By Legal Futures Associate Advanced
When your clients know you are dependable and that you go above and beyond, they stay. However, the battle for loyalty is easily lost and hard won. With the increasing complexity of operations, law firms should be continually seeking solutions that not only streamline their processes but also enhancing their overall customer experience. Explore how your law firm can leverage cloud technology to create loyal customers and lead the charge in the digital legal revolution.
Decoding customer loyalty
Where trust is paramount, any breach of confidentiality or perceived lack of transparency can lead to serious complaints and loss of clients. Additionally, clients expect their lawyers be communicative and their legal matters to be handled promptly with transparent pricing. Any missteps, delays, or errors can severely damage a firm’s credibility. Small issues and missteps can erode client loyalty over time, so when clients are on the line, firms should look to the warning signs, and the easiest way to gauge how your clients feel is through feedback.
We found in our Legal Sector Trends Report, that client complaints are higher than last year by an average of 29.7%. So, for firms to lower their complaints and build client loyalty the need to offer transparency, pace, communication, and most importantly delivering exceptional legal services.
To be expected
The modern client comes with greater expectations, stemming from greater choice in the marketplace. Prospective clients also tend to be much more informed, often comparing firms through online reviews, and it has never been easier for them to do so than today. But what are they looking for?
Clients expect their firm to understand their case, their business, and to use modern technology to improve the service they receive. In fact, the Thompson Reuters’ State of the UK Legal Market report found that these were the two most desirable points for clients, at 28% and 27% respectively.
While clients believe their firms should act transparently, promptly, and keep them informed, these beliefs stem from their expectations, and firms that meet the client expectations will deliver on the service the clients believe they deserve.
How the cloud factors in
Cloud services offer the kind of customer-centric approach that’s vital for the modern legal world. The customer experience truly shines with cloud services, providing your clients with real-time updates and secure spaces collaboration on case documents.
While the cloud will not meet all client expectations, it lays the infrastructure to do so. By utilising customer-focused features of cloud software, firms can empower clients to make them feel more involved in the process provide transparency to feel secure that their matter is being dealt with effectively.
Having your firm on the cloud, with the software it needs to run at your fingertips from any location, at any time allows for swift, effective action. Time-intensive tasks such as document management, billing, and accounting can be streamlined, integrated, and accessed easily and help your firm run more efficiently by automating mundane processes. This in turn streamlines workloads and allows your lawyers to focus on delivering high-quality client service.
As such, cloud technology provides an opportunity for law firms to provide greater service, tailored to the needs of a more hands-on clientele in a way that simplifies the process for your lawyers at the same time. A true win-win-win at a time where meeting client expectations becomes a greater challenge than ever.
