By Legal Futures Associate Minerva
In 2022, a Home Mover’s Report warned that, when it comes to buying and selling homes, the conveyancing sector is struggling to meet demand. Furthermore, the time it takes to complete the conveyancing process is the key reason people find home moving stressful.
Technology can help tackle this problem. And in particular, automation gives time back to conveyancers so they can provide enhanced levels of client support. Here are some of the key benefits of automated client onboarding for conveyancers.
- Reduced client onboarding time
There is immense pressure on the industry with insufficient conveyancers to service demand and a typically stressed cohort of clients. Regular and effective communication is needed to meet client expectations, but responding quickly to every query can prevent conveyancers from getting on with the job. Automating specific procedures, such as client onboarding, can free conveyancers from various administrative tasks, giving them more time to provide legal insight and client support.
With Minerva’s award-winning intelligent client onboarding™ solution, the onboarding process can be done in just 24hrs, compared to a two-week manual process. And Minerva is helping firms across the UK to reduce file opening time by at least 30 minutes, with the quickest onboarding to date just 48 minutes.
“On average we have 130-150 files a month to open. Before Minerva, the time spent opening the files, sending out the Client Information Pack, getting monies on account and ID verification could take up to 2 weeks at least.
Now we are saving at least 30 minutes per file opening in the office alone. Couple that with clients being able to receive a quote, reply and pay along with downloading their documents in minutes, the difference is remarkable.“
Daniel Perry, Head of Residential Conveyancing and Partner, Bannister Preston LLP
- Reduced errors
Automating conveyancing processes can also reduce the number of errors made during client onboarding (which leads to more significant time savings with reduced back-and-forth between conveyancer and client).
People make mistakes, especially when busy and stressed, but such errors can put firms at risk, especially in the heavily regulated conveyancing sector. By taking much of the onboarding process out of human hands, with systems that do not allow for steps or checks to be skipped, Minerva removes human error from the process with an impressive 97% accuracy rate.
- Improved efficiency
Automation delivers easier, slicker workflows and better client communication, with efficiency improved at all stages of the onboarding process. This is vital for conveyancing firms that want to appeal to modern home movers.
In today’s digital world, people expect the same ease when purchasing legal services as they do when using technology in their private lives. As such, conveyancers must adopt technology that ensures every stage of the client journey – starting with onboarding – is efficient, smooth, and hassle-free. Or risk losing out to competitor firms.
- Superior employee wellbeing
Automated client onboarding also makes the conveyancing process easier for employees.
‘I am using it constantly throughout the day and I love it. No more trips down to the post room, no more printing. It is so easy and intuitive; I am amazed at how quickly we have all got used to doing everything through Minerva. We are simply much quicker, and the clients can really see the benefit too.’
Lynne Baker, conveyancing assistant, Bannister Preston LLP
Conveyancers don’t want to waste valuable time because they don’t have the tools they need to do their jobs, and they don’t want the stress that comes with being unable to get their work done in their set hours. Minerva’s automated client onboarding technology helps employees get more done in less time. This helps to create a culture of wellbeing and a more positive working environment.
- Improved bottom-line
It can be difficult to justify new tech when budgets are tight, but not investing costs more in the long run. With Minerva, firms do more than save on paper and printing costs. The time-savings and improvements in efficiency more than make up for the price, so the technology pays for itself in no time.
Furthermore, by building quotations into the workflow, Minerva enables firms to monitor acceptance and drop-off rates and make informed decisions to help convert more clients. Even better, Minerva is helping conveyancing firms to win new business and justify a much higher figure with the ability to sell on service, not price. “We’re definitely winning more business as a result of implementing Minerva. We’ve been able to go out, sell it to clients. It’s very much part of when we’re talking to clients, giving them quotes, we’re selling the benefits of the system to them”.
Richard Joy, Head of Residential Property, Banner Jones
“After two years of using the Minerva product, I think it is definitely fair to say that it has greatly improved the number of enquires we receive from clients and partners like estate agents and mortgage providers. Just having such a strong product that you can demonstrate, encourages people to come to us”.
Peter Bains, Marketing Manager, Banner Jones
- Enhanced compliance and consistency
Failing to verify isn’t an option when it comes to proper identity checks. But ensuring clients are who they say they are can be tricky and time-consuming.
Minerva provides an effective, safe and secure way to meet a firm’s compliance obligations, with intelligent eIDV that can pick up on fraud techniques that are not always obvious to humans. Indeed, Minerva ensures firms not only adhere to KYC and AML requirements, but those of Safe Harbour too.
“One of the great things about having our client onboarding in place through Minerva is that our compliance on matter files is now uniform. No more tabs open for various different elements. We capture all information that we need from the client more easily and efficiently. Minerva gives the client an easy and user friendly way to upload key ID documents for example, so they are available to us at the click of a button.”
Alexandra Kirk, Head of Residential Conveyancing, Blaser Mills
Furthermore, as firms must be able to demonstrate that their procedures and processes are working as part of their compliance obligations, Minerva automatically captures and collates client data so that when it comes to file reviews, all is in order.
To find out how your firm could benefit from automated client onboarding technology, request a demo today.
