The Lawmatics Blog

Over the last year, the world as we know it has changed entirely. To survive as a law firm, chances are that you've had to make a considerable amount of changes in order to stay afloat.Since the same old law firm marketing methods need adjusting due to social distancing measures, online marketing is critical. Potential clients are online more than ever, so it’s up to you to grab their attention and increase your business. The first place to start with your digital marketing is by maximizing your inbound marketing strategies.Inbound marketing, a popular buzzword these days, is all about growing your brand. As the world progresses, so do marketing techniques, and a mass marketing approach is no longer as effective as it once was. Inbound marketing is based on a methodology that focuses on pulling leads in on their own terms rather than bombarding them with advertisements. It's all about mastering the client journey through three stages.

3 stages of inbound marketing for law firms

1

Attracting

Bringing in potential clients and establishing yourself as a credible law firm.

2

Engaging

Keeping leads engaged by following up and successfully with an attorney intake software.

3

Delighting

Once your leads become customers, the goal is to delight them by exceeding their expectations and making them feel like assets.

Benefits of inbound marketing for law firms

Better relationships

A one-sided marketing approach offers very little in terms of feedback from your prospects. However, an inbound marketing approach encourages conversation, questions, and customer feedback. The end result is an opportunity to evolve as a law firm based on listening to your clients through meaningful conversations on places like social media.

More affordable

Outbound marketing involves unsolicited advertisements urging people to buy what you're selling. Traditional advertising isn't just pricey, but it doesn't always promise a return. You can think of it as putting all your bets on one horse, and the horse loses the race. However, inbound marketing requires far less of an advertising budget and is much more likely to generate a high return on your investment.

More credibility

When you create a name for yourself online, you establish yourself as a credible resource. The more you organically come up in search results, the more that leads will view you as an authority in your area of practice. By increasing your online visibility, you come across as a more credible and trustworthy law firm that leads will go to when they require a lawyer.

Better leads

Even though the idea of inbound marketing is to ultimately boost your brand, above all that, it's more about producing high-quality leads. When you attract leads with a more targeted and personalized methodology, you attract a target audience that's much more likely to hire you.Now that you've got a better idea of how inbound marketing can help your law firm let's break down the 13 best strategies.

1. Blogging

Once upon a time, blogging was for sharing your favorite guacamole recipe or discussing the latest fashion fall trends. Now, blogging is considered a staple in content marketing.Blogging is an opportunity to write meaningful and valuable content that drives people towards your website. However, starting a blog alone isn't enough. In order to make sure that it's effective in your inbound marketing strategy, you'll need to make sure that it has the following characteristics:

A niche

It helps if you specialize in a specific area of law. Google loves niches, and people are much more likely to search for a specific legal question rather than something general. Focus on a topic that your law firm specializes in and build on it.

Evergreen and timely topics

In the world of blogging, there are two different kinds of blog posts:

1. Posts that focus on current topics that apply to the here and now.
2. Posts that cover topics relevant to any time period that can be shared for years to come.

An example of an Evergreen blog would be a post about why it's crucial to have a will — a topic that will not change frequently and is considered general information. Whereas an example of a timely topic would be a current breaking news trial that falls within your area of practice.Both timely and evergreen blog posts can offer equal value for your blog and are incredibly useful for reaching your target audience.

Keywords

Keywords are what lead Google to your blog. The right keywords will bring in the right traffic. Ultimately, your content will be the most important part of your blog; however, keywords are a vital part of leaving digital bread crumbs for leads to find you.If you’re unsure what kind of keywords to use, it might be helpful to do some keyword research. You can find choices by looking through some of the top-ranking keywords related to your area of practice. Above all, make sure that they match your intended audience.

Visuals

It’s important to shy away from walls of text. They aren’t exactly inviting, and they aren’t very easy on the eye. Visuals are a great way to break up wordy posts and enhance your blog by making it easier to digest.Statistics show that blog posts with visual content perform significantly better than those without visuals.

2. Social media

These days, having a social media account isn’t even an option. It’s just as important to have a social media account as it is to have a website. It’s not only an effective way to attract new clients, but it’s one of the most reliable ways to create brand awareness around your law firm.Attorneys have a chance to connect with leads on a personal level and create powerful relationships that go beyond traditional forms of advertising.[oxygen-template id="6129"]Before you get too carried away and start creating profiles on every social platform, however, consider scaling down. It’s better to choose only the right ones to devote your time to. Most attorneys start with Facebook and Twitter. Those are great places to begin since they have a significant number of users, and you only have to focus on two platforms. When you start branching out in too many different directions, it can get challenging to stay up to date unless you outsource.Investing your efforts in only one or two platforms initially is a great way to ensure that your efforts will pay off.It’s a good idea to create a content strategy that includes everything you plan on posting. Rather than only posting promotional content for your law firm, you should make sure you include posts that engage and build relationships. Include meaningful and shareable content that will encourage people to visit your page — and share!Tips For Getting More Followers

Follow other lawyers

The best way to get people to start following you is to follow others. Find other lawyers or relevant social media profiles that tie into your area of practice. Following other relevant accounts that actively post, you’ll have a pool of followers to engage. Get to know who’s following them and get them engaged.In your free time, go hunting for key profiles that have a big following. Interact with their posts and stay active on their profile. In time, you’ll start to attract followers who are also contributors in their comments.

Join groups

Just like staying active on key influencer profiles can be fruitful, so can being active in groups. Active groups can be a goldmine for leading you to quality followers who can lead you to more quality followers.Places like Facebook have plenty of groups that are great networking opportunities. If you’re really feeling ambitious, you can even start a group of your very own! Many lawyers find huge success starting a page of their own to engage and retain prospects.

Share often

The secret to success on social media is consistent contribution. It’s a critical part of building value around your account. Rather than just regurgitating links like some kind of a bot, provide insight behind why you’re reposting a link. Remark what you think about it and why it’s valuable for your followers.You can share anything from videos to articles to original content.

Be engaged and engaging

When others comment on your posts or send you messages, you should always reply. People are more likely to engage if they know you’ll respond, and when it comes to social media, engagement is currency.

Have an opinion

People react well to accounts that have a stance on something. Make sure that you clearly demonstrate your opinions and insights. Posting content alone without an idea or opinion behind it is easy.Followers are much more likely to engage and share content that has a strong opinion on an important matter. When posting your opinions, it helps to have data to back it up. There’s nothing that makes you look less credible than be disproven publicly online.

Use hashtags

It’s easy to forget about hashtags when posting, but you’re missing a huge opportunity. Always consider what kinds of hashtags could be relevant for your post. If you choose the right ones, you can attract new followers and significantly boost your visibility.

Host a live

Hosting a Facebook live is a great way to partner up with someone else in your practice area. Consider interviewing an expert who has a significant following and can bring more followers to your page.Live meetups are a great way to bump up new followers and re-engage your current ones. Make sure you post about it before you go live so that people know to look for it.

3. SEO

When it comes to one of the most reliable methods for increasing your visibility online, it has to be SEO. Considered a must-have for marketing, SEO can significantly increase your Google search results. A good law firm SEO strategy includes the following:

Relevant legal keywords

Between your blog and any other content you publish from your website, you should be using relevant legal keywords that attract your target audience. Again, you can refer to keyword research to choose the right ones for maximum traffic.

Website optimization

You can think of your website as a garden. It needs to be watered, fertilized, and regularly sprinkled with fresh content and user-friendly navigation.

Diverse backlinks

Your content should be filled with backlinks from a wide variety of reliable sources that support your posts. The more you can include, the higher you’ll rank in search results.

