Use your contact base to increase the volume of cases processed by your firm and boost client satisfaction, while facilitating your work and that of your teams.
Building client relations is crucial for maintaining and developing a loyal and satisfied client base. Here are some strategies to follow:
Traditionally, these operations are done over the phone, by email, or during “physical” appointments. But these channels are clogged and have lost their effectiveness. Several tools can be implemented to remedy this situation:
a client area facilitates real-time communication between a firm and its clients: passing on documents, procedural deadlines, invoices, the possibility of online payment, etc. A client area can relieve the congestion of traditional communication channels (telephone and email), and makes it possible to anticipate client requests (sometimes untimely). For optimal performance, the provision of elements from the management software must be as automatable as possible.
Another way to relieve the secretariat of time-consuming and low-value-added tasks is to digitize appointment scheduling and management via dedicated online platforms. Interfaced with professional lawyer calendars, such platforms open the firm's doors to new clients, accustomed to managing everything online (bank, doctor, public services, etc.) and reduce the rates of unattended appointments through notifications and reminders. Combined with the online prepayment of consultations, booking appointments online can even make no-show appointments disappear.
Propelled by the successive lockdowns of recent years, videoconferencing and online consultation are now a permanent part of law firms. Not having to physically go somewhere combined with online prepayment, contributes to reducing the rate of missed or unattended appointments.
What is the point in paper-free and digital communications, the transmission of information and documents if, in the end, you still need to sign paper versions of contracts or agreements which must be sent and returned by registered mail in several copies?
Electronic signatures and electronic registered letters are here to solve this paradox without compromising the legal and/or probative value of the documents processed. As for client satisfaction, while it is negligible at the individual level, it is much more important when one specializes in areas such as company secretariat, real estate, business, banking or insurance and when the time saved on each document, each signature, amounts to hours every day.
The second phase of improving its clients relation consists of promoting its contact base by communicating with clients to promote services and benefits that may be of interest to them. They already know the firm and are satisfied with the services provided on their behalf, provided that the loyalty phase has been successful. It is also possible to communicate with potential clients in your contact base but if they are not clients yet, they may be less sensitive to your communications.
For these communications with clients to be effective, it is imperative to acquire the most detailed possible knowledge of their personal and/or professional profiles. You also need to group information relating to their files: subject and nature of the litigation or advice, number and frequency of cases, etc. To gather this information and use it properly, implementing a CRM tool (Customer Relationship Management) is essential as it will allow you to move on to the next steps.
Once the information is grouped, the contact base must be segmented: divide it into groups of profiles and common interests that can be addressed in a targeted manner. This segmentation can be done on the basis of professional information: contact information, field of practice, company name, profession, role within the company, position (decision-maker, prescriber...) or more personal data (ages, family situation, home, etc.) so long as treating this data complies with the GDPR! And the more complete the profiles are, the more precise the segmentation can be and the more targeted the messages can be.
Once your contacts have been segmented within your CRM tool, you have to develop messages, generally in the form of emails, promoting your services and service offers. Addressed to a well-defined target, these messages will be able to address very specific and relevant topics and issues for the target audience.
