5 Ways to Optimize the Legal Client Experience

We recently surveyed legal innovation thought leaders, and discovered and customer experience came out as the second most sought-after skillset, behind creative problem solving. 

In a world where we can do so many things with the touch of a button or a simple voice command - get directions, play music, order a private car, order our favorite meal, set the temperature in our bedroom while we’re at the gym, and a whole lot more, people’s expectations of great customer experience has shifted. 

Despite the fact that most of these examples of customer experience hail from the digital and consumer product world, people expect just as much from every organization they deal with now, and that includes law firms. 

This is especially true in an age where online reviews can make or break a company, and people run to social media to report bad experiences. In fact, 30% of people are likely to share negative experiences online, with people being 50% more likely to share bad experiences over good ones. Perhaps this is owing to our innate negativity bias - a tendency to notice and hold on to negative experiences far more and for far longer than good ones.

The rules have changed. But in an increasingly competitive legal industry, this simply represents an opportunity to differentiate oneself from competitors, providing it is heeded.

Clayton Utz invested in customer experience training for a number of its staff, the purpose of which was to help them identify and prioritize opportunities to improve their client experience, and ultimately to become a client-centric law firm (as opposed to a lawyer-centric one).

There are a number of low-hanging fruit opportunities when it comes to optimizing the client experience at most law firms. These are especially important in a world where face-to-face events have taken a backseat as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

• The digital presence - most law firms have what amount to ‘old school’ websites that don’t reflect well on their brands. Moreover, the social media presence for most firms is also lacking and typically all about us (look what we did) as opposed to you (here’s something you might find valuable). 
  

• Become a media company - building upon the digital presence, in today’s digital and content-driven world, brands need to think of themselves as media companies. Law firms who think of themselves as such, and regularly produce and distribute high-quality content - articles, podcasts, videos, webinars, ebooks, will generate more eyeballs, brand awareness, website visitors, mailing list subscribers, and ultimately, clients.
  

• Personalize CRM - by leveraging a purpose-built CRM and intelligence gathering tools such as Detective or CrystalKnows, lawyers and account managers can provide prospective and existing clients with more personalized communications, which make recipients feel valued - something that drives buying behavior. 
  

• Online events - 45% of lawyers think that firm-hosted events are the most effective business development tactic, according to Bloomberg Law. Nowadays, these events can take place online at a much lower cost-to-serve and with a much larger potential audience. Regular webinars and AMAs on topics of interest to your law firm’s target audience can help optimize your client experience. 
  

• Marketing automation - with so many tools on the market nowadays that can help you automate virtually the entire marketing value chain for less than several hundred dollars a month, it would be foolish not to explore marketing automation. 
  

A simple example would be the correspondence people receive when signing up to your law firm’s mailing list, or downloading a whitepaper. Such correspondence should be personalized based on both the person’s details as well as their topic of interest.

Want to learn more about customer experience training at your law firm? Get in touch with me.