Local SEO

Your SEO should be targeted towards your local area so that when leads search for your specific location, your firm comes up. Google will provide the highest-ranking local attorneys when people search for an attorney in a pinpointed area. If you can manage to appear at the top of search results

4. Targeted advertisements

Paid ads offer an opportunity to expand your audience even more than it would organically. In turn, you’ll cast a wider net that’s easy to track how many people are taking the bait with law firm reporting software.Marketing analytics for law firms makes it easy to assess how well your advertising efforts are working and where you can make improvements.The main challenge with PPC advertising is standing out. With so many legal ads, you’ll have to be smart about your marketing strategy to get people to look. The best way to ensure that you have a chance at getting noticed amongst all the competition is to do your research.Get to know what your competitors are doing and differentiate yourself by focusing on what makes you the best. Whatever they’re doing, do it better than them — it’s really that simple.

5. Videos

Videos are one of the most successful forms of content on social media. According to recent statistics, as many as 73% of people say that they’ve purchased a product or service because of a video they saw on social media.Because of the considerable influence on consumers' decisions, it's no secret why more and more businesses are using video as a form of advertising. Despite video marketing being a somewhat new form of marketing, it’s a proven method for increasing brand awareness for your law firm.Before you start uploading videos to your social media account, it’s a good idea to know where to start. Although there are all sorts of different approaches for video creation, one of the most logical for the legal industry is unscripted legal tips.For example, if you’re a family lawyer, you might want to consider posting a weekly family law tip. Free legal advice is an extremely valuable and shareable form of video that can bring in plenty of traffic. Although you don’t have to worry about your video being the next Oscar contender for best film, you should make sure that it's well-edited. Ideally, it should be shot on a tripod and well-focused. Above all, make sure that you introduce yourself and your law firm, so people know who they’re listening to.

6. Offer a deal

Running a promotion is a terrific way to promote your law firm for various reasons. If it’s a social media promotion, then it can be an effective incentive for people to like and share your page. Each person who enrolls in your promotion can receive a discount code or enter a chance to win something.In addition to incentivizing sharing your page, it’s also a great way to boost sales. Running a limited-time discount on legal services can grow your client base and encourage referrals.

7. Newsletters

A newsletter isn’t as simple as sending out a mass boring email once a month and hoping it will do the trick. If executed correctly, a newsletter can become one of your best methods for promoting your law firm and growing your client base.It’s a relatively inexpensive yet incredibly effective way to promote yourself directly to people’s inboxes. Your newsletter should be consistent and full of useful content. Make sure that on top of being full of valuable information that it’s visually compelling as well.

8. Marketing automation

Marketing is considerably easier when you rely on technology to automate it for you. With drip campaigns for law firms, it’s easy to keep your leads and clients engaged. You can easily take advantage of workflow automation for law firms based on whatever triggers you decide on.Perhaps you send a thank you message if someone signs up for a newsletter, or a “Happy Birthday” email goes out on a client's birthday. Audience segmentation software makes it possible to individually target and nurture your prospects and clients on auto-pilot while you focus on practicing law.

9. Ebooks and whitepapers

Ebooks and whitepapers are examples of long-form content. The goal of long-form content is to convince readers that you’re the authority on the subject you’re writing about, in your case—law. By offering detailed information that presents yourself as an expert, you can potentially turn a reader into a client. Simply choose a topic that you know a considerable amount about that ties into a service you offer clients.Make sure that it’s well proofread and ideally designed using a template made specifically for ebooks and whitepapers. Consider offering a free download when a visitor provides their email address so that their information goes straight into your CRM for lawyers.

10. Gated content

Gated content is a great way to pack more leads into your CRM for attorneys. By offering valuable and exclusive content in exchange for web visitors' contact details, you’ll significantly expand your database.Make sure that whatever you decide to offer is genuinely valuable enough that it's worth visitors sharing their personal information. If people feel like they were created after being promised something valuable enough to be gated, they’ll turn towards competitors.Some ideas of gated content include product demos, data reports, and free courses.

11. Call to action

Also known as CTA’s, calls to action are a must-have in your inbound marketing strategy. The idea is to tell your visitors what steps to take next. Never allow anyone to visit your website without getting them to move closer to being a paying client. Not to be confused with a simple “contact us” button, a call to action should be a full phrase in order for it to be the most effective.Usually, it’s a hyperlink located at the bottom of an email or web page. Some ideas for law firms of a call to action could be:

• Scheduling a free consultation
• Downloading an ebook
• Click to Call

The idea is to compel prospects to engage rather than clicking away. Feel free to get creative with a call to action relevant to your law firm.

12. Testimonials

In the age of Amazon, shared client experiences are more important than ever. People want to know whether previous clients have had a success story with you or not and are eager to hear all about it.Social proof is a huge selling point. When people see that your service worked for someone else, they’re willing to take the chance of hiring you to reach the same level of success.Most clients who have had a positive experience with your law firm are more than happy to share their stories. Don’t be afraid to request a testimonial to share.

13. Case studies

A high-quality case study can be the ultimate way to prove your expertise in your area of practice. However, it’s important to note that they take a considerable amount of time when executed correctly.For a case study to do its job, it should outline how a client managed to reach their goals through the help of your firm. It should be comprehensive and thorough and promise the same success to your leads.

Use inbound marketing to grow your firm

Bringing in more clients doesn’t have to be a complex process. By using the right tools like these strategies paired with a robust law firm CRM, you can increase your leads, establish yourself as a credible law firm, and ultimately boost your revenue.Ready to find out more about how to market your law firm using Lawmatics software? Sign up for a product demo today!

Happy April from all of us at Lawmatics. Our team is growing here, and as it grows, so does our ability to create amazing experiences for you very quickly. To that end, this month we have a whole slew of platform enhancements that we have released into the wild. Some of these have been available for a week or two, so you may have already noticed. :)

Failed Automation Notifications

While our automation platform is second to none, failures can occur for any number of reasons. For example, it could be because the contact doesn’t have an email address or a phone number. The good news is that now you can receive notifications alerting you to a failed automation. This will allow you to go and investigate why the automation failed and rectify the situation.

Firm Financial Permissions

Lawmatics gives you incredibly useful and insightful data about your firm. Some of that data is financial in nature and, understandably, something that perhaps not everyone in your firm should have access to. Now, you can easily hide those financially driven data points from specific users.

Notification/Dashboard Events Link to Records

You can now easily navigate to a notification or dashboard event’s related record just by clicking the link in the respective notification or event, making navigating around Lawmatics just a little bit easier. :)

Marketing Stats

We have completely reworked our marketing stats engine to ensure that all data is accurate and that specific metrics are using the right method in their calculations. We also added some additional date range options to our Insights dashboard, as well as some additional data points to the general Dashboard.

Updated Booking UI

Calendar booking is one of the most used features. In an effort to really enhance the functionality of this feature, we have released an updated UI when booking an appointment. A much cleaner user interface delivers a better experience for your end-user. Keep an eye out because there are some truly amazing functionality improvements coming to calendar booking over the next couple of weeks.

Change Matter Context Within Forms

We have added the ability to switch which matter you are viewing data for a while inside of a custom form. No more having to exit the form, find a matter, and open the form again. You can simply context switch from directly in the upper right corner of the form.

City and State to LM Sign Audit Trail

LM Sign audit trail now also gives you the city and state of the person who viewed/signed the document. We still include the IP address and GPS coordinates(when available), but we now include the city and state for easier identification.

Check in next month for more updates and improvements from the Lawmatics team! Not using Lawmatics yet? There’s never been a better time to start. Book a personalized demo to learn how we can help you grow your law firm!

