Get it in Writing: Using Non-verbal Communication

We are continuing to talk about the various rules we have in our office for helping us to "get the work done." There are five areas that make up every part of every business in the world, and "getting the work done" is the third area. The other four areas are in the order in which we have been talking about them and will talk about them in the future, as follows: "clients or customers," "administration," "billing," and "getting paid."

The rule we are going to talk about this week is the "nonverbal communication rule." We talked a little bit about this rule when we discussed "administration." You may remember the concept was that where possible to try and disseminate information around your law firm in a nonverbal way as opposed to verbally. The obvious way to do this is to make carbon copies of various items or to send the items as attachments to emails.

Let me see if I can simply give you an idea of the kinds of things in our office that are communicated nonverbally on a day-to-day basis so you can get an idea of exactly what it is that I am talking about and what we do in my office on a day-to-day basis nonverbally to "get the work done."
1. Prospective client "1"calls our firm;
2. If a person can answer the phone at that time, a prospective new matter report is prepared and a copy given to the lawyer that the prospective client was trying to contact;
3. If no one physically takes the phone call, a phone message is written up and given to the attorney that the message is for to return the call;
4. The person returning the phone message writes up a "prospective new matter report";
5. If an appointment is made, the appointment goes on the firm calendar and whether it is electronically transmitted or printed out depending on what type of a calendar system an individual lawyer is using, that lawyer can find that entry on the firm calendar or in their personal calendar because it will have been put there by the person making the calendar entry;
6. The prospective client comes in for a meeting, a contract is generated, a new matter report is generated, a file is opened and tickler cards (blue cards) are prepared and the out of sight, out of mind card is properly dated to be returned the following month;
7. Appropriate copies of all of the above are circulated to the places where they belong, such as the second page of the new matter report going in the active client book, the various parts of the new matter set going to the bookkeeping area and the conflicts check area, etc. (see the section on administration);
8. Any letters that are written are circulated to everyone in the office who is assigned to work on any part of the client's matter;
9. Any internal memorandum is circulated to everyone assigned to work on a particular client's matter;
10. Monthly bills are reviewed by those assigned to work on a client's matter;
11. Copies of payments received from the client show up on deposit slips which are copied for the managing partner and the managing partner forwards a copy of the deposit slip to the individual assigned to work on the client's matter letting them know that the client has made a payment;
12. Copies of cover letters for bills indicating unique billing issues are circulated to those assigned to work on a particular client's matter; and
13. When a matter is closed, those assigned to work on that client's matter sign off on the file indicating it can be closed and the file is placed in appropriate storage, first on-site and then eventually off-site.

I think you can see from the foregoing that there is a tremendous amount of paper flow that goes around our office. This paper flow could certainly also be made electronic flow. What does all this information flow achieve? The answer is quite simple: that everyone working on a particular client matter is up to date on what is happening on that client's matter because of the information flow that is set up by nonverbal communication and receiving copies of every single thing that comes in the office and goes out of the office. In fact, about the only thing that we do not have a system for with regard to trying to keep everyone informed as to what is going on is a system to transcribe phone calls and have that information go out to everyone assigned to handle a client's matter as well.

In short, if you set up a system in your office and create a "rule" where everything that happens on a client's matter that can be copied to everyone assigned to handle that client's matter, is in fact delivered to that person, you will increase the knowledge of what is happening in a client's matter immeasurably. With this increased information, comes familiarity. With familiarity comes comfort. With comfort comes the ability to communicate with the client. The ability to communicate with the client results in very happy and satisfied clients. Happy and satisfied clients beget additional legal business and the cycle begins over.

Stop and ask yourself the question, what is the downside if anything, in utilizing nonverbal communication systems to let people in your office know what is going on in particular matters? The answer is I don't see how there could be any downside unless you are the tree that is made into the paper! My solution for utilizing so much paper is to simply vow to plant as many trees as you possibly can on Arbor Day.

In addition to all of the above procedural matters regarding any client's case, we also send a copy of everything that comes in and out of the office regarding a client's matter to the client. I have said this before, and I will stress it over and over, the best communication investment is a stamp. Send the client a copy of everything.

Additionally, we have a couple of rubber stamps in our office that we put on copies of things going to the client. The first stamp is "For Your Information, NO Action Necessary." The next stamp is "For Your Information, Please Call Us." Again, what could possibly be the downside of communicating with your client? Clients look for a "projection of effort." This finding was made in a survey by the Pren Hall Company back in 1964. From what I can tell in my practice, it has not changed one bit, other than to become even more so. Clients are more sophisticated today than ever. They know that there has to be winners and losers, what they cannot stomach is someone who does not project effort.

There may be some things in your office that for legitimate reasons you may not want to send to the client, but those instances should be incredibly rare and "few and far between." When in doubt, send it. If the three most important words with regard to real estate are location, location, location, then the three most important words with regard to happy and satisfied clients have got to be communication, communication, communication!

Set up the systems, enforce the systems, and expect that the systems will be handled in a proper way. When the system breaks down, stop what you are doing, find where it broke down, and reassert that the system must be followed. Set up the rules, enforce the rules and expect everyone working in your firm to abide by the rules on a day-to-day basis and you will have a firm that truly works like a "well-oiled machine" in "getting the work done."

Next week I am going to continue to talk about rules that help you "get the work done." We will discuss the rule regarding proofing and spell checking and opinion letters. I think you will find some of my comments with regard to this rule quite interesting.

Talk with you next week.

Jim Wirken is a civil trial attorney and the Chairman of the Board of The Wirken Law Group in Kansas City.