Client experience may be a new buzzword in the legal industry, but it’s fast emerging as a critical frontier on which law firms set apart from the competition. Today, clients have clear-cut expectations on what law firms should do to foster stronger relationships with them, and if they don’t experience that, they won’t think twice about replacing you.
For instance, clients expect timely responses, empathy and understanding, multiple means of contacting you, top-level transparency, accurate invoicing, and the ability to pay online. That said, some client expectations can be challenging to meet, let alone exceed, especially if your firm lacks sufficient technological resources.
For that reason, we decided to gather some of the best legal software solutions to common law firm pitfalls. Keep scrolling, and you’ll discover how to improve client experience by solving the top law firm challenges with their best legal software solutions!
Common Law Firm Challenges and Their Best Solutions
Inefficient Time Management
Time management is a huge issue among most law firms. And that’s quite unfortunate because time, otherwise known as billable hours, is the law firm’s most valuable asset. According to the Canadian Bar Association, the average law firm loses 10-30% of their billable hours due to inefficient time management, which may be a big blow to the revenues. But how do you change the narrative and not be part of the stat? Here are some actionable tips:
- Use the best legal time management software. Convenient and accurate time tracking is the secret to capturing all the billable hours. Getting reliable time management software like LawBillity ensures that you salvage up to 30+ hours every month, increasing your firm’s returns. The time and billing software comes with useful built-in features that are 100% customizable and flexible to record every billable time anywhere and on any device. LawBillity also comes packed with billing features that you can leverage to turn tracked time into billable hours and invoice your clients within a few clicks.
- Plan for the day ahead in advance. Improved productivity and profitability are all products of proper planning. Laying down what needs to be done is highly beneficial as it gives a clear-cut roadmap and morale to perform the tasks. So, the best approach is to develop a strategy on how you’ll handle every project on your list. For instance, your strategy could be starting with the most critical tasks before moving to the less urgent ones, or vice versa.
- Minimize distractions. Workplace distractions keep us from realizing our full potential, and the more you get carried away, the more you risk losing billable hours. Although they may be challenging to avoid altogether, you can set strict limits on when or how long you should chit chat with colleagues, scroll through social media, use your cell phone, etc.
Difficulty in Finding, Hiring and Retaining the Best Talents
Finding, hiring, and retaining the best attorneys isn’t child’s play for many law firms. The most qualified attorneys often leave their employers once they attain a certain skill set or experience, and the high turnover rate drains resources tremendously. Legal professionals, especially the younger ones, are often looking for opportunities for career development, better benefits/compensation, meaningful work, and a sense of belonging. If you can’t meet these needs, they may have no reason to continue working at your law firm.
The big question is, what actions should law firms take to attract and retain the best talents? For starters, you want to create or re-evaluate your organizational culture to take your employees needs into account and care about their experience. This forms a solid foundation for engaging and retaining the employees in the long run.
Most importantly, you want to learn to deal with diverse personalities as portrayed by different employees. Understanding what motivates and drives each individual at work and adjusting their management to match their expectations enhances workplace satisfaction, productivity, and consequent retention of the best talents.
Difficulty in Meeting Some Clients’ Needs
Clients usually trust their attorneys to fulfill their needs satisfactorily, no matter what it takes. However, at times, the clients may have high expectations of their lawyers, who may lack the right resources or expertise to match particular needs. That’s where legal technology solutions and third-party outsourcing comes in handy.
For instance, if your law firm has a tech-savvy client who has a hand in IT or cybersecurity and asks for your assistance in, say, CMMC compliance, you don’t have to turn them away, especially if it’s a one-time request. Instead, you can outsource the task to a reliable managed IT and cybersecurity service provider and save the day.
And to ensure that you’re not caught by surprise the next time such technical requests arise, you can integrate the IT and cybersecurity experts into your law firm. YES, that’s all possible, thanks to legal process outsourcing. It guarantees continued and ready support without additional infrastructural investment or hiring such experts permanently, hence saving on costs.
Inefficient Case Management
Firms may find it challenging to manage their huge caseloads, particularly when they are onboarding new clients at once. But clients barely care about the number of cases your firm is handling; they still expect optimal quality of service and unwavering commitment to the cause.
As your firm grows in size, it becomes harder and harder to engage in direct oversight or management of clients’ work. Thankfully, you can overcome this roadblock by formalizing or digitizing case management. There are several case management software solutions on the market that you can choose from to collect and track all client data, so you don’t miss out on critical dates, case notes, scheduled appointments, etc.
Besides acquiring a reliable software solution, you can also go a notch higher by increasing the number of paralegals and support staff to further help with case management. We also recommend holding regular meetings for case discussions, trials, calendar appearances, etc.
Over to You!
Running a successful law firm takes efficient time management, retention of the best legal professionals, client needs satisfaction, and proper case management. Legal software solutions and technology advancements like LawBillity and legal process outsourcing are incredibly helpful in overcoming these challenges and improving client experience. Discover how LawBillity can help satisfy your time management and billing needs, start your 14-day FREE trial today!