It’s tempting to believe that if you build a law firm, the clients will magically appear. However, the reality is that a lot of work goes into bringing in new clients and delivering a delightful customer experience.And once you get those clients in the door, you have to coordinate responses to their inquiries, answer their questions, schedule meetings—all the work that happens behind the scenes before you even start crafting your opening argument. It’s no easy task for any attorney to take on their own!The good news is that it’s possible to exceed customer high expectations with the help of technology. That’s why Lawmatics CEO, Matt Spiegel, teamed up with Kelsey Johnson, Product Marketing Manager at Smith.ai, to share their insights and tips for efficiently and systematically driving high quality leads for your law firm.Watch the recorded webinar to learn how to:

• Use Smith.ai for call & chat answering, lead qualification, and scheduling
• Set up Lawmatics forms for intake on the first call
• Integrate Smith.ai and Lawmatics to automatically log calls
• Create automated workflows in Lawmatics to nurture and follow-up on leads

That’s right, you can learn how to capture and intake more leads for your law firm in just 60 minutes. Watch the full webinar below!

If the last year has taught us anything, it’s that change is constant. However, it’s important to remember that not all change is bad.The last year presented a lot of new and difficult challenges for us here at Lawmatics—I’m sure you can relate to that. Through it all, we remained committed to delivering Legal Client Intake Software and Marketing Automation CRM solutions that help you impress your clients, be more efficient and win more business. We’re thrilled about the direction we’re headed and appreciate having you aboard this journey with us.One thing that became clear to us the past few months is the opportunity to update our website to better reflect who we are, what we do, and how we help law firms like yours succeed. So we kicked off the initiative to revamp our entire website a few months ago and are excited about the new look and feel. Hint: You should explore the new Lawmatics.com if you haven’t already done so!So much thought and care went into this transformation, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of all of our Lawmaticians and our amazing customers. Allow me to give you a grand tour of the new Lawmatics website and explain the evolution that brought us to this point.

Let us show you how Lawmatics can help your law firm

We made updates to our website to help you understand exactly what Lawmatics does and how it helps grow your firm. If you only have 90 seconds, we have just the video for you:

With Lawmatics, you can:

• Set up powerful automations to handle your client intake and marketing efforts, so you save time and money
• Stay engaged with your database of new and existing clients with customized email drip campaigns.
• Seamlessly manage the attorney-client relationship with automated reminders and confirmations and everything you need to deliver a delightful experience for every client.

Overview of the Lawmatics platform

Our powerful Legal Client Intake Software and Marketing CRM is built specifically for attorneys. It is organized into four key components:

• Client Intake - Automate the entire client journey, build a custom intake process for your clients, set up automated appointment scheduling, offer e-signatures, and collect and organize essential documents.
• CRM - Lawmatics' CRM for lawyers provides a unified view of your clients to collect the data you need to deliver an elevated client experience.
• Marketing Automation - Our marketing automation for law firms makes it easy to build automated email campaigns with custom triggers and logic, so your clients get the right email at the right time, every time.
• Reporting and Insights - Our visual reporting makes it easy for you to see your law firm’s performance at a glance.

Hear what our customers are saying about Lawmatics

Don’t just take our word for it; our customers have a lot to say about their experience with Lawmatics. Check out our Customers page to read case studies and testimonials.

You can also take a look at more reviews of Lawmatics on G2!

We’re putting our resources front and center to help you be more successful

Stay up to date with the Lawmatics blog

Whether you’re looking for tips and best practices to grow your law firm or be among the first to know about the latest feature releases, The Lawmatics Blog is your go-to source. We’re adding new posts all the time so add The Lawmatics Blog to your bookmarks!

Find the educational resources you need in our learning center

Our Learning Center features ebooks and webinar recordings to help you quickly get up to speed on the Lawmatics platform, learn how to optimize the legal client intake process, tips for law firm marketing, and more.

Visit our help center to access our documentation

Our documentation library is a searchable resource to help answer any technical questions you have as you explore the Lawmatics platform.

Access our API documentation

One of the things that makes Lawmatics special is how easily it can be customized depending on your unique use case. You can find all of our API documentation in one place.

And we’re not done yet—we have more exciting changes planned

Updating the website is just a small part of our overall strategy—we have a lot more in the works! We’re continuing to focus our resources on quickly expanding the Lawmatics platform functionality and adding on to the most robust legal CRM, client intake, and marketing automation tool for our customers.Stay tuned for more exciting updates from the team!

As a lawyer, your job is to practice law. Yet, despite your title as a legal professional, like it or not, you're also a salesperson. When there are so many other law firms for people to choose from, it's up to you to bring in business, but it's not always easy to turn your attention towards chasing after prospects since you're busy getting the best results for your clients.Leads may contact your practice, and sometimes you have the time to get back to them, or maybe you have an office administrator do it for you, but there's no real system in place beyond a spreadsheet or a few post-it notes. After a while, you're unsure about who you've gotten back to already and who you need to call back. You lose valuable time you could be spending practicing law digging through your email inbox and scribbled hand notes.Perhaps this sounds like you.Situations like these in an overwhelmed law firm is precisely where client intake software steps in. What would typically take a considerable amount of time to do yourself can be done with reliable intake software. With a few clicks, you can turn your client intake process on autopilot and put energy towards the most critical areas of your law firm, like serving your clients as best as you can.

Client intake process outline

1. What is the client intake process for law firms?
2. What are the 4 steps in the client intake process?
3. How to optimize your law firm’s client intake process
4. 5 tips for a successful client intake process
5. Why law firms are making the switch to client intake software
6. Start thinking like a CEO: why law firm intake is sales
7. Exceed your prospective client’s expectations by optimizing your client intake process

What is the client intake process for law firms?

The law firm intake process is a critical part of running your law firm. The client intake process involves the stages of client acquisition, follow-up and continued communication, scheduling a consultation, and securing the client. Client intake software helps automate and organize the steps of the client intake process, helping lawyers focus on client needs and case work rather than worrying about whether they called a prospect back.Let’s compare the client intake process to a guest walking into a restaurant. The guest will become a customer only if the restaurant is open and available to take customers, if they are greeted and shown to a table (or given a reasonable wait period), and if the food being offered is appealing. If the guest’s experience is mishandled in any way, the guest may only order a starter and ask for the check. Or worse, leave altogether and grab a burrito to-go down the street.However, if the restaurant has space, and the waiter communicates well and is attentive to the needs of the guests, the guests might order a five-course meal, a bottle of your finest Cabernet, and come back for repeat business.It's all about following the right steps to convert a prospect into a paying client.Despite its importance for turning leads into clients, a poorly executed legal intake process is more common than you might think. Many law firms fail to optimize the client experience throughout the intake process and, as a result, have low conversion rates.In order to improve client satisfaction and boost your firm's revenue, a strong intake process is essential. A solid process of converting interested prospects into paying clients is what sets apart the successful law firms from the not so successful ones.To get a better idea of why client intake features are a must, let's break down each step of the client intake process.

What are the 4 steps in the client intake process?

1. Attracting prospective clients

The minute a prospective client first interacts with your law firm, the client intake process starts. Some leads may have come across your website from an online advertising campaign and fill out a client intake form, while others might come to you because of a referral. They usually fill out an online intake form or call your firm directly to ask for more information related to their case. Obtaining their contact information is critical because it's the next step in making them a client.However, in the absence of a systematic law firm intake process, these leads often get lost in a pile, never to be followed up with again. Sadly, lost leads equal lost revenue. A lead needs to be followed up with and convinced to choose you over someone else before they become a paying client. It's up to you to win them over.

