Essential Questions to Ask During Your First Attorney Client Interview

So welcome, and this week we're gonna talk about what it's like when you get your first attorney client reach out to you, and hopefully you're here because you wanna know the important questions you can ask to ask that new client to understand their needs and also understand the questions you want to ask so that you look professional, but you get the right answers so you're able to create that letter of engagement. So first of all, if you're here and this is your first attorney client, congratulations. I think you really love this niche. It's an amazing— group of people that you get to work with. They're just like any other clients. They're all different. But as far as there's kind of a little bit of an avatar for them, they're very professional. You might show— they might show up with a suit on, as opposed to if you work with a landscaper, you're probably not gonna have that. So you wanna reflect that when you have your meeting with them. You wanna dress up, you wanna look good in your meeting. You want to establish that solid foundation to create that successful working relationship. And the client interview, this is one of the most important places to do that, especially that initial one 'cause it's really gonna set up your relationship ongoing. So whether you're a seasoned bookkeeper or just starting out, I'm gonna give you some questions that you need to ask to get those answers that you need. And it's also an opportunity to have that foundation of trust that's established in the communication. It's a clear communication back and forth with the client. They're excited to talk to you, you're excited to talk to them. So it's a perfect time to be able to set the tone for the meeting, to have that established working relationship right from the get-go, from that first client interview. So what is the importance of a bookkeeping client interview? Like I just said, it's to get that tone set. It's the professionalism. It's that first engagement with the client. That initial meeting is important. You're gonna gather essential information for the client on the client's business, on their financial needs, and you're gonna set the expectations. So that's the first part of this, and it's really important to get that that connection going with them, understanding the client's unique situation. So a lot of this is listening and not talking. So try to remember that as you start to— I would practice if you've never done this before, practice with somebody to kind of get that tone and that cadence set so you're listening more than you're talking. Unless they ask questions about you, I would totally make this appointment about them. So setting the tone is important, and then conducting a thorough client interview is extremely important. So you wanna manage the expectations, ensure that the client engagement is a good fit for both parties. It might be an opportunity as you sit and talk to this person that you realize this isn't going to work and you wanna make sure you don't waste anybody's time. You wanna ask the right questions and identify any potential challenges that maybe make it not being the right client fit for you where you can actually share the love and share the referral to somebody else. So it'll prevent misunderstandings, but it'll also really, it will ensure a smooth and efficient and mutually benefit beneficial working client, bookkeeping client engagement. So essential questions. So you want to understand the law firm structure and the practice areas. You want to ask them about their entity type. That's one of the questions you want to ask. And I would just start out with like, Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Attorney, can you please just tell me a little bit about your firm and your areas of practice? Simple question, very easy to get some information and get the conversation started, right? This is going to help you understand the firm size. If they don't tell you, ask, um, for their client base. What are their clients like? And understand any potential bookkeeping complexities that are related to the different practice areas. Maybe they do personal injury, which is completely different than estate planning. So if they have a combination firm, you want to understand that. Or maybe real estate law, which is really fast turnaround of the data. You have to be on top of that when you meet with them. The next question I think you should ask is, what is your firm's short-term and long-term business goals? It's just to get some conversation going, kind of set the table for what you're looking at with the client, and it's gonna reveal the firm's growth plans, which is gonna help you in your pricing. You don't wanna price for something really small and then find out less than a year they've added 15 employees, and you weren't banking on that when you were putting the pricing together. So definitely ask those questions. Ask about how they track their profitability. Now, do they track their profitability by practice area? Learning these things is gonna help you in the long run as you start to set up your firm, your engagement with their firm to understand exactly what they're looking for and how, what kind of KPIs you're gonna track, how involved you're gonna be. Is it gonna be just simple write-up work or you're gonna be more involved? Which I'm hoping that's the case that you're more involved. And then ask about their current financial practices and pain points. So ask them if they can describe the current bookkeeping processes. That'll uncover any place that maybe isn't working. And you'll hear from all of the last bookkeeper did this or the last bookkeeper, my accountant did this. Or I was doing it myself at night and it was really stressful, stressful to me. My trust account is a mess. These were all those answers are gonna come forward for you. So maybe they'll tell you about some manual processes that they don't even realize they're manual, but in your mind, like, wow, that's