Client relationships are a vital part of a lawyer’s job. However, keeping track of dozens of people manually can be quite tiring. That’s why it’s worth investing in a good CRM for law firms, as the tool allows you to automate several processes and centrally control contact with clients. Assistant for lawyers will help you understand better the best benefits of CRM for law firms.
Key takeaways from this article:
- CRM for lawyers is a tool that helps not only manage relationships with consumers, but also monitor the client portfolio and increase loyalty rates.
- To adopt the tool in your strategy, you need to analyze the current situation of the office, review the sales processes, create a funnel, and monitor the progress of all stages.
- The ideal tool needs to be customizable, easy to use, have a mobile version, and even offer a trial period, so that you can evaluate whether it is really the best option for you.
- A good CRM can help law firms manage the day-to-day work of their professionals and attract more clients with less work. Create a free account on CRM to see how the available features can help you achieve your goal!
The good news is that there are several CRM options available on the market today for law firms. The solutions are comprehensive and, at the same time, easy to implement and use.
Do you want to know how this solution can enhance your office’s client management? Then keep reading, because in this article have brought you some tips to help you achieve your goal in two steps: understanding the importance of CRM to take the first steps and the care needed to choose a good management system.
What is the difference between CRM software for law firms?
CRM stands for customer relationship management. A CRM system is the platform that will help you manage your customer relationships. In this case, instead of tracking contacts with spreadsheets and other documents, CRM software can perform these tasks automatically.
That said, it is possible to use law firm software to:
- Register all potential customers and clients in the same place, keeping the history and ensuring that the data is not lost;
- Create sales stages and update them as contacts progress;
- Organize clients into categories when it is a firm that works with different specialties (business law, labor law, social security law, among others);
- Manage the sales team’s appointment schedule, such as presentation and closing meetings;
- Analyze reports that the platform automatically creates about what happened during the day, week, month and year;
- Among other options that vary depending on the chosen platform.
How important is CRM for law firms?
Lawyers are professionals who work with the image of their firms. Therefore, they need to convey credibility and trust in order to gain new clients and retain them. This is where CRM for law firms comes in, by enabling and centralizing the entire structuring and implementation of the relationship strategy that the company will have with people. In some cases, lawyers hire virtual legal assistant services to outsource administrative remote work.
To start applying CRM concepts in your law firm, you need to set aside time to analyze the current situation and structure processes.
This is because it is necessary to have a deep understanding of how the company works, who its customers are and what it sells in order to have all the data necessary to make good use of the software.
How to adopt software for lawyers in your office?
As we explained, it is not enough to adopt CRM to control clients for lawyers without doing good research first. That said, check out the simple step-by-step guide on how to adopt the tool in your office!
1. Analyze the current situation
Look at the current state of your relationship with your customers and note down the good points (to maintain) and the bad points (to improve). Also analyze the relationship with those who are not yet customers, whether there were any missed opportunities and why they happened.
2. Review the processes
Behind a good CRM strategy, there is always an organized and solid process. How does your client’s journey unfold from the moment they first contact you until they finally sign a contract with your firm? And then what?
If these steps are not clear from start to finish, it becomes much more difficult to build a lasting relationship, manage clients, or even convert sales. In the case of law firms, you can start by reviewing the following processes:
- Describe the goals you want to achieve (how many clients, which niches, etc.);
- Understand the client’s needs (map the pain points that led your clients to your office);
- Develop a good relationship with those who are already in the house (more chance of them staying or returning);
- Excellence in service;
- Map potential customers (don’t miss any opportunities).
3. Create a sales flow (funnel)
The relationship flow starts from the first contact with the client and continues as long as they decide to stay with your office. The sales funnel ends when the contract is closed — however, it is very important for identifying sales opportunities and avoiding losing them along the way.
Example of a basic funnel for law firms:
- Initial contact (Phone? Form? Email?) > Proposal presentation > Negotiation > Contract closing > Financial and documentation > Client
4. Manage steps and contacts
Once you have the process structured, you need to keep the entry and exit of customers organized and flowing well. To do this, you need to document the sales stages and, whenever a new contact (potential customer) comes in, update the progress of the sales stages until the deal is closed. With this type of documentation, it is easier to:
- Identify at which point in the sales flow potential clients are giving up on closing a deal with your office;
- Know how long it takes, on average, for people to actually become customers (maturation time for purchase);
- Perform analyses to find out which months had the most conversions, who got in touch but did not show interest again (reactivation of opportunities), among others.
- Have you learned how to adopt this tool, but don’t know which option to choose? Then keep reading to check out tips that will help you discover the best CRM for lawyers on the market!
What is the best CRM for lawyers?
The best CRM for lawyers should offer:
- Low complexity of processes;
- System customization;
- Mobile adaptation;
- Free trial period.
Next, check out what to evaluate in each of these points!
1. Low complexity of processes
There are CRM systems focused on more complex businesses that involve many steps and others that are more practical and intuitive.
In the case of law firms, the second option may be the best. This is because, even though the hiring process is slower, since the client does not close a contract without a good conversation, the sales flow usually does not involve many steps.
Therefore, it is possible to use a tool with fewer steps, but which is simpler to fill out in the rush of everyday life, since its main use will be to control proposals and contracts for lawyers.
2. System customization
Prioritize CRMs that can be customized, especially regarding the stages of the sales process, which involve monitoring the firm’s proposals and contracts. Other features should also be considered when choosing, such as:
- Sales map (in this case, contracts);
- Custom reports and metrics;
- Documentation of reasons for loss;
- Calendar of appointments;
- Integrations with other management systems, if your office uses other tools;
- Notifications and task summary;
- Customer portfolio segmentation;
- Easily accessible histories.
In short, the more complete the customization, the more adaptable the system is to the working reality of a law firm.
3. Adaptation to mobile
With our busy day-to-day lives, it’s important that the platform has an app version so that you and your team can keep up with what’s happening from anywhere. For example, checking the data of a client who requested a review of a proposal.
It is also a way to update data more quickly, without having to be in the office to do so. Therefore, prioritize options that have mobile applications.
4. Free trial period
It is important to test the system to see if it is really what you expected and how you adapted in the first few days. Therefore, start by prioritizing those that offer a trial period.