2. Following up

Capturing a lead's information is only the first step and doesn't come with any guarantees. Follow-ups are vital for driving a lead to become a paying client. However, when you're handling piles of leads in addition to practicing law for your clients, it's almost impossible to see who you've contacted already unless you have a system in place.Follow-ups are where many law firms go wrong. A recent trends report revealed that there's a remarkable lack of responsiveness to lead outreach. Out of consumers surveyed in the study, most agreed that timeliness is a critical factor when choosing a lawyer. Over half of the firms in the findings failed to reply to an email or voicemail at all. If you're failing to get back to your lead inquiries within 24 hours or less, then you're missing tremendous opportunities for your business. It's critical that your client's journey is meticulously tracked, so you know who has been followed up with when, and who needs to be contacted and where they stand as a prospect. Lawmatics’ workflow automation software can help.

3. Scheduling a consultation

Once you've moved a lead closer towards becoming a client, you'll need to schedule a consultation to go over their case and learn about what they're looking for. It's an opportunity to pitch why your firm is the best choice and ultimately turn them into a loyal client. However, between your busy schedule and theirs, sometimes finding a time that works for everyone can be a logistical nightmare. This step can get tricky since you've got a law firm to run, and your leads likely have full schedules too.Lawyers are no strangers to drawn-out back-and-forths trying to agree on an appointment time. Not only can the actual meeting booking be laborious, but in some cases, clients may not even show up, costing your firm even more lost time.The Lawmatics legal calendaring software provides instant appointment booking without the back-and-forth.

4. Secure the client

Once you've secured your client, the next step in the client intake process is to draw up all of the paperwork to finalize the attorney-client relationship. Lawyers know all too well the work involved with drawing up legal paperwork, which can take hours to days depending on the type of contract.Without legal document automation, clients are required to print, sign, and send physical papers back to you, which requires printers, copy machines, scanners, and sometimes even *gasp* fax machines. Document automation makes this step of the client intake process smoother, faster, and may remove barriers to client signing.Once your client has signed all of the necessary paperwork and agreements, and you've successfully onboarded your client, it's time to celebrate. You've won the sale!

"So very glad we invested in this program when we did. We are getting more use out of it than we imagined we would ever have to. We are now using an automatic intake form, video conferencing through GoToMeeting for our consultations, and e-sign with our rep. agreements."— Alicia Bostrack, Orchard Law Firm

How to optimize your law firm's client intake process

A quick response is critical

A timely response is critical when it comes to conversions. Regardless of whether a lead calls, emails, or it's a digital client intake, the rule remains the same: get back to them as soon as you can. The quicker you reply, the less time a customer will have to potentially change their mind and turn to a competitor law firm.All it takes is a few clicks around the internet to find poorly rated law firms with reviews saying no one ever got back to them. Recent studies reveal that an astonishing 60% of law firms called don't respond to any emails requesting more information, and just under 30% don't answer or return calls.An effective attorney-client intake process includes the following criteria when responding to inquiries:

• Response within 24 hours;
• Using the clients' preferred form of communication;
• Clear answers to questions;
• Detailed information regarding the legal process;
• An outline of projected costs;

Be friendly

Beyond being informative, you should be warm. It doesn't matter whether you pick up the phone on the first ring or the tenth ring; if you aren't friendly and relatable on the call, the customer isn't likely to stick around. Act engaged and genuinely interested in their case. The key ingredient to law office client intake is creating a bond with your lead.There are already plenty of negative stigmas associated with lawyers, so you'll have to work to prove you're not just another lawyer who wants their money.Get to know the details of a caller's inquiry and ask plenty of questions. It's not recommended to double-task when talking to a client for the first time. You'll need to lend them your undivided attention with no distractions.Even though you may not think it's coming through on the call that you're distracted, the caller will more than likely sense it. If you have to choose between taking a little longer to get back to a client so you can get something else done first, do it. Only call clients back when you can genuinely take the call.Even though you may not think it's coming through on the call that you're distracted, the caller will more than likely sense it. If you have to choose between taking a little longer to get back to a client so you can get something else done first, do it. Only call clients back when you can genuinely take the call.

Use technology to your advantage

It can't be stressed enough how important a robust CRM is for optimizing your law practice client intake. A legal CRM built for law firms is an end-to-end solution for managing and strengthening client relationships by tracking all interactions.From managing the first moment a lead fills out a client intake form to the moment they sign a retainer, a CRM for attorneys helps law firms manage the entire progression of their client relationships. That way, it's simple to see the progression of events and what actions and follow-ups need to happen. Audience segmentation makes it possible to deliver tailored messages that appeal to a lead's unique needs.In short, a CRM is there to turn a potential client into a loyal client by automating and streamlining your tasks and follow-ups and is critical for a successful legal client intake process.

Get your entire team on board

All of your staff should be on the same page when it comes to how you respond to leads. The key is consistency and promptness. It may be useful to create a basic script for answering the phone or responding to online client intake forms. It's critical that whoever is answering the phone at your practice is qualified to answer whatever questions come their way.By creating a consistent response system that everyone is on board with, you'll reduce the risk of leads slipping through your fingers throughout the client intake process. Your frontline staff or intake team should understand the basics of law and whether your firm even handles the area that a lead is contacting you about.If an inquiring caller's case falls outside of your firm's practice area, have a list prepared of lawyers that you recommend or minimally a legal referral service. People appreciate when you go the extra mile to be helpful. It's not unheard of for callers to leave a positive review for your law firm online simply because the person on the phone helped guide them in the right direction. A little kindness goes a long way.

Follow up

Rarely will a prospect sign a contract on the first day they call you. Usually, people are shopping around and researching the best fit for their case. Chances are they may have spoken to a handful of law firms recently, and they may not even remember which firms they were talking to. It's up to you to send a follow-up email or text message, so you stay in their mind.Not only does it keep you in their minds, but it also makes contacting you much easier. Rather than doing a Google search when prospective clients want to find you, which may not always lead back to your firm, a text message or email makes it easy for them to scroll through their phone to find the last message you sent to get back to you,More often than not, people just want the most straightforward solution that requires the least amount of effort. A good law firm client intake process makes it easy to choose your law firm over another by making things easy.When you follow up with an email, do more than just self-advertise. Educate the customer on things related to their inquiry. This can be anything from articles to videos to testimonials from other clients who have worked with your firm on the same kind of case.

5 tips for a successful client intake process

1. First impressions are everything

As mentioned, the client intake process begins the moment a lead expresses interest in your firm. In some scenarios, a potential new client will come to your website as a result of a client referral, website traffic, or via an advertising campaign. They'll often fill out a contact form on your law firm's website asking for information. If they fill out a client intake form, they'll be asked to provide their contact details and a summary of the services they're inquiring about.In other cases, a client may call your firm directly, hoping to gather the information they need. If they're lucky, someone will answer, they'll take their information down and answer any questions about whether the firm is the right fit. The less than lucky ones will reach voicemail.This is the moment a lot of law firms get it wrong. Studies show that one of the most common complaints about law firms is poor client communication. A receptionist may write down a potential client's information on a Post-it for someone to follow up with "later." Maybe it even gets entered into a spreadsheet that gets looked at once in a while. Or worse, maybe whoever answered the phone gets distracted on another call, and the lead is forgotten altogether. The result is a poor reputation for your law firm and lost revenue.To help eliminate the risk of leads getting lost, it's essential to optimize your lead management process with a legal CRM system. A proper customer relationship management tool will ensure that your lead's information is recorded correctly with an effective questionnaire experience.Rather than losing your potential client's interest with unnecessary questions that may cause them to click away, you can customize a beautiful and complex questionnaire with only the questions you need to ask.The Lawmatics legal form builder feature makes it easy to control when certain fields are visible to whoever is filling it out by building custom forms.Easily ask the questions you need to ask with the style you want to ensure you get the information you need, all with the power of a robust legal intake software. Be thoughtful about what information you're getting from them. The types of questions to ask are:

• What do they need a lawyer for?
• Have they hired an attorney before?