a real manual process that you don't need to be doing manually. So you keep all those things in your head as you start to listen and take notes. I take notes, written notes, when I'm in an interview like this. I will record the meeting so that my staff can have the full idea of the scope that they're not missing anything. But also I take written notes. I think that they're really helpful. They help me remember. As I'm going through the job exactly what that person's looking for. Ask them what software they use. A simple question of what software are you using is a critical one. Are they using Xero? Are they using QuickBooks? Are they using Clio? Are they using LeanLaw? These are questions we should ask and know the answers to. I think that it's something that can sometimes be missed if they're not, you don't find out maybe that they're using Clio, but they're not integrating it with QuickBooks. That's an answer that you wanna hear so you understand what you're gonna be faced with ongoing if you're a person that connects Clio to QuickBooks, which I highly recommend. So that's something that you really want to understand. Understand their fee structures. So you want to really understand what's their engagement with their client look like? What kind of a pricing? How do they do their work? How fast is there a turnaround? Say there's, you know, the laws in their state, what are you looking at? Some states, if it's personal injury, they have to get that money out in X amount of days. Knowing those things upfront is really going to help you. Do they bill with, you know, are they contingency attorney? Are they flat rate? Are they hourly? These are important things to know. Even if you don't touch doing the billing itself. And that might be the case with some attorneys. They might want you to or they might not want you to. But understanding that is really important. Are they subscription-based? We're starting to see some of that. Are they using leads billing? You really want to know that because that's going to be a big difference. It might add that extra step if you end up taking on the billing. Do you handle— do they have trust accounting? That's an important question. Might seem like a crazy one, but some attorneys don't. So knowing whether they have trust accounting is an important important part of their compliance work, and you want to have the answers to how they handle their trust accounting, and you want to start to think about what kind of reports you're going to present to them. You want to be able to start thinking about that 3-way bank reconciliation. You want to understand their trust accounting regulations. And, and if you're involved in managing these accounts, you want to know those answers. You want to ask them what their expectations are for financial reporting. This is usually where you'll hear Oh, the bookkeeper never gave me my financial statements on a regular basis. So there's a place you can shine as you set up your work processes that you're gonna have that on a regular cadence for them. They really appreciate that. I even go to the next step. If I'm gonna do that, I include me going through it with a recording or meeting with them. Obviously, there's more cost to that, but they might want that one-on-one personalized touch with meeting with you in, in person to talk about the finances. So you want to set expectations and build a partnership with them. You want to have clear communication methods. So you want to explain to them how you're going to communicate with them, and establishing those clear communication channels and reporting schedules, whether they're going to get meetings, or, or, or if they're going to have recordings, whatever you end up doing, you want to be very clear on that right from the beginning, to kind of get a feel for what they're, what they're accustomed to, or what they'll be looking for. And then you might want to ask if they have any questions about my experience in the legal bookkeeping industry. You might— they might want to ask you about that, and you could address any concerns and highlight your expertise at that part of the interview. Now I'm starting to shift it back to our firm. So they want to hear about us. But you really want to make this more about them in this, in this conversation. So I think that as you go through this, it's essential to— as you've had this meeting, you've wrapped it up, and now you're reaching out to them, and you're probably sending them an NDA. If you work only with attorneys, send them that NDA. Let them know that you really take privacy and security matters very— you really bring this high into your business, that you really think about those things beforehand. And then also, as you're doing this, send that back in a recap. So you're recapping what— you regurgitate what you already heard in the meeting. Again, it's another place that you can reset the— reset what you heard back to them, restate it to them. They'll read it and say, oh no, no, that's not what I meant in the conversation. And that will get corrected. So you'll be able to provide them with a really good letter of engagement. And then maybe you get a new client in the end of that. So all of these things are important. You wanna wrap up that client interview with the next steps. Let them know what's gonna happen. Let them know exactly where you're gonna be, what you're gonna be doing for them, and how soon. Maybe a timeline that will come later. But tell them that this is how you work, and if they— you take take on the work. It's cleanup. This is how we communicate throughout the project. We don't leave you hanging. And I think those are just ways to alleviate some of the concerns because you're new to that person. You might not, uh, they might not know how you work. So it's good to have that kind of a level of communication back as you wrap it up and you leave it off on a good note. You leave a good first impression, and I think that's the best tip of all. So we'll see you all next week, and I hope that was helpful. Bye now.