The Most Powerful Tool That Your Firm Isn’t Using 

While the concept of the “client journey” originated in the retail industry, savvy lawyers have picked up on it as well.

The trouble is, many don’t realize when the “journey” begins — or when it should end.

According to Matthew DeFrain of the legal business development platform Law Ruler, a legal “client journey” starts with the client’s first interaction with your firm — which takes place well before any conversation.

“A client journey begins when they Google, ‘I need an attorney,’” DeFrain says. “And honestly, it never ends.”

The Table Stakes

On a recent episode of the Non-Eventcast podcast, DeFrain noted that, for lawyers, the first step of building out an effective client journey is optimizing the onboarding process with good intake software. 

With the right kind of automation, you can engage with a client before they move on to the next lawyer they Googled. 

Better yet, it simplifies what is usually a complicated process that requires a lot of time and energy.

Law Ruler can be set up with customized responses to make the most out of leads that come through emails, Facebook referrals, or social media ads. 

The software engages the client by prompting them to fill out a questionnaire and then leads them into scheduling a meeting. 

For some clients, the workflow can take them all the way through to the fee schedule and shoot out an agreement they can e-sign before talking to anyone. 

“That person is going to win their business more times than not,” said Joyce Brafford of ProfitSolv, which owns Law Ruler. “And it’s not because of rates. It’s not because they’re a better attorney. It’s because their intake process is better.”

Because different types of cases require different approaches, the software has conditional logic that tailors responses to the case. 

For instance, a person going through a divorce will reach out in a different way than someone who needs help with a personal injury case. The software responds in kind.

Certain alerts can even be set up for high-value cases. 

If the questionnaire identifies a personal injury case involving a commercial vehicle, for example, Law Ruler can send a text message so the lawyer can reach out directly with more personal attention.

“The amount of cash flow increase you will see in your law firm is incredible,” DeFrain said.

Enter the KPI 

Once the system is in place, it integrates easily with case resource management platforms like TimeSolv, putting intake, time tracking, scheduling, and billing into two seamless solutions. 

The programs then create a lot of data that can be incredibly useful in deciding how to allocate resources. 

Among the most important on the intake side is conversion data, DeFrain said. 

Law Ruler tracks where leads come from so you can evaluate your marketing spending, and then it can help answer questions like: How long does it take to convert a lead from start to finish? How long is each status taking so you can identify which part of the process takes the longest?

Those reports can be automated as well, showing key performance indicators for anyone working on intake. 

That makes it easy to set up little contests to motivate the most effective staffers with incentives and to identify what they’re doing right and help train other staff members on it.

For more details on optimizing client intake — as well as Aurora borealis, gray whales and more —listen to an informative 36 minutes with the podcast link below.