Documenting the entire process is critical if you hope to keep things clear for you and your client, ensuring you're both a good fit for each other.

How legal client intake software can help

Instead of leads getting lost, legal client intake software acquires contact information for you, so there's no need to manually extract and input information from an online intake form to a spreadsheet. Client intake software inputs lead information directly into a centralized database that you can access anywhere at any time. There is no need to step away from doing important work for a paying client to take down a name and number again. Technology does it all for you while you focus on what matters most for your firm.[oxygen-template id="6131"]

2. Track every step of the way meticulously

Once you've captured your potential client's information, a legal CRM inputs the information into a centralized database where the client journey is meticulously tracked with pipeline management. Since it's critical to strike while it's hot to avoid them slipping through the cracks, they'll need to be followed up with as soon as possible.But let's be frank about it, getting back to a lead right away isn't always convenient when you've got a law firm to run. Following up with potential clients when you've got paying clients to do work for can seem like less of a priority.Results from a recent study show that a startling majority of law firms deliver disappointing follow-ups. Leads in the study reported that only 40% of law firms responded to emails, and a whopping 70% of them were considered unsatisfactory.When it came to phone calls, just over half were answered, and the rest were answered by voicemail. Over half of the law firms took over 72 hours to respond to voicemails.First impressions are critical for client conversion, so it goes without saying that unsatisfactory follow-ups are a missed opportunity.

How legal client intake software can help

Client intake software automates the entire process, so you don't have to worry about digging through your inbox to see who's been followed up with when. A pipeline view allows you to view where all your leads are at a glance and what actions need to be taken when.Automated and personalized emails respond on your behalf immediately, so you don't have to worry about leads falling through the cracks. With automated drip campaigns, you can stay on the top of leads' minds while they weigh out their choices. Best of all, both email and text message follow-ups are preprogrammed without you having to do anything.With a legal CRM, you never have to worry about losing time on billable work to get back to a lead. An effective legal software like Lawmatics will send an automated email to the client immediately to keep them engaged.Custom fields make it possible to tailor automated emails to the client’s needs and contact information for a more personalized greeting. A lead is then given an invitation to take the next steps in becoming a client with your law firm.

3. Get everything you need out of the consultation and be a good listener

When a lead gains your trust, the next step to turning them into a paying client is scheduling a consultation. It's an opportunity to learn what your clients need, pitch yourself as the best choice, and ultimately win their business.Converting leads into customers is a tricky process in any industry. When running a law firm, you must have a good strategy in place for setting these consultation appointments. If handled poorly, people show up late or don't show at all, costing your law firm time and money lost.An example of an ineffective scheduling process is going back and forth in emails, trying to find the best time that works for everyone. As a busy lawyer, you have more important matters to focus on than email-tag. CRM software takes the hassle out of appointment setting so you can focus your energy on revenue-producing work rather than menial administrative tasks.The right program sends an email to your client linking to a calendar with your availability. By syncing your Outlook or Google calendar to your CRM calendar, leads will see only the time slots you want them to see. They can choose an appointment time that works for them all with a few clicks. You're one step closer to converting them into a client.

How client intake software can help

With a complete client intake software like Lawmatics, you don't have to write another email asking what time works for anyone ever again. Simply sync your Outlook or Google calendar to your intake software, and your lead will receive a link to your availability.Tailor your calendar so that only the time slots you want people to see are visible. Leads can scroll through your availability and choose whatever time works best for them.When the consultation gets booked, an automated confirmation email goes out. Automation makes it easy to send all the important information that your soon-to-be client needs. From your contact information to any crucial details about your location, they'll get everything they need in one single email. Your emails can also include relevant information about your law firm that can help warm clients up. Use software to automate anything you'd like your leads to know about your firm to boost your chances of gaining them as a client.In addition to the initial confirmation email, client intake software also sends out a reminder to both you and the client. No more paying an office administrator to make appointment reminder calls again. Your firm can save money by automating it all through the power of technology, which is one of the biggest client intake software advantages.

4. Keep your legal team on track with reminders

Recent studies show that the rate of client no-shows has risen 5% since early August 2020. Because of this higher missed appointment rate, it's more important than ever to stay on top of reminding clients about their appointments.This reminder should come in two stages.

Stage one reminders

As soon as the appointment is booked, a client should receive an email confirming the appointment. It should include all of the necessary information- from your contact information to your law firm's address and any important details like access codes.Think about including relevant information about your law firm in the email to warm clients up. Plugging in client testimonials and educational resources builds a sense of trust with your lead and boost your chances of gaining their business.

Stage two reminders

The day before or several hours leading up to the consultation with your potential client, they should receive an email reminder. While some firms leave this step to an office administrator, automating the reminders can save your firm money on tasks you'd otherwise be paying staff to do.

How client intake software can help

Client intake software takes over all of that for you by onboarding your clients without the hassle. Everything is digital and considerably faster with no risk of human error, which is an inevitable risk whenever you do something manually. With automation software like Lawmatics, you eliminate the risk of mistakes in your important paperwork.What would have otherwise taken a considerable amount of time takes a matter of minutes, all with the help of technology. Document templates like the client intake form template can be filled out using imported data from your intake software, streamlining your onboarding process and saving you time.

5. Secure your client thoughtfully and discuss fees in advance

Assuming the consultation goes as planned, you'll verbally secure the client's business. In order to finalize the attorney-client relationship, you'll need them to sign the paperwork and agreements. It's highly recommended that you go over fees at the initial consultation so that there is no grey area about your billing. You'll need to cover the basics like whether you bill hourly or charge flat fees. If you offer payment plans, you'll need to discuss how they work.As any lawyer knows, drafting up contracts is a lengthy process that takes time to ensure there are no errors. To streamline the process and eliminate the risk of errors, you can use automation software like Lawmatics.

How client intake software can help

Lawmatics does the tedious work for you, so you can sweep through creating intake documents with ease.Document templates can easily be filled with data imported from fields in your legal CRM coupled with easy e-signature software. You can seamlessly input information using a template, eliminating unnecessary fields, saving you and your client time. No more risks of missing critical steps or time lost on tedious tasks.Technology makes it simple to onboard your client by making it easy for them to send you whatever you need from the palm of their hand. By clicking a link from their mobile phones or laptop, they can effortlessly download and email documents back without having to bother with printers or scanners. E-signatures make it possible to streamline the contract process which your clients will appreciate especially.In short, what could have taken hours or even days happens in a matter of seconds, all thanks to an effective client intake process.

Why law firms are making the switch to client intake software

In a traditional law firm, the client intake process involves tedious processes that don't only eat up your time but also clients. However, when you switch to a cloud-based client intake software like Lawmatics, you have complete control over your legal client intake process, which is why so many law firms are making the transition. Here are a few of the benefits you can expect to gain.

Better first impressions

First impressions count, especially when it comes to finding the right lawyer in such a competitive market. A common stereotype is that lawyers are old-fashioned, so when you present a streamlined, fast process to leads with cutting-edge legal technology, they're pleasantly surprised and impressed.A tech-savvy approach starts things off on the right foot and gives people high expectations of your firm. Regardless of the size of your practice, you'll give the impression that you're polished and up to date with the latest methods.

