Entrepreneurs know that having their own business is just the beginning. After that, we’re constantly looking for ideas to make it more; efficient, lucrative, seamless, have better margins, you name it… Seeing your business achieve milestones is exciting. All your hard work pays off as you accomplish new goals. For some of us, business growth feels addicting!
When talking about business growth, law firms are no different. Once you start, you want to get more and more clients. You want your name to be seen and recognized. You want people to know that your law firm is the right choice.
Why is it so hard to grow your law firm?
While there’s not one absolute answer to this question, one thing we’ve realized after working with so many attorneys is that successful business owners understand their businesses like a game of chess. Each piece has its own unique purpose, weaknesses, and strengths. You wouldn’t use a Knight to do the Rook’s job. Same thing happens with your team. Same thing happens with you; are you doing someone else’s job?
Yesterday our wealth advisor came over to the house to have signed some paperwork, and we told him how much we love working with lawyers because they more than anybody understand how much their time is worth, and then I asked him jokingly if he knew what his equivalent billable hour was and he immediately said $1700 an hour. First I thought, he’s making too much money on us, then I thought. This guy truly values his time, he knows what activities make him money and which are somebody else’s job.
In today’s blog, we want to share with you how the following two roles can help grow your law firm: an Intake Client Specialist and a Client Care Representative
Let’s start with the Intake Client Specialist, a must-have to grow any law firm.
An Intake Client Specialist is the first point of contact with your business, the first voice your potential clients hear, and we all know what they say about first impressions. When we think of this position, the first thing that comes to mind is someone friendly, with people skills. Of course we want that, but that’s not all. A good Intake Client Specialist does more than just answer phone calls and emails, they’re the first filter of your firm, so they need to be trained to know your ideal client’s profile. In other industries it’s known as a pre-qualification specialist or business development reps (bdr)
Your time is valuable, so having someone in this position who knows how to treat your potential clients, and knows how to filter people is essential.
These are a few of the daily duties of an Intake Client Specialist:
Screen incoming calls and emails.
Book Consultations with the lawyers
Get those signed retainers
Review and record potential client claims by phone and email.
Submit claims for review.
Schedule appointments between potential clients and your company’s staff.
Process and file necessary paperwork from the client and your company’s staff.
Coordinate schedules for your clients and staff.
Obtain signatures and other essential qualifiers from clients.
Often times we hear our clients say that they can do most of this stuff themselves, that they only have a couple of hours a day with this type of legal admin work, but what are you not doing to grow your business, what classes are you not taking, what networking events are you not going to because you’re just doing a few hours a day?
What about the Client Care Representative?
Your clients are, and will always be the most important persons for your firm. So why not take the time to see if they’re happy with your service? If you seek business growth, assuming every client is ok with their experience with your firm is not good business practice. Things can go wrong at any time, misunderstandings can be part of any business. Basically, you need someone whose part of their responsibility is dedicated to ensuring that your clients are always satisfied, and if they’re not, finding out why and fixing it.
In case you’re wondering if it’s something you can do yourself, the answer is yes, but you won’t get real answers, here’s why:
Asking your clients yourself if they’re satisfied with the service feels intimidating for them. You need someone who creates a safe space for your firm’s clients to express exactly what they think of your law firm and what they’d like to have done differently.
This is why having someone specifically in charge of maintaining good relationships with your clients is crucial for developing their loyalty. This also helps bring more people in by spreading the good word about your firm. Therefore, yes, it helps immensely to grow your law firm. Your clients will feel heard, seen, and taken care of. They’ll feel like they matter to you. And it will only be a matter of time before more people get to know how good of a service you provide.
These are some of the tasks that a Client Care Representative would do for your law firm:
Take initiative and come up with ideas on improving services and ways of dealing with clients.
Constantly provide outstanding care and support to clients
Deal with clients’ complaints successfully and build trust in relationships
Listen and solve problems to create win-win situations
Follow up with clients to ensure you are getting those positive Google reviews
We tend to forget that business growth isn’t always about getting more clients. Maintaining good relationships with your existing ones is just as important. Not only because you want to count on them, but also because they’ll bring you new clients as well. Word of mouth was the first advertisement in history, and ‘till this day it works. Who’s best to do this work for you?
You guessed it, the clients that are already satisfied with your service.
A good, functional team is formed by having a specialist in each and every one of your business areas. Regardless of their task complexity. If you need a person who answers the phone, and you think “well, anybody can do that”, then you’ll find exactly that; anybody. You won’t find the smartest, or the fastest, or the friendliest.
Now we get it, not everybody is in a position where they can hire 20 people tomorrow. Trust us, we’ve been there!
Analyze your business, notice what’s the area that needs the most improvement, or the one that you think needs to be prioritized, and find someone who can bring much more value to that department. Once you’re ready, move on to the next one. Rome wasn’t built in one day either.
If you feel stuck and you’re not sure where to start, but wish to grow your law firm, you can always give us a call. We’ll help you analyze your business, the time wasted, the money spent, and how to improve it. You’re one call away to start growing your law firm.
P.R.
