Many clients are incredibly happy with your service. They like what you do for them, they like you as people and they are more than happy with all that you do for them, yet you are letting them down time and time again.

I am talking here about offering a range of services instead of just a basic level service. One of my favourite examples of this is coffee shops. We seem to have a huge affection for coffee shops in the United Kingdom, as seen by queue after queue in High Streets and service stations. Costa Coffee, Starbucks etc manage to sell you a 10p cup of coffee for £2 or £3.00. Where they score highly (and increase their profits accordingly) is by offering three sizes of cups. This makes them so much extra profit it is almost criminal. If you stand in the queue you will hear someone ask for a coffee (a latte, cappuccino or whatever their preference). If they do not specify a size the question comes from the Barista which size they would like. If they only had one size of coffee cup, they could only buy that one small size; but cleverly, because they fully understand the principle of “upselling”, they offer three sizes, and if you stand in that queue and listen to the responses very few people opt for the smallest and cheapest service.

What if 60% of Your Clients would pay you more for a higher level of service? How many levels of service do you offer? This question could literally add thousands of pounds to your bottom line for very little extra cost for you to implement the changes. If you are offering a conveyancing service, why not offer a standard service and a gold service? Let me explain why this is so vital. If you manage to get to the stage where a new client would gladly engage your services, probably around 60% of those clients would be happy to pay for a higher level of service, but frequently solicitors to not have another level of service to offer them. Change this now, create new levels and be amazed how many of your clients will pay the extra fee and how this will add instantly to your profits.

Examples of how you can add a new level of service

Conveyancing. Standard Service £500. Premium Service (includes 10% off with ABC removals, free Home Information Pack, 0.25% dedection in the level of fees charged by the Estate Agents (and yes that puts you in control of leads to the agent not the other way around as so often happens now) etc £750;. In this example all of the additional benefits of the Premium Service are supplied by other businesses, not you. By using your leverage as the provider of new leads you increase the value of your service to your clients and therefore you can increase the price too! You have now added 50% more to your fee and apart from negotiating the deals with these companies who will all be happy to give them to you if you are referring business, it has cost you nothing except time, and that time is only used once, whereas the additional price can be charged forever.

Joint Wills. Standard £175.00. Premium (includes lifetime free storage, three year annual review and rewrite included) £150 set up fee plus £75 per annum. By lowering the initial price you create a client that will pay you every year and you only need to rewrite the will every three years and only then if the client’s circumstances change. I could provide you with many more ideas of how you can add service levels, but this should give you a good flavour for what I mean here.

If you only offer one level of service, your clients can only buy that level. Offer two levels, or preferably even three and you can upsell the 60% of your clients who would gladly pay you for a higher level of service. Once you can charge more, you can also spend more time giving your clients an absolutely outstanding service. When you do this, they will sing about your services and tell all of their friends, gaining you even more new clients.

By offering new and higher quality levels of service, you can dramatically increase your profits in a very short period of time. Try it now!