Better workflow and organization

If you're a law firm still carrying out a disjointed client intake process full of manual entry and endless tedious tasks, then a software solution is for you. Making the switch to software means you can cut back on the time you spend on menial administrative work and get back to practicing law.Lawmatics' systematic workflow allows you to manage all of your prospects in one single location and automates everything for you, keeping you organized and improving your workflow. No more digging through file cabinets to find the document you need-easily access files from wherever you are with the Lawmatics legal file request builders.

Less tedious work

No more working out of your email inbox or jotting down stick notes to manage leads. Gone are the days of losing time on monotonous data entry you have to do yourself or paying someone else to do it. No more manually filling out contracts or writing out follow-up emails. The magic of client intake software does all of that for you so you can focus on legal work.Everything goes automatically into the cloud, where anyone can access it quickly at any moment. Easily export contact information directly into custom consent forms, including only the fields you need, saving everyone time.

Improved client experience

Believe it or not, clients don't like meetings any more than you do. They don't like having to go back and forth in emails to find the best time that works for everyone's schedule or having to print out PDF consent forms to fill out and scan back. Clients don't like it when the person they're talking to on the phone isn't up to speed with the same information on their case as the last person they spoke to, and above all, they don't like wasting their time any more than you.When you make the switch to software, you're not only providing clients a more simplified process but also direct access to you. A fast and streamlined client intake process is a pleasant surprise to clients looking for speed and ease.By using a legal intake software, you'll be delivering a client-friendly intake process that produces better results by leveraging technology -no headaches required. You can even integrate our software with other legal apps your firm may already be using, like case management software, making your job even easier.

Data Tracking and Analytics

As the legal market continues to become increasingly competitive, data tracking and analytics are critical for your success. If you hope for your law firm to stand the test of time, you have to embrace technology.Robust data tracking and analytics are included directly in your client intake software, helping you keep track of the most important metrics-things like where you're getting your leads, how many of them are successfully converting into clients, and which cases are worth the most value. Metrics like these make it possible for data-driven changes where it counts most so you can boost your profits.

Start thinking like a CEO: why law firm intake is sales

With millions of law firms to choose from across the United States, you might wonder how some are so much more successful than others. Despite so many competing firms, some lawyers seem to catch all the fish. Why? The secret is in their law firm intake process. Most successful law firms agree that the secret to success is a powerful intake system that successfully converts leads into paying clients.Strangely enough, they don't teach about the client intake process in law school, despite it being such a critical factor in the success of your practice.It's incredibly rare for lawyers to come out of school equipped to bring in business. Yet, it's up to you, not anyone else, to bring in your law firm's revenue.You might be thinking, "wait a minute, I'm a lawyer, not a salesperson."*Cue wrong answer buzzer.*You are a lawyer and a salesperson.When you run your own practice, it's up to you to find your own leads and convert them into paying clients with an effective legal intake process.For the sake of argument, let's switch out 'legal client intake process' with 'sales process' for a minute. In a traditional sales environment, the sales process is a customer's journey from the moment they need a product to the moment they purchase it.Research shows companies that use a structured sales intake process are the highest performing. 90% to be exact. The reason for their growth was a shared emphasis on the same goal:A relationship-led approach that focuses on the best possible experience for the customer that includes:

• Quick and efficient responses
• Personalized communication and follow-ups
• A frictionless experience
• Proactive support
• Leveraging technology to eliminate human error
• Nurturing relationships through engagement

Now let's replace 'sales process' with 'legal intake process' again and explore how you can apply the same relationship-led approach to your law firm and out-perform your competition.On average, it takes about eight interactions to convert a lead into a client, so you'll need a prospect's contact information to continue following up. When you add up all of your leads, it's easy to see how keeping track of each can get confusing. There goes that little voice in your head again. "Wait a minute. I'm a lawyer, not a salesperson. I don't have time for all of this."*Cue wrong answer buzzer again.*You are a salesperson. But you’re also a lawyer, so no one expects you to follow up on all your leads yourself when you could be focusing on billable work. This is where technology comes in.[oxygen-template id="6130"]

Optimize your firm's client intake process by seeing it as a sales process

When you start to see that the client intake process is a law firm sales process, you start to realize how critical it is for the success of your law firm. By using a structured and efficient intake process and by leveraging technology like Lawmatics, you can improve client satisfaction and increase your law firm sales.

Exceed your prospective clients' expectations by optimizing your client intake process

The only way to grow your law firms is to dedicate time to getting results for your clients and less time on administrative tasks like data entry. Recent data shows that the average lawyer spends only 2.5 hours a day actually practicing law.Time is money, and time lost on tedious tasks is money lost. Investing in a client intake software doesn't just make your job easier; it can significantly impact your profits. The more you leverage technology like Lawmatics to automate your operations, the better you'll serve your clients, and the more you'll drive client referrals. Lawmatics actually has a variety of features that can help you save time, such as our legal CRM, automation solutions, and time and billing software.By incorporating automation into your practice with legal software, you'll be able to focus your time on what matters most: providing the best possible experience for clients while meeting the needs of your leads. A considerable portion of a law firm's success depends on your client intake process. By reacting correctly to potential clients through an optimized client intake process, you will see your revenue grow exponentially by becoming a goal-driven firm.

As a lawyer, you don’t have any time to waste. Every minute costs valuable dollars, so you don’t have time to spare on things that don’t produce results and profits. Simply put, you need to know what’s working and what isn’t working, so you can focus your time on getting the most favorable outcomes for clients.Thanks to data, your practice can save time by accessing accurate insights that provide opportunities for improvements. With a CRM for lawyers, you can monitor and measure your law firm's performance and, in turn, make data-driven decisions to grow your profits.There are endless possibilities of what you can measure to make valuable changes where needed. Once you know what to measure, you can use that information to make improvements in your business's performance. Though, it goes without saying that you can't measure anything that you're not tracking first.The first step to overall improvement and streamlining your law firm is knowing the most important metrics to track. Once you collect the appropriate data, you can determine where the holes are and what changes need to be made.Before the word, “data-driven” starts to conjure images of numbers coming from all directions like a scene out of The Matrix, rest assured that it’s really not that complicated.Think less complex graphs and pie charts, and more simple reporting insightslike how many hours you’ve billed in a month or how many website conversions you’ve had. The right CRM for attorneys includes an easy-to-read law firm dashboard that helps you better understand where you stand with your leads and clients and make improvements where necessary— all by observing metrics.These law firm metrics are known as key performance indicators, or KPI’s, and they’re the key to targeting the unique goals of your law firm and implementing necessary changes.

Get the most out of KPIs by setting goals for your law firm

A KPI is useless unless you have the right goal set in place. Without goals, how can you truly determine your success? A lot of lawyers assume that they already have the right goals in place. Unfortunately, many of their goals are vague and lack clarity.So, How can you determine what the right goals for your practice are?

Create a long-term vision

The first step is seeing where you want to be down the road. Take a good look at your vision and specify what you see. How big is your practice you see in your mind? How many clients do you have? Where is your practice located? What kind of practice areas do you specialize in? How many open matters do you handle a month? What is your average bill rate? The more specific you are, the more clarity you'll have about whether you're making progress or not.

Be S.M.A.R.T.

Chances are, you've probably heard of the handy acronym SMART. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.Being SMART when setting your practice’s goals helps you pursue them even more effectively.

