by Christine Kaiser
November 6, 2024
CRM is more than just the administration of data - rather an essential part of law firms' management.
Beyond Contact Lists: The True Power of CRM in Law Firms
Those who regard CRM as only a tool to manage contact details for marketing purposes: Sharpen your ears and focus! As the name suggests, CRM is a system to MANAGE client relationships. If you succeed in shifting the focus from the seemingly time-consuming data processing to the benefits of using a CRM system, your company will flourish, and your users will be more enthusiastic and committed to the necessary data management.
Data vs. Gut: Why Your Firm Needs Both, But Not Equally
"Listen to your heart", as Swedish pop band Roxette sang – listen to your heart (or your gut) before you make a landmark decision. However, this well-intentioned advice referred more to romantic than business relationships. When making business decisions, you should certainly rely on data and facts rather than the highly praised gut feeling. Although decisions in business development are sometimes groundbreaking, they are rarely irrevocable or final. After all, there is the PDCA cycle (Plan/Do/Check/Act), which ensures that the plan is constantly reviewed and, if necessary, adjusted (Check/Act) during execution and is therefore consistently being optimized. The aforementioned review is based on the KPIs defined in the plan and not on mere "gut feeling".
Trust: The Currency of Legal Client Relationships
In the legal world, unless they are subject to a public tender, assignments are not necessarily placed with the most commercially advantageous law firm, but rather with a law firm with which the client has a strong relationship based on trust. And this brings us back to the topic of client relationship management: Building and maintaining strong relationships with (potential or existing) clients is, in addition to professional qualifications, an essential pillar for the positive business development and therewith the growth of a law firm.
Measuring the Unmeasurable: Quantifying Client Relationships
It is difficult to make a statement about the quality, i.e. the strength of a relationship, as numerous factors play a role:
- Is there any interaction taking place between contacts?
- Which contacts communicate with each other via which channels?
- How "valuable" do I consider individual interactions to be – taking the channel into account?
- Is there any regular exchange?
- Apart from matter-related communication, is client contact limited to the sending of newsletters and press releases or do personal meetings also take place?
- Furthermore, it is not only the relationships between individuals that are important – an insight into the network of relationships between organizations offers added value in terms of business development for a company.
CRM: Your Firm's Relationship Health Monitor
The answers to the questions raised and therefore the relevant data can be obtained by using a smart CRM solution. The interactions are registered, weighted, and mapped in a clear and comprehensible manner. In addition, the relationships between individual people are ideally put in relation to each other, so that you can also check your own perception of a relationship and its objective/relative value in comparison to your colleagues, and optimize it continuously. After all, in addition to external competition with other law firms for matters, there is also regular internal competition within the law firm, which you can stimulate by gaining an insight into the network of relationships between your "own" contacts and colleagues’ and thus (re)optimize your personal relationships with contacts.
Competitive Edge: How CRM Boosts Both Firm and Individual Success
The smart use of a CRM solution can give both the law firm itself a competitive advantage, as well as the individual professionals among themselves. So, when making business decisions, it's recommended to rather trust the facts and data than your gut feeling. The latter shall be reserved for decisions in romantic matters (when it comes to the proverbial butterflies in the stomach).
Interested in learning more, schedule a demo of InterAction+.
Client Advisor, InterAction+
During more than 25 years of professional experience in international law firms, Christine has gained substantial user experience with InterAction. From being a user assisting partners and their legal team, later a power user dealing with Marketing and Business Development work, she finally had the chance as interim CRM manager to roll out the CRM solution in a German major law firm with more than 400 users. Thus prepared, she started in June 2022 as Client Advisor Europe at LexisNexis InterAction and contributes her broad expertise in supporting continental European and South African clients in the strategic use of the system, working closely with Marketing and Business Development teams developing strategies to support the entire client lifecycle, leveraging the capabilities of InterAction to streamline processes and increase efficiency. She also provides guidance and support to ensure that users are able to effectively utilise the technology and make informed, data-driven decisions.