As a consumer, I strongly believe that first impressions matter. If I am forced to interact with a pushy sales person when walking into a store, I rarely return. If a grocery store is unclean, I will walk out and shop elsewhere. Do they matter to you? How many of us judge the quality of the food an unfamiliar restaurant serves by the number and types of vehicles in the parking lot? My point is I don’t think I’m alone in concluding that first impressions matter. If you agree with me, I would ask if you’ve taken steps to set the right impression at your own firm because it’s certainly going to be easier to establish and maintain an effective and trusting attorney client relationship if a new client’s first impression is a positive one.

First impressions are made at first contact, be it calling for an appointment, looking you up on the Web, or walking through your front door. They are often set before you even have a chance to meet with a prospective new client. It’s all about presentation and experience. Is there a welcoming greeting? Is the space tidy and inviting? Is your website user friendly and functional on multiple platforms to include mobile devices? With all this in mind, I offer the following as ideas to help get you started in thinking about what you can do to try and make certain the right impression is set at first contact. Whether you have a receptionist, reception area, answering service or just by yourself, all the concepts are applicable.

• Train staff to greet every individual as soon as possible, certainly within a minute of their entering the office, and remember that even a sales representative who is turned away today may be a prospective client tomorrow. If your receptionist happens to be helping someone else, have them give a simple “Hello, I will be with you in a moment” in order to acknowledge the individual’s presence.
• Never allow confidential or personal conversations to be overheard by others, particularly in the reception area or a shared space arrangement. If conversations from an employee break area, a conference room, or attorney offices can be heard in reception consider some type of sound proofing. Periodically remind staff, whether yours or shared staff in a virtual space, and attorneys that confidential or personal matters should never be discussed within earshot of any visitors or other tenants. In fact, give staff permission to briefly interrupt a client meeting if voices can be overheard in reception.
• Do not allow visitors to view computer screens. The receptionist’s computer screen will often have confidential information on it and thus should never be visible to anyone coming into the office.
• Occasionally check the waiting area during the day. This is an especially good customer service technique. If anyone sitting there seem bored or frustrated and have been in the reception area less than ten minutes, there’s a problem. The space should be designed to make the wait as pleasant as possible. Remember they don’t like having to wait for you any more than you would like having to wait for them if you were in their office. You might even go sit in your own reception area for 10 or 15 minutes just to see how it feels. For example, does the reading material provided fit the clientele? While Scientific American is probably a great choice for an intellectual property practice, it won’t win any points from clients in a family law practice. If families use your waiting area, make sure there are materials suitable for children. All magazines and newspapers should be current as opposed to displaying outdated ones that have a home address label still attached.
• Keep the reception area clean and orderly because an unkempt reception area is too easily seen as a reflection of the quality of service offered by the firm. Before the attorney-client relationship has even started, a potential new client may already begin to question whether the attorney has enough time to appropriately deal with their problem simply because it appears the attorney already doesn’t have enough time to pick up the place. This includes common areas in rented space, such as hallways, bathrooms, and parking lots.
• Client documents and information must be kept confidential. If client file material needs to be in the reception area because the receptionist is working with it, make sure that wandering eyes can never land on those materials. Never leave client file material, mail, or anything else that might identify a client on the counter or privacy wall around the reception desk.
• Try to prevent anyone from having to wait longer than ten minutes. Most people are willing to be reasonable and wait a short amount of time for the right lawyer; but don’t expect them to wait as long for their lawyer as they might for their doctor. While medical emergencies do arise, lawyers can rarely claim a legal emergency. If prospective clients are waiting too long, consider altering your scheduling procedures. If a delay is unavoidable, have staff inform them of the delay as quickly as possible and discuss options. Some will wait and others will need to reschedule.
• Be mindful of the difficulties the receptionist faces when assigned phone answering duties. Confidentiality can easily be breached in a law office when someone in the reception area overhears a phone conversation or a client name.  The receptionist should have a way of notifying attorneys that someone has arrived or that a client is on the phone without being forced to breach client confidentiality. Statements like “You’re two o’clock appointment is here” as opposed to “Mr. Smith is here” should be acceptable. Viable alternatives might include the use of privacy glass, email notifications of a waiting call, or the moving of phone answering responsibilities away from the reception area.
• If your space permits, have visitor areas and work areas separated by a wall or partition. One never knows what impression potential new clients may have when they observe people working. Some may feel they are seeing energetic and busy staff members and take that as a positive sign while others may feel the staff is overworked or unprofessional and conclude the opposite. A wall with a tasteful picture or two is worth the investment.
• Don’t overlook your Web presence. A poorly designed website, a website that doesn’t display properly on a mobile device, or a website that isn’t kept current can send a message about your competency and priorities as well. After all, who wants their lawyer to be someone who appears to think halfway is good enough or perhaps got started on something and then neglected to follow through?

As I shared above, all of this is about presentation and experience. At first contact if your presentation is poor and/or my experience is bad then we’re going to start off on the wrong foot, if I even decide to let us get started at all. Do first impressions matter? You bet they do.