Specific

Vague ideas of what you'd like to accomplish will only create limitations. Consider all of your goals in fine detail, and include any resources, like a legal CRM, that you'll need in order to achieve them.

Measurable

The only way that you can hope to achieve your goals is to measure them. By measuring them with KPIs, you can break your goals up and take an inventory of how well you're performing as you go. Otherwise, it's impossible to know whether you're making progress if you can't measure where you are as a law firm.

Attainable

It's vital that you're realistic when setting your goals. That's not to say that you shouldn't shoot for the stars, but you should also make sure that what you're setting out to do is genuinely attainable.You'll only get frustrated if you set goals for yourself that aren't practical. Empower yourself by creating intentions that are within your reach.

Relevant

When choosing your objectives, ensure that they tie into your overall long-term vision. Don't get distracted by what everyone else is doing if it doesn't relate to your vision. It's easy to fall victim to the noise surrounding you, especially in the legal industry.Keep your eye on the goal and avoid following the behavior of others just because everyone else is doing it. Stay true to what you hope to accomplish and how your goals are relevant to that, and you can't go wrong.

Timely

Goals are great in and of themselves—but they're not worth much unless there are deadlines attached to them. Every goal and objective that you define for your law firm should have a time stamp.Creating time-bound goals increases your accountability and helps you stay on top of your achievements. They also help you make changes where needed.The SMART method can be applied to setting goals for every area of your practice. From client satisfaction to an effective intake process, SMART goal setting will better help you hit your objectives and choose the right KPIs.

Communicate them with your team

While writing down your goals can be incredibly effective, they're not worth much unless you share them with the rest of your team. By sharing your vision with the rest of your team, you won't just be increasing your accountability, but you'll also be sharing the load. Together, your team can lay out specifics of how they hope to achieve your objectives step by step.Remember, when creating your goals for your KPIs, you should also attach a “why” to each—this makes your goals much more motivating to accomplish. Now that you’ve got an idea of what your objectives are, let's break down how to use key performance indicators to measure your progress.

What is a KPI?

You can think of a KPI as a quantity that indicates how well your law firm is achieving its goals. While traditional input metrics may seem like enough, KPIs can much more accurately demonstrate your overall performance as a law firm. They provide a quantifiable measure of how well your processes are going on an overall level as well as individual levels.General data can only help you so far. However, the succinctness of a KPI makes it much more realistic to take in and act on.Once you have the right law firm reporting at your fingertips, your firm will be in a position to improve overall client satisfaction, earn repeat business, new referrals, and ultimately skyrocket your profits.[oxygen-template id="6132"]

5 benefits of tracking your law firm’s KPIs

1Better assessment of your performance

Data helps you measure into your progress by assessing whether you’re reaching your goals. You’re not just collecting data, you’re using it to evaluate how well you’re performing to make changes where necessary. Simply put, KPI’s provide knowledge to be the best version of your firm that you can be.For example, can you say for certain who your top performing attorney is? What percentage of your clients come back for repeat business? How many open matters do you have and how many of them were referrals?KPI’s provide a precise answer rather than an estimate arming you with the information you need to track your firm’s progress.

2Improved planning

Without the right insight, you have no idea why things may be going unfavorably at your practice. You can make educated guesses, and maybe you’ll even get lucky, but there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to make improvements. It's safe to say that you’re shooting in the dark towards an unclear future. With KPI’s however, you’re armed with specific indicators that don’t only tell you why things aren’t going well, but what results you can expect in the future.By tracking the right numbers, make predictions and strategize based on solid data.

3Improved client experience

It’s easy to assume your clients are happy, but can you really say for sure? Measuring indicators like how many client referrals you have, or how many clients give you favorable scores through your firm’s surveys will give you concrete feedback on how happy your customers are after working with you

4Simplified process

Tracking data saves you time you may have otherwise spent on lengthy meetings brainstorming and speculating what’s going wrong. It eliminates any guesswork and gives you solid analytics that pinpoint where you can make improvements. It's as simple as monitoring your KPI's once or twice a month, by running a report in Lawmatics. The reports are so easy to understand that anyone in your office can be assigned the task of relaying what areas need work

5 Increased revenue

The most profitable law firms are the most efficient ones. Performance indicators help your firm evaluate where you can make improvements in your performance by supplementing your understanding. The more insight you have, the more results you’ll produce, the more results you produce, the more revenue you'll make, it's really that simple!Now that it’s clearer why a data-driven approach is critical for your law firm’s success let’s explore the ten types of law firm KPIs you should be tracking.

10 Valuable KPIs your firm should be measuring

1Marketing

Why it matters

Your legal practice doesn’t have time or money to waste on marketing strategies that don’t get results. It’s critical to measure the efficacy of your law firm marketing investments so that you can make improvements and adjustments where they’re needed.

How you can measure it

You can identify the successes or failures of your marketing strategies by studying KPIs like, how many landing page conversions you had, how well your email marketing performed, and how many marketing actions were carried out.

Best practice and tips

Many law firms get it wrong when the amount they pay on marketing is greater than the revenue they bring in. Valuable legal metrics will help you appropriately determine whether your current marketing strategies are worth the investment and where changes need to be made to turn leads into clients.

Lawmatics custom reporting allows you to see where all of your leads are coming from, what actions have been taken so far, and what further steps you need to take. Tracking and setting new goals is as simple as a few clicks with the right law firm marketing software.

2Client acquisition

Why it matters

Client acquisition KPIs give you the power to see what you’re doing that effectively gets leads to become clients. Seeing it all laid out helps you assess the overall effectiveness and ineffectiveness of your lead conversion pursuits.

How you can measure it

You can see what's working for your firm by looking closely at analytics like how many new cases and matters you’ve opened, the total number of new clients, what sources clients are converting from, the number of client no-shows, and the value of each case.

Best practice and tips

Many firms realize that once they examine the data, their lead-to-sale conversion rate is not anywhere that it should be. In many cases, the data reveals that too many leads are falling through the cracks, and a systematic client intake process like Lawmatics offers is called for.

3Client development

Why it matters

Converting a lead to a client is only the first step. Doing an efficient job for your clients is your most important responsibility as a lawyer. Resolving cases effectively is how you build a positive reputation for your firm and win repeat business. Client development KPIs can help you track your performance with clients and identify where you can make positive changes.

How you can measure it

To get a birds-eye view of where you stand as a whole with your clients, you should be looking at data like how many cases have been closed, the average value of each closed case, and the number of matters per client.

Best practice and tips

By assessing analytics like these from each case, you can gain a better understanding of where your law firm can improve its efficiency.

4Client satisfaction

Why it matters

It goes without saying that client satisfaction is the backbone of any business's success, and your legal practice is no exception. Yet, despite being such an important metric for success, almost half of law firms don’t bother collecting client feedback.

How you can measure it

You can measure and improve client satisfaction by looking at KPIs like your number of client referrals, scores from client surveys, and your client retention rate.

Best practice and tips

Don’t make the mistake of focusing all of your energy on new clients instead of recognizing the value of clients you already have. Client loyalty is one of the most worthwhile goals that your firm should aim for. The key to repeat business is making your customers happy, and KPIs can help you measure that.

5Revenue

Why it matters

Tracking your revenue may be arguably the most important metric for your law firm. It helps determine how well your position is compared to the competition and helps decide whether or not you're in a position to expand your law firm. Many lawyers shy away from analyzing their revenue, assuming that as long as they have money left over after their expenses, their law firm is turning a profit. Unfortunately, there's so much more to cover.

How you can measure it

Running your total amount of revenue over a specified period can help you see where your revenue is coming from and what improvements you can make to increase it. Revenue KPIs provide more than just a simple number— They offer a total picture of where your practice stands in its total profitability.

