Running a successful law firm isn’t an easy task, with countless tasks revolving around lawyers’ heads, it becomes difficult to manage, but what is the definition of a successful law firm? This term is often misunderstood. Being successful in your practice doesn’t always mean money. The legal sector is a profession that revolves around one thing: clients.
Clients are the most precious asset of any law firm. Giving them the best client service is something an attorney is liable to do. Clients are both the motivation and the reason for your practice, clients are the key resource of business and future referrals. It’s now more than ever that clients are taken care of properly and their voices are being heard.
In the last few years, the pandemic has influenced how legal professionals used to work since almost all businesses shifted their work to remote locations. The legal sector was no exception. Communication with clients was one of the challenges in this new work situation.
Unfortunately, not all law firms and lawyers were able and are still unable to adopt client-centric law approaches. Being client-centric is a term that is often misinterpreted, lawyers rather than understanding needs usually bombard their clients with marketing content that doesn’t add up any value to their life.
In the age where there is on-demand instant service for absolutely everything like Amazon, Netflix, Uber, etc. Clients need instant assistance with their problems. Being client-centric just not only benefits the clients only but also benefits you in countless ways. You must be thinking that you are doing well in your department. After all, a legal professional is about being short on extra hours. But giving your client service is something that is only gonna come back to you.
Being client-centric leads -> better client experience -> more reviews and referrals-> More clients -> more clients -> better reputation -> more revenue -> growth -> more resources -> better firm processes.
5 Ways To Become More Client-Centric Law Firm-
1. Ask Your Clients For Feedback
Often lawyers don’t open up their door to feedback as they fear what they might get to know, some don’t have enough time to get going through the feedback procedure. Feedback is a vital part of any law firm, asking clients how they are doing and what could make things better is an essential part of any growth strategy.
Taking feedback regularly is very important, making a dedicated form for feedback, and even better if you could make it anonymous. This way, with positive feedback, clients can give negative feedback without hesitation and give you the scope for improvements.
2. Communicate Strategically And Thoughtfully
It’s important to consider all key aspects of your client’s journey, not just the end. Just after the client is onboarded, communicate strategically and thoughtfully right from the start about the needs and how they would want their case to be dealt with.
From the starting point when they have just visited your website, to when they are onboarded and the attorney is assigned to the very end where the final bills are paid. Being at every staff and taking care of clients is something which is going to come over a long period.
3. Avoid Making Assumptions
For creating a better client experience and client journey, it is very important to look at things completely from your client’s perspective and leave nothing at all. Create an accurate picture of your client’s journey. What are things that need a further look at? How are they feeling? and all such points.
Staying updated with your clients can give you space to get insights into their client experience. To get more comfortable, do a coffee session with your clients, prepare an email campaign for the holiday season and you can also reconnect with your past clients to know about what’s happening with their cases. This will make them happy and certainly will give you insights into your work.
4. Use Technology To Embrace The Communication Gap
In the past few years, legal tech has advanced itself more than ever, there is a tech solution for almost everything. To begin with, being more client-centric, it’s important to have enough time to strategize and communicate with your clients.
Try hiring extra support staff or adapting to legal tech solutions to automate relative and administrative tasks. Automating such tasks will free up your time and give you enough time to put in more value-adding work.
For example, legal tech solutions like law firm case management software can simplify document management, which takes countless hours when done manually, such solutions also assist in client communications as they have features like client portals which are effective in communicating regularly and actively.
5. Add Value Through Your Social Media
Social media for law firms has the power to create value among your audience, in this digital era where almost all businesses have taken over the digital path to carry on their business, the legal industry is no exception. Start leveraging the power of social media for law firms in your digital marketing strategy to add value to your clients through content.
Start by creating digestible and easy-to-understand content for your social media channels, something that interests your potential clients. For example, 15 things to do when injured in an accident. Hosting webinars to enlighten your clients is another great way to interact and add value.
6. Set Up Client Relationship Teams
Identify and analyze ways in which your firm and you can add value to your client’s life and solve issues they are struggling with or will struggle with in the future. Establish teams that only deal with clients and client relationships and regularly meet with clients.
Having a dedicated staff all the time will convince clients that they have someone always at their fingertips and to listen to them. This type of dedicated active client service will help your firm to be an exceptional service provider and create a reputation for trusted legal sources.
7. Know Your Business Inside Out
Staying updated with the latest major or minor industry changes can help you achieve this core. Keeping yourself posted about major developments and news affecting your clients helps you to be better informed and how to deal with your clients’ needs in a more anticipated way and be a smart legal service provider.
Prepare a special article for a few VIP clients about issues they must be facing, when possible, reach out to them and network. Use reminders to actively communicate with them. Same for normal clients too, get acquainted with knowledge about their problems related to your practice area so you can be well informed while dealing with cases of similar types.
Summing Up
It has never been more important to adopt a client-centric approach to everything that is happening in your law firm. As covid 19 pandemic has influenced how the legal sector used to work, the future of law is highly competitive, the scope of such law firms who put their clients at the center of their practice, law firms that plan for the future and provide better experiences.
For Recap-
Know your clients– knowing their needs and what they expect from your service is the foremost thing that one can do to be more client-specific.
Communication– Just knowing what they want will not help in the long run, communication is the key to an attorney-client relationship.
Leverage Technology– To free up time from your busy schedule, try to automate the administrative tasks of your and your law firm.
Hope our blog has helped you in some or another way. The idea of investing in your clients is effort-taking but worth the patience and time.