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The Difference Between Service and Hospitality

By Anthony Davies
November 01, 2022

Law firms large and small have been outsourcing onsite office services for many years. From the mailroom and reprographics center to records management and word processing, there is an outsourcing provider