The Commandments Of CRM

You will find spirited debates in the conference rooms of many law firms about the criticality of employing Client Relationship Management (CRM) processes and technology to better deliver legal services. The promise of CRM is enticing, but it is sometimes misunderstood and under managed.

There are few attorneys that would argue with the fact that the practice of law and serving clients has become more complicated. As clients expand in reaction to global competitive pressures, their legal needs expand. In addition, firms are ruthlessly competing for the most profitable and complex work, which makes winning even more difficult. Clients have choices and, thus, are in a position to make more demands.

Some attorneys have shied away from adopting CRM, especially the technology component, due to the disruption it initially causes in their interactions with their clients and the way they practice law on a daily basis. For some, a legal pad, pen, telephone and a good memory are still the only tools they use. Can you practice law in this matter and avoid embedding CRM systems into servicing your clients? Of course you can. However, you can also get from Boston to Philadelphia by walking, but there are much faster and more efficient ways to get there. While this may be a matter of personal preference to you, when your client is the passenger, you need to be cognizant of what they expect. Otherwise, they may find another travel partner in the form of another firm.

Why CRM and CRM Technology?

It is not unusual today for attorneys to be handling more clients that have more challenging legal issues and geographic reach than ever. It has become increasingly difficult for them to deliver the highest quality services while still maintaining personal relationships with their most important clients. Client Relationship Management has emerged as a discipline that shows great promise for attorneys under such pressures.

Many firms have attempted to leverage CRM by investing in sophisticated software packages to gain relationship intelligence on how their attorneys interact with their clients. However, many people make the mistake of confusing CRM software with the discipline itself.

The true benefit from technology is not in process transformation, but rather in increasing speed, efficiency and scalability of solutions. Thus, the key reason for building advanced technological systems into a legal practice is to be able to proactively address client need faster than clients expect and at a higher level of quality.

The Three Commandments

In fact what the most sophisticated CRM software packages allow you to do is add speed, efficiency and scalability to the three key commandments of a successful CRM strategy: know thy attorneys, know thy clients and solve thy clients' problems. This is the essence of relationship intelligence.

Know Thy Attorneys

The collective knowledge, expertise and relationships of the attorneys inside of a law firm is by far its greatest asset. However, it is sometimes difficult to utilize it due to the lack of an institutional sentience about the firm's intellectual inventory. While the solutions that could be made available to clients through combining the disciplines and experiences of attorneys are endless, most firms cannot analyze and deploy them quickly or proactively.

The fault does not lie with individuals. The timeline constraints imposed by clients combined with the size of most firms makes it almost impossible to do so. However, CRM does make it possible. A firm with a sound CRM strategy can capture the history of matters, client interactions and attorney backgrounds to fully understand the key intellectual assets that the firm possesses.

These assets are unique to every firm. They cannot be easily replicated, and are a key differentiator for creating a strong strategic position. Therefore, a firm that can take advantage of not only knowing what they have done, but what they collectively can do in the future, has the ability to better serve their clients.

Know Thy Clients

Clients, who are sometimes referenced by their company name or the type of legal work performed for them, are not static entities. The mantra that states that clients hire attorneys, not firms, has an equally important corollary: attorneys service people, not companies.

Thus, each attorney who tries to manage an ongoing relationship with a client contact must realize that the person that hired them 5 years ago is not the same person they are talking to today. Changes in their position, staff, company direction and the economy all have an effect on who they are and what they expect of their attorney in the future.

For example, if your client is the general counsel of a manufacturing company that is recovering from an economic downturn, facing new international competitors and suffering from complying with new employment regulations, they will not be satisfied with you providing “business as usual” services. They are looking to you for solutions on improving problems that deal with process, people and profits.

Nothing will substitute for the individual time and attention that is the basis of all attorney-client relationships. However, it is exceptionally difficult to continuously manage and update the dynamic profile of a client in a manner that allows attorneys to serve clients in a proactive, instead of reactive, manner.

The ability to predict and satisfy client need is one of the major benefits of a sound CRM system and strategy. Each client's unique characteristics, as well as their commonalities with others, make it possible for legal practitioners to know what their clients need, what they want, and how to sustain the relationship. The technology that drives CRM also allows you to quickly identify who your clients were yesterday, who they are today ' as well as who they will probably be tomorrow. A firm that uses CRM to truly know what drives a client, and what drives them nuts, has the ability to better serve them.

Solve Thy Client's Problems

Knowing thy client means that you are collecting and interpreting the key factors that affect your client's business and their industry. It involves knowing more than what keeps them up at night. You need to be able to tell them what is going on in their neighborhood that should be keeping them up at night.

As mentioned before, clients basically care about three things: people, process and profit. The success or failure (including sub-optimization of resources) of these components often is the difference in one company being able to continue to grow and another looking for a way simply to make stay out of financial trouble. If you want to serve as the ultimate “trusted advisor” to your clients, it is your duty to help them be the former.

Therefore, while your CRM software platform may be the engine that drives problem solving, the continuous knowledge transfer and information sharing of your professionals is the fuel. In order for your CRM system to be able to offer dynamic solutions for your clients, your firm must never stop importing and inputting content into the system. Its value grows exponentially over time.

For example, some firms have begun to manage their matters using CRM technology. With such a system, they are able to recreate the legal team, research, and strategy that was employed during a matter that had a positive result for another client. The institutional learning that took place can then be leveraged for the benefit of another client facing a similar legal issue. Over time, tracking multiple matters will allow the firm to create predictive budgets for a client, offer options in legal approaches and internally manage the legal team more efficiently.

To fulfill the third commandment of CRM, you must be able to develop a situational awareness that is comprised of your knowledge of your attorneys, your client and the external environment all of you work in. A sound CRM strategy is three-dimensional. To give your analysis and client service the proper context, it should have relevant information about the markets and industries that your clients operate in.

Conclusion

In actuality, all attorneys and their respective firms have a form of a CRM program right now. All firms “manage” their client relationships, but it is done arbitrarily or completely dependent on the personality and work habits of each individual attorney. The business discipline of CRM strategy and its accompanying technology is designed to offer speed, efficiency and scalability that helps to address the complexity of client need in a rapidly changing market place. Those firms who are able to proactively do so will continue to prosper. Those firms that leave their relationships to chance and random acts of service will have to hope for the best.

You will find spirited debates in the conference rooms of many law firms about the criticality of employing Client Relationship Management (CRM) processes and technology to better deliver legal services. The promise of CRM is enticing, but it is sometimes misunderstood and under managed.

There are few attorneys that would argue with the fact that the practice of law and serving clients has become more complicated. As clients expand in reaction to global competitive pressures, their legal needs expand. In addition, firms are ruthlessly competing for the most profitable and complex work, which makes winning even more difficult. Clients have choices and, thus, are in a position to make more demands.

Some attorneys have shied away from adopting CRM, especially the technology component, due to the disruption it initially causes in their interactions with their clients and the way they practice law on a daily basis. For some, a legal pad, pen, telephone and a good memory are still the only tools they use. Can you practice law in this matter and avoid embedding CRM systems into servicing your clients? Of course you can. However, you can also get from Boston to Philadelphia by walking, but there are much faster and more efficient ways to get there. While this may be a matter of personal preference to you, when your client is the passenger, you need to be cognizant of what they expect. Otherwise, they may find another travel partner in the form of another firm.

Why CRM and CRM Technology?

It is not unusual today for attorneys to be handling more clients that have more challenging legal issues and geographic reach than ever. It has become increasingly difficult for them to deliver the highest quality services while still maintaining personal relationships with their most important clients. Client Relationship Management has emerged as a discipline that shows great promise for attorneys under such pressures.

Many firms have attempted to leverage CRM by investing in sophisticated software packages to gain relationship intelligence on how their attorneys interact with their clients. However, many people make the mistake of confusing CRM software with the discipline itself.

The true benefit from technology is not in process transformation, but rather in increasing speed, efficiency and scalability of solutions. Thus, the key reason for building advanced technological systems into a legal practice is to be able to proactively address client need faster than clients expect and at a higher level of quality.

The Three Commandments

In fact what the most sophisticated CRM software packages allow you to do is add speed, efficiency and scalability to the three key commandments of a successful CRM strategy: know thy attorneys, know thy clients and solve thy clients' problems. This is the essence of relationship intelligence.

Know Thy Attorneys

The collective knowledge, expertise and relationships of the attorneys inside of a law firm is by far its greatest asset. However, it is sometimes difficult to utilize it due to the lack of an institutional sentience about the firm's intellectual inventory. While the solutions that could be made available to clients through combining the disciplines and experiences of attorneys are endless, most firms cannot analyze and deploy them quickly or proactively.

The fault does not lie with individuals. The timeline constraints imposed by clients combined with the size of most firms makes it almost impossible to do so. However, CRM does make it possible. A firm with a sound CRM strategy can capture the history of matters, client interactions and attorney backgrounds to fully understand the key intellectual assets that the firm possesses.

These assets are unique to every firm. They cannot be easily replicated, and are a key differentiator for creating a strong strategic position. Therefore, a firm that can take advantage of not only knowing what they have done, but what they collectively can do in the future, has the ability to better serve their clients.

Know Thy Clients

Clients, who are sometimes referenced by their company name or the type of legal work performed for them, are not static entities. The mantra that states that clients hire attorneys, not firms, has an equally important corollary: attorneys service people, not companies.

Thus, each attorney who tries to manage an ongoing relationship with a client contact must realize that the person that hired them 5 years ago is not the same person they are talking to today. Changes in their position, staff, company direction and the economy all have an effect on who they are and what they expect of their attorney in the future.

For example, if your client is the general counsel of a manufacturing company that is recovering from an economic downturn, facing new international competitors and suffering from complying with new employment regulations, they will not be satisfied with you providing “business as usual” services. They are looking to you for solutions on improving problems that deal with process, people and profits.

Nothing will substitute for the individual time and attention that is the basis of all attorney-client relationships. However, it is exceptionally difficult to continuously manage and update the dynamic profile of a client in a manner that allows attorneys to serve clients in a proactive, instead of reactive, manner.

The ability to predict and satisfy client need is one of the major benefits of a sound CRM system and strategy. Each client's unique characteristics, as well as their commonalities with others, make it possible for legal practitioners to know what their clients need, what they want, and how to sustain the relationship. The technology that drives CRM also allows you to quickly identify who your clients were yesterday, who they are today ' as well as who they will probably be tomorrow. A firm that uses CRM to truly know what drives a client, and what drives them nuts, has the ability to better serve them.

Solve Thy Client's Problems

Knowing thy client means that you are collecting and interpreting the key factors that affect your client's business and their industry. It involves knowing more than what keeps them up at night. You need to be able to tell them what is going on in their neighborhood that should be keeping them up at night.

As mentioned before, clients basically care about three things: people, process and profit. The success or failure (including sub-optimization of resources) of these components often is the difference in one company being able to continue to grow and another looking for a way simply to make stay out of financial trouble. If you want to serve as the ultimate “trusted advisor” to your clients, it is your duty to help them be the former.

Therefore, while your CRM software platform may be the engine that drives problem solving, the continuous knowledge transfer and information sharing of your professionals is the fuel. In order for your CRM system to be able to offer dynamic solutions for your clients, your firm must never stop importing and inputting content into the system. Its value grows exponentially over time.

For example, some firms have begun to manage their matters using CRM technology. With such a system, they are able to recreate the legal team, research, and strategy that was employed during a matter that had a positive result for another client. The institutional learning that took place can then be leveraged for the benefit of another client facing a similar legal issue. Over time, tracking multiple matters will allow the firm to create predictive budgets for a client, offer options in legal approaches and internally manage the legal team more efficiently.

To fulfill the third commandment of CRM, you must be able to develop a situational awareness that is comprised of your knowledge of your attorneys, your client and the external environment all of you work in. A sound CRM strategy is three-dimensional. To give your analysis and client service the proper context, it should have relevant information about the markets and industries that your clients operate in.

Conclusion

In actuality, all attorneys and their respective firms have a form of a CRM program right now. All firms “manage” their client relationships, but it is done arbitrarily or completely dependent on the personality and work habits of each individual attorney. The business discipline of CRM strategy and its accompanying technology is designed to offer speed, efficiency and scalability that helps to address the complexity of client need in a rapidly changing market place. Those firms who are able to proactively do so will continue to prosper. Those firms that leave their relationships to chance and random acts of service will have to hope for the best.