Why Not Listening Training?

I’ve written about listening before. But it is of fundamental importance that every good post on the topic needs to be highlighted.  Tom Kane over The Legal Marketing Blog has just such a post.  Some great thoughts on how to handle face to face client meetings:

• Tell your staff person to hold all calls (if there are exceptions, let client know up front),
• Let client know they have your full, uninterrupted attention (except as noted),
• Look at the client while they talk,
• Take notes, and frequently summarize your understanding of what client said, and
• At the conclusion of meeting, ask client if there is anything they want to say or ask – then pause for a period of time to give them a chance to respond.

I especially liked this advice, about something said by Jay Foonberg:  “As his father told him, with two ears and one mouth, you should listen twice as much as you speak. Good advice.”

My question for law firms is this:  When a skill is so demonstrably important to your business, why do you fail to provide training on how to do it better?