Foonberg’s Client Curve of Gratitude

click to enlarge

When I launched my law practice back in about 1994, one of my first purchases was Foonberg’s excellent book How to Start & Build a Law Practice.  The advice given in Foonberg’s book is timeless and enduring.  To this day I urge anyone who is launching a firm to buy and read this book. 

One of Foonberg’s most important messages was to bill a client promptly, while it is still fresh in the client’s mind that you did a good job.  Foonberg offered the concept of a Client’s Curve of Gratitude.  Just working from memory the curve looked something like this.  (Buy the book and look at the original curve as Foonberg drew it — it labels the various places on the curve in a much smarter way.)  What Foonberg was getting at is that if you drag your feet and mail out a bill late, the client will long since have forgotten what a good job you did.

Our habit at OPLF is to try, when possible, to mail out a bill within one day of when the work got done.  And it’s Foonberg’s book that inspired this.

2 Replies to “Foonberg’s Client Curve of Gratitude”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *