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Law Firm Growth Struggles and Solutions from the 2019 Clio Legal Trends Report
Mismatched expectations contribute to this predicament. Lawyers lack understanding of the client experience and its impact on their firms’ growth:
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Capacity limitations result in lopsided allocations of time.
Wonderful answering service! I know that my phones will be answered professionally at all times.
Regina Edwards
Edwards Family Law
Having real, live people answering the phone has made a huge difference in the volume of my practice, and I’m all about the technology-driven approach.
Justie Nicol
Partner at Nicol Gersch Law
I now save so much time and only have quality appointments booked. Less stress, more appointments. It's a total win!
Carrie Ward
Calderone Bullock Ward LLC
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Hand off frontline communications to Smith.ai.
My secret to business growth and client happiness.
Growth demands resources
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Mastering the business of law:
conversations
to clients
Whether “growth” means more revenue or efficiency, both outcomes demand resources:
Lawyers are rarely positioned to drive growth by themselves. Despite 92% reporting confidence in their legal skills, business-side realities are not in their favor:
Worse still, all of this time spent on firm operations and communications isn’t producing positive results. Despite spending on average 2 hours/day on business development work, the rewards are not proportional to their efforts.
Ignore clients
56% of phone calls are answered
Screen poorly
58% of consultations don’t result in a new-client retainer
lose deals
68% of leads communicated with a lawyer they didn’t hire
miss revenue
70% of billable work gets collected...
In 2019 Law firms still…
-$53,000
...just 1.7 hours per day of the 2.5 hours worked — a loss of $53,000/year based on the average billable rate of $253/hour!
communication gap
problem
What inhibits lawyers’ ability to meet clients’ needs is rooted in misunderstanding clients’ motivations for contacting a lawyer to resolve an issue or matter, in the first place:
%
82
expect an immediate response to a new inquiry
of lawyers let calls from potential clients go to voicemail
39
%
never responded to a potential client’s outreach
78
%
base their “decision to hire” on a firm’s initial responsiveness
67
%
contacted more than one firm when shopping for a lawyer
57
%
can prevent potential clients from contacting another firm, if they’re liked by prospect
42
%
potential clients
lawyers
potential clients
lawyers
sense clients “relief” as a part of the experience of hiring a lawyer
17
%
feel “urgency” to hire a lawyer
39
%
feel “relief” as the #1 emotion when hiring a lawyer
51
%
sense clients’ “urgency” to hire a lawyer
15
%
Smith.ai bridges the “resource gap” by providing live receptionists to small firms on affordable month-to-month plans.
problem
Lawyers and their potential clients can both agree on the value of a speedy resolution. However, most clients contacting a law firm have never worked with a lawyer, so their expectations are often unrealistic.
Legal matters cannot be handled by just any firm, for just any price, just as instantly as a client may desire. Lawyers lacking time, business acumen, and marketing savvy have two options:
The resource Gap
responsive law firms are:
Are you Lawyering or Laboring?
In this eBook, you'll learn:
7 dilemmas plaguing solo and small-firm attorneys and real solutions provided by virtual receptionists
Improve Responsiveness with Outsourcing
The Solution to Sustainable Growth:
Responsiveness is measured not only by speed. The content and channel of the response matter, too. An effective response is timely, substantially informative, and accessible through multiple
communication methods, such as phone, text, website, email, and social networks. To attract and retain clients, law firms must respond to clients where they are.
fast
HELPFUL
AVAILABLE
A timely response is the #1 most important factor to potential clients seeking a lawyer.
At least 74% of potential clients want to know what to expect in terms of cost, duration, or process.
68% of potential client emails received no response or a request to call the firm instead.
Further, 64% of consumers who contacted a lawyer they didn’t hire said the firm simply didn’t respond.
Yet over 61% of potential clients didn’t get enough of this information, and cited “lack of information” as the specific reason for not hiring the firm.
Information is meaningless if it’s not available on the channels clients prefer.
Optimize Responsiveness with smith.ai
Virtual Receptionists & Chat
Running a law firm may not matter much to big-firm lawyers whose jobs require only “lawyering,” but for solo and small-firm attorneys, their lawyering work depends on their ability to generate work and responsibly manage a firm.
This is where Smith.ai saves the day. With live receptionists and AI on the frontlines of law firms’ phones, websites, texts, and social networks, lawyers can:
Attorneys automating and outsourcing phone, web, and text communications to Smith.ai’s live receptionists and AI bots are more professional, profitable, and productive.
Engage more leads
Effectively screen clients
Book better consults
Capture more earnings
Achieve sustainable growth
Thriving Attorneys Rely on Smith.ai
Smart Services, Tailored to the Needs of Law Firms & Their Clients
Routes & screens new callers
Engages & qualifies website visitors
Calls leads who complete web forms
Schedules appointments
Completes intake forms
Collects payments for consults & invoices
Logs contacts & conversations in crm
Justie Nicol
Nicol Gersch Law
insights
Law Firm Growth Opportunities from the 2018 Clio Legal Trends Report
NOVEMBER 1, 2018
insights
Law Firm Growth Opportunities from the 2017 Clio Legal Trends Report
MAY 31, 2018
free ebook
7 Steps to Reduce Interruptions & Chores and Run a Highly Productive Law Firm with Virtual Receptionists
