One of the most crucial steps in the legal practice process is the intake of clients. You must be able to pinpoint just what your customers require as well as how you can assist them. Thank goodness customer intake is made simple. Numerous new software options have recently become available. Continue reading if you work in a legal firm and are seeking a client intake solution. We’re here to support you as you speed up the customer intake procedure.
What Steps Are Involved in Client Intake?
The customer journey begins with the client intake procedure. For smaller legal companies, it’s also one of the hardest steps. It requires time, most of which is not billed time. Software for client intake is useful in this situation. There are numerous names for this software. It may also be referred to as injury case management software, attorney intake software, or legal intake software. It’s also known as customer relationship management (CRM) software on occasion.
The Method
Prospective clients are not the only ones who are signed up throughout the client intake process. It’s a drawn-out procedure that begins even before prospective customers contact you. The following steps can be considered while considering the client intake procedure:
- luring a fresh prospective client. The client’s journey hasn’t even started at this point. It resembles the first stage in the full intake procedure. Your clients will find you in this way. It might be accomplished by marketing strategies, advertising, or client recommendations.
- obtaining a contact address. It’s crucial to choose an intake program that makes exchanging contact information simple. A contact form, which is something that many software solutions offer, can be used to gather contact information.
- evaluating prospective customers. It is possible to gather this data fast. It only needs to provide you with sufficient information regarding their issue; it need not be in-depth. This aids in your assessment of the client’s suitability.
- looking for inconsistencies To hire a customer, you must be able to work for them. Check to see if there are any conflicts that would prevent this from happening.
- preliminary consultation After completing the preliminary stages, you are prepared to consult with the customer. There are other software choices that we’ll explore that can be used to schedule this.
- gathering important data. You must request important information from the client after you’ve had a chance to consult with them. This knowledge is pertinent to their situation.
- offering a fee arrangement. One of the most crucial is this stage. You must draft a fee arrangement and obtain the client’s signature on it. Prior to doing any additional work, this must be accomplished.
- welcome the client. You will proceed with onboarding once the client accepts your fees. They benefit from this preparation for the client experience. It explains the document formatting and lets them know when to anticipate receiving bills and legal paperwork.
- It is obvious that the part of law practice that involves taking on new clients is challenging. It takes a long time and constitutes the client’s first encounter. It’s crucial to approach it as a client-focused experience as a result. Their desire to hire you grows if you can deliver first-rate customer service at every stage.
The Top 5 Client Intake Software Alternatives
You’ll need effective software if you want to cut back on the time and costs connected with the intake process. The top 5 software options for your law practice have been identified after careful examination. Look at them down below!
1. Law Ruler
The software program Law Ruler was created especially for law firms with the goal of enhancing client connections. Given that it was first released in 2012, it has been in use for this purpose for the longest. They’ve had time to work out the problems and make it the engaging program it is now as a result. According to Legal Ruler, your law firm’s revenue can rise by 20%. Although it’s a big claim, there are features to support it.
The Law Ruler application is simple to operate and navigate. Law firms don’t need much time to become familiar with how it operates. Additionally, it aids in the automation of the workflow for the lead nurturing process. One of the most effective long-term cost-cutting strategies for legal firms might be automation. Additionally, they offer a fantastic customer support group. That implies that you have someone to turn to if you get stuck.
Law Ruler is a great choice, but there are some drawbacks as well. They lack third-party integrations for Microsoft Outlook and Gmail, the two biggest email services. Even if that’s not totally a deal-breaker, it does need you to oversee many systems.
2. Clio
Clio is a relatively new player in the market, but they are undoubtedly making a splash. The business specializes in law firm CRM. They discuss pretty much everything else you can think of, including the intake procedure. They’ve done a terrific job of taking the demands of the business into account because they were created from the ground up for law firms.
Any size firm can use Clio because it can be scaled. Regardless of whether you’re a small business or a solo attorney, they have a plan for you. They provide several integrations for your company. Additionally, they use cutting-edge security techniques to safeguard the program. Given that it is web-based, this is crucial.
The greatest complaint regarding Clio is that it doesn’t have a desktop application. The application must be accessed online or through a mobile app. Having a web-based program is fantastic most of the time, but it occasionally gets tiresome.
3. Lawmatics
Lawmatics, as its name suggests, is another piece of sector-specific software. In fact, it’s the industry’s most popular program. They view themselves as an end-to-end solution due to the wide range of services they offer. Client intake, customer relationship management, and marketing automation are some of these services. They also offer app integrations and completely customizable campaigns.
They assert that they can boost client engagement for your law practice. The program feels contemporary, in contrast to many other options. It is slick and simple to operate, making it a pleasure to use. However, their form builder is one of the better features. Your law practice can create a variety of distinctive client intake forms with this builder. Custom intake forms can be created using the online intake form builder in addition to standard ones. Firms that handle a wide range of cases would benefit greatly from this.
The absence of document management integration with Lawmatics is the main problem we observe. Other products enable document automation. This indicates that client documents are delivered automatically to their destinations. This is prevented by lawmatics. Otherwise, this application is amazing.
4. FreshBooks
Although you might not think of FreshBooks as an intake program, they are a fantastic CRM alternative. In fact, their software streamlines collaboration! Everything a small legal company needs to assist clients is included in FreshBooks. Your law company might find a number of the capabilities offered by the application useful.
When you use FreshBooks, you get a tool designed for teamwork. You can invite customers and staff to utilize this program as well. This indicates that everyone can converse with one another in the same area. It is crucial to have a client-facing portal. Document management is another service that FreshBooks offers in addition to communication. The software provides access to all the files your company requires for your client’s case. No more spending hours looking for the files you require.
The financial monitoring capabilities of FreshBooks‘ cutting-edge software are a significant component. This is helpful for project management, but it can also be used to keep track of the billable hours for your business. Every case can be handled as a separate project. Every case you take on, after all, needs the same level of focus as a business assignment.
5. Interactions
Interaction software is the final topic we wanted to address. The market share of this software, which is used by around a third of all legal firms, is astonishing. However, it has lost some momentum as more and more law-specific CRM choices have been developed.
Although the interaction is well-established, it was mainly designed for large or mid-sized law firms. Its declining market share in recent years is probably due to this. But the program itself functions nicely. It offers solutions for document storage and company growth tools. It’s a serious bundle that wants to support the expansion of your law practice.
The overwhelming number of features in Interaction is one of its main drawbacks. When it comes to installation and training, it can need IT support. For some people, this lack of user-friendliness might be scary.
If you are interested in more articles like this, here’s one about what a law firm’s database software is.