The Power Of A Cup

Legal marketing sometimes seems expensive and complex.  But we often overlook the simple kindnesses that will turn people into happy clients.

This morning I went to my local newsstand to buy a bottle water for some people doing some work in my apartment. There were four workers, and all they asked for was a bottle a water to get them through the day (I offered more, but they declined). This is a place I visit on most days for my chewing gum and soda, so they know me.

Next to the refrigerator is a coffee pot with a stack of cups. I grabbed four cups and a huge jug of water, taking it to the counter.

Sorry, we don’t sell the cups, said the man behind the counter. He’s not the owner, just an employee. But he was adamant that he could not, would not, either sell or just give me the cups.

Under a quarter’s worth of paper cups. That’s all I wanted. Needed, really – I don’t stock paper cups at home, and using glassware was impractical for the task at hand.

My response? Are you sure you want to tell you boss that you lost a sale based on four paper cups?

It took a few minutes for it to sink in, and I eventually walked out with the cups (I paid $0.05 per cup, by the way).

But it made me wonder how many clients we lose each day because we don’t provide some small token to make their lives easier.  How we concentrate our legal marketing efforts on the “big thing” – the blog, the TV commercial, the radio ad, the … well, whatever … but not on the small things that make people smile.

Use of the phone for a quick call home or to the office. A working pen. A magazine to pass the time in the waiting area. A glass of water on a hot day, or a cup of coffee or tea on a cold one.  Is that legal marketing?  You betcha.  Anything that makes someone happy to do business with you is, indeed, legal marketing.

Do you give out the proverbial cup in your practice?

Photo courtesy of Ernst Vikne.