Fostering long-term trust is the key to keeping your clients. Enduring client/lawyer relationships have always been the buffer between law firms and their direct competitors. However, the solicitor-client relationship is changing, and technology is playing a huge part in its transformation. Firstly, it has never been easier for clients to shop around online to find legal representation for their specific needs. Secondly, forward-thinking law firms are redesigning their communication strategies and adopting the latest legal automation technologies. Cloud-based CRM systems, for instance, are relatively cheap to implement and can eliminate mundane tasks that take up hours of your working day. Thirdly, clients reap the benefits of software tools in many other aspects of their daily lives. Therefore, demand for law firms to mirror this level of convenience will only intensify as such technologies are used in ever more common daily activities. To maintain a profitable law firm in the years ahead, investing in the right client focussed automated tools now will ensure you’re setting the pace for your competitors; rather than fighting to keep up with the rest of the market. Here are some tips for law firms looking to utilise automated tools to build stronger client relationships in less time.
Increase Your Speed Of Response
Emails have replaced letters from solicitors, increasing the timeliness of reply and lowering a firm’s postal costs. However, many law practitioners complain that the process of composing an email takes too long. For instance, you have to think about the findings, link it with the status of the case and then from there, work out the tone and style of your message. With The Link App, you can pre-load your dashboard with saved updates, written in plain language your clients will understand. Your client can also fill out forms, apply their e-signature and gain clarity on their legal proceedings. The Link App’s revolutionary communications portal makes it easy for firms to make their fee-earning services more transparent.
Understand Your Client’s Secondary Needs
Talking to your clients regularly and gathering feedback on your services will help you build long-term trust with your clients. In a survey we conducted earlier this year, 73% of respondents said that they found their legal representation through recommendations from friends and family. These figures show that, regardless of a case’s outcome, providing superior customer service will get you noticed.
Additionally, in many cases, clients may not be aware of the latest developments in the legal industry. One way you can boost the client/solicitor relationship is to send them regular updates on relevant news in the legal sector. This attention to detail builds long-term trust and is as simple as sending clients a quick update. The Link App makes it easy to set up auto updates and feedback surveys, and doing so could set you up with a client’s business for life. By syncing your communications platform with your existing CRM or Case Management systems, you can tailor your communications to times that suit your clients’ lifestyles. For example, it might be an idea if you are working with a busy family-orientated client, schedule your contact periods away from the weekends, and instead communicate only during regular business opening hours. These tiny touches will help you speed up processes, and reduce the likelihood of your clients missing your communications. However, should your client ever miss a call, or require your urgent attention, The Link App’s CallBack Request button sends you an instant notification. This feature allows you to plan your callback schedule more effectively, thus improving your firm’s quality of service.
Update Your Billing Procedures
Many incubators are helping to finance and develop disruptive entrants to the legal technology industry. It’s never been easier for your clients to compare law firms online and go with a legal service provider that can help them with specific issues. Will writing services, for example, bypass the need for solicitors entirely, using a highly-automated business model from start to finish. Further, automated tools are already helping law firms all over the world carry out tasks, like conducting house searches, in seconds. These time-saving tools allow firms to charge lower fees for standardised services that could take many hours to complete manually. As automated tools become the norm, recording and budgeting your time in alignment with standardised workflows will become more of a necessity. The Link App makes standardising your invoicing and payment processes easy. With its data sharing services, you can send invoices and bank details securely. Your clients can also track their case’s Work In Progress, at stage you want to share it. Seeing all records of messages and client acknowledgments also make it easy for everyone to keep track of his or her time and budgets, from any device.
Boost Your Quality Of Service Delivery
Reputation is also a crucial marketing tool, just as it has always been within the law profession. Assuring your clients that your communication systems are secure with encryption is imperative to maintaining a good reputation. There have been many instances of data breaches crippling law firms in the last few years. Moreover, as data hackers develop their methods, so should law firms back up their communications with 256-bit encryption, as found in The Link App. Building and maintaining client relationships may become more difficult in the years ahead. This will be, in part, due to disruptive legal tech startups, such as A.I lawyers programmed with bespoke machine learning models. However, this is not to say that automated systems will soon replace lawyers. Instead, law firms need to make sure they’re utilising the best programs to help them build closer bonds with their past, present, and future clients. Set an example, by investing in tools that take away the mundane tasks and improve your firm’s time-efficiency and data-accuracy. Once your processes are fully optimised, use the free time to add value to your client relationships, and market your firm accordingly. Do all you can to embrace technological advancements in the years to come.
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