Mapping The Client Journey At Your Law Firm To Design More Memorable Moments

We live in an era of instant gratification. Ten years ago, an individual would be happy to:

• Wait a week for an episode of their favourite show to be released
• Wait for the morning to catch up on the news headlines from the previous day
• Wait for 20–30mins on the phone before an operator answered
  

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Fast forward to 2021.

Nowadays, 66% of consumers expect a response to their query on the same day, and over 40% expect a reply within the hour. As these expectations continue to change, it has become harder than ever to ‘wow’ customers. What may have been a ‘wow’ moment a few years ago is actually just meeting expectations today.

According to a study by Bain and Co, companies that focus on designing superior customer journeys actually grow revenue by 4-8% above their market. The client journey represents an exciting opportunity for law firms to provide exceptional experiences while differentiating themselves from the competition.  

CUSTOMER PERSONAS

To better understand your clients and their expectations, start developing customer personas. A customer persona is a fictional, generalized representation of your key customer. For each of your key customer types capture information such as:

• Name (make them real!)
• Age
• Background
• Interests
• Values
• Needs
• Device preference
• Concerns
• Goals

[Download our Persona Template]

By building personas for your key customer segments, it will allow your law firm to not only understand your clients better, but personas are also vital input when designing and developing client journeys.

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CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAPPING

Once you know who your key customers are, map out their journeys. Customer journey mapping is universally seen as an ideal starting point to understand your business from your customer’s perspective. The customer persona is used to bring the journey map to life and journey maps are written in the customer’s tone of voice.

When used well, journey maps can reveal opportunities for improvement at specific customer touchpoints, acting as a strategic tool to ensure every interaction with your client is as positive as it can be.

No matter what type of journey map you build, it is important that each of the following is captured at every customer touchpoint:

1. Needs and wants
2. Pain points
3. Opportunities

[Download our Customer Journey Map Template]

HUMANS OVER TECHNOLOGY

The year was 1999 and Jeff Bezos was getting hammered with questions during an interview.

How is Amazon going to survive?

What makes you different from the other companies out there?

Bezos would always revert to the same point with his responses. Bezos explained that Amazon “will survive and be successful because we focus on our customers. If you focus on your customers the rest will follow”.

20 years later and Amazon is one of the most customer-centric organisations in the world and recently recorded a market cap of above $1 trillion!

Emerging technology may well help you improve the client journey at your law firm, but it is important to avoid implementing technology if it doesn’t actually enhance the current experience or solve a real client problem. This is a common mistake that organisations (not just law firms) make. 

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‍THE LITTLE THINGS

Humans crave moments of joy throughout their day, given life sometimes becomes monotonous (for the average person). Moments of joy tend to be magnified. Mapping out the client journey allows you to identify ‘the little things’ that will have a lasting impact on your clients.

Let your clients know that you appreciate them.

What are the little things that you can do across your journey?

What will provide the level of personalisation that your clients crave?

When a customer has a negative or a positive experience they tend to share it. 95% of customers tell others about a bad experience, while 87% share good experiences. Customers don’t remember those moments when their expectations are met. If your law firm provides a positive experience for a client, there is a high likelihood that they will share it with another potential client. 

The law firms that focus on enhancing the client experience moving forward will be in the best position to not only strengthen relationships with existing clients but also attract new clients moving forward.