Best practice and tips

Having a clear picture of where you are can help you better understand where you'd like to be. Once you have that information, it's much easier to not only reach your profit objectives but even exceed them.

6Billable hours

Why it matters

While running a successful law firm doesn't ride solely on all things billable ( a positive customer journey for example is more profitable than a few billable hours in the big picture), your billable work is still an important metric to analyze. Your long-term success rides on bringing in more than you pay out— so, having a clear idea of how many billable hours you're bringing in is an integral part of understanding your firm's monetary situation.

How you can measure it

Retrieve your total billable hours to calculate only what you've earned but also your potential earnings. By comparing how much billable work, you have collected over a specified period compared with what your available hours were, you can set realistic targets for where you can make improvements.

Best practice and tips

Your firm can start performing better almost instantly by looking at the total amount of billable hours you’ve logged compared to your availability. Many firms are in for a rude awakening when they realize how much time they lost on administrative tasks that could have been automated.

Your primary objective should be practicing law — analytics can reveal why you don’t have enough time for what matters most. By using Lawmatics reporting feature combined with its legal intake software, you’ll be able to see immediate improvements in the amount of time you have to devote to your clients cases.

7Website traffic

Why it matters

Most lawyers think of their law firm's website as a brochure for their services. It's an opportunity to showcase how they can provide excellent service for their clients and why they should choose them over the competition—bla bla bla.

News flash. The mentality that your legal website is nothing but a brochure is outdated. The truth is that it's so much more than a digital brochure— it's a lead magnet. If you can bring web visitors to your website, then you'll produce more leads. You don't have to go to business school to know that more leads equal more clients—more clients equal more revenue.

You get the idea.

How you can measure it

One of your primary goals as a law firm should be driving your website traffic. The number of visitors alone isn’t enough. The best way to start is knowing how many website visitors you have now and how many of them convert into clients.

For example, recent case studies have determined that the average legal website conversion rate is somewhere between 2 and 4%. By taking your total number of converted visitors and comparing them with industry standards, you can determine whether your numbers are where they need to be or not.

Best practice and tips

By devoting time to identifying how well your website is performing you can significantly increase your leads. In addition to your website you should be focusing on other ways to market your law firm to get the most out of your marketing efforts.

8Average bill rate

Why it matters

It's vital that you take an inventory of what you're bringing in each month on each case. Instead of speculating what your average bill rate is, you should get serious about finding the exact numbers. Doing so will help you identify whether your profit margin is where you need it to be and why some bills are higher than others.

By measuring how much your average rate is per month, you'll not only increase your accountability, but you'll be able to pinpoint where you should focus to reach your financial goals. It can also be incredibly useful for measuring the individual performance of each of your team members. You might find that some are dramatically outperforming others after looking closer.

How you can measure it

Average bill rate matters because you need to fully understand the total impact of your firm's profitability and what the contribution from each of your attorneys is. By completing and analyzing your average bill KPIs, you can take corrective action wherever needed.

Best practice and tips

You may have an idea of who your best performing staff members are, but you can’t say for sure without solid data. The only way to make improvements where needed is to identify where your strongest and weakest links are and act accordingly. Bill rate KPIs create accountability amongst your staff, and motivates everyone to push harder.

9Open matters

Why it matters

Part of your firm's goal-setting process should be deciding how many matters you’d ideally like to take on each month. By tracking the number of open versus closed matters your firm has per month either individually by attorney or as a whole, you’ll be able to determine how close you are to your goals.

How you can measure it

By using a practice management system that tracks open matters metrics your firm will have an exact number of whether you need to make changes or whether you’re pretty close to where you’d like to be.

Best practice and tips

If you’re not keeping track of your open matters, then you’re not reaching your full potential as a law firm—it's that simple. The only way to be as efficient as possible is to have a clear understanding of how much profit you’re making versus how much potential profit you could be making, and that starts with how many matters you’re currently handling.

10Completed tasks

Why it matters

Think of your law firm as a machine. The only way to keep the machine running is if everyone is doing their share. Every tiny element that goes into keeping the motor running needs to be taken care of. Otherwise, even just one glitch in the process could cause everything to fall apart. For this reason, you must track whether your tasks are being handled.

How you can measure it

If you're like most law firms, everyone in your office is wearing multiple hats throughout the day. From meetings to deadlines to follow-ups, there's a lot of pressure to complete it all. The key to ensuring that you maximize your efficiency is to keep close track of all of the tasks.

Failing to do so won’t just result in losing sight of the bigger picture.—failing to complete all of your tasks will lead to lower customer satisfaction. This is where Lawmatics steps in to help you manage the tasks in your practice through automation.

Once you recognize what tasks are being neglected when looking at your metrics, you can use our attorney intake software and CRM to automate it for you, so you can focus on winning more cases for your clients.

Best practice and tips

The key to an organized and focused practice comes down to breaking projects into actionable tasks. A law firm CRM makes it easy to track and report each task as it gets done ensuring that nothing gets left behind.

How to get the most out of your KPIs

Set goals

The first step to knowing what corrective action to take is understanding what your goals are. Be as specific as possible when creating your law firm's objectives.You can only effectively apply what you learned from your KPIs by setting precise and realistic goals. Perhaps you'd like to take on more matters per month—or maybe you'd like to better streamline your intake process. The more specific you can be about what your aims are, the more useful your KPIs will be.

Choose KPIs appropriate for those goals

Now that you have an idea of some of the best KPIs to monitor, choose the most relevant ones for your firm's objectives. Don't track just for the sake of tracking. Ensure that you know exactly what each KPI is saying and how it applies to your firm's current goals.

Measure the results monthly

In order to get the most out of your KPIs you need to make sure that you measure your results every single month. Letting it go too long between reading your insights can cause holes in your firm to get even bigger.The idea is to catch problem areas early on so that you can rectify them immediately. Reports help you spot problems promptly so that you can make the appropriate changes when you need to.

Make changes

Once you have the right data at your fingertips, it will be easy to make changes where necessary. Corrective action starts with knowing what needs to be done— and legal reporting software will tell you exactly where the changes should be.

Update your KPIs as needed

Your practice is constantly evolving, so your KPIs should too. If you chase the same KPIs constantly, then you risk wasting your time on objectives that aren't relevant for your law firm anymore. In addition to reporting monthly, you should also decide which ones can be gotten rid of altogether.

Analytics are critical for the efficiency of your law firm

The only way to ensure your law firm's success is to carefully consider and analyze the bigger picture.By analyzing KPIs, you can gain better insight into how well you are reaching your goals, meeting your clients' needs, and what changes you need to make for the future success of your practice.Without a reliable client-attorney platform, important legal data is nearly impossible to gather and report. By using a centralized platform like Lawmatics, you can monitor how many leads you’re generating and how many you’re converting into actual clients with law firm custom reports.However, knowing where you need to make improvements without having the right tools under your belt isn't enough. You'll need to have a solution in place once your KPIs show you the areas of your practice that need improvement. The right law software is the only way that you can get organized and make improvements in the specific areas where it counts most.A legal practice management software like Lawmatics will transform the way you run your practice and track your tasks for you so you can focus on practicing law.Automated documents, client self-scheduling, a simplified intake process, and e-signatures are just a few of the ways that Lawmatics can equip you with everything you need to reach your firm’s unique goals.Are you ready to get more insight into your law firm's performance and make improvements where it counts most? Sign up for a product demo to learn how The Lawmatics Client-Attorney Relationship Management Platform can help!