, provide law firms, of any size, the industry’s favorite management systems that could help any lawyer (immigration and other practices alike) to better communicate with his or her clients. To illustrate, these immigration and general practice software or case management systems from Cerenade can perform tasks such as setting up reminders, storing and tracking essential client documents, and running reports on client and case data. They even have a messaging system where you can communicate directly with your clients and stay on top of each case. How cool is that!
Utilizing such reliable, hassle-free, secure, affordable, and easy-to-use case management systems will help you and your law firm ease stress and work with the right documents that are essential to communicating ideas and coordinating efforts in your practice. Also, by enrolling to the Cerenade Client Academy for free, you can gain a greater understanding of how top lawyers are using eIMMIGRATION and eCMS to communicate with their clients, and thereby set yourself up for success.