How to Defeat Process Bottlenecks in Your Law Firm
Most law firms can do things like marketing right. It’s their processes where they often struggle.
Fortunately, defeating workflow bottlenecks is easier than ever these days, as you’ll read below. It turns out there’s all sorts of things you can do to get on top of things and really reclaim your time.
Here’s our advice:
Automate Lead Capture and Onboarding
You want to start by automating your lead capture and onboarding. A high percentage of leads will literally flake away if you don’t stay on top of your communication with them.
Therefore, you want to nail down this process as much as you can. If you don't put everything in the proper order, it can kill your ability to make leads.
One golden rule is to always communicate with new clients within 24 hours. If you don’t, they may go elsewhere.
You can also use intake forms. They pre-qualify your leads and help you sort them into the proper categories so you know how much money they’re going to make you.
Avoid the Key Person Trap
Another thing you want to do is eliminate the key person trap. Partners must know personally how to deal with each client so the whole business isn’t just dependent on you.
Therefore, go through documents together. Make sure that people have overlapping skills, and cross-train on the various cases your firm works on. Even if someone is off sick or goes on sabbatical, you can carry on.
Deal with the Collections Lag
In the legal industry, clients usually only pay you after you’ve provided a certain number of hours. This means that they pay after you’ve delivered value.
The upside of this arrangement is that you can bill them more accurately. The downside is that you often have to wait to get paid.
Therefore, look for ways to pre-bill where possible (such as selling legal packages). Also, use invoices with one-click payments to make life easier for clients. You don’t want them giving up just because they have to fill in a bunch of forms.
Avoid Document Review Hell
You also want to avoid document review hell. It’s uncommon for thousands of pages of material to remain on your colleagues’ desks for weeks without being read.
That’s where things like AI reviews and eDiscovery software come in handy. These hack away at the issues you face from multiple angles by both reducing reading time and slashing adin.
If you can outsource the task of using these tools to junior staff, that’s also a good idea. They can perform things like document acquisition for you, allowing you to get on with the tasks at hand.
Sync Communications
Finally, you can avoid communication hell by syncing your contact with clients. This activity requires finding the right tools to cut down the amount of time spent just talking.
The best way is to use a client portal. However, Slack or Microsoft Teams are a good substitute. Some lawyers even use WhatsApp where it’s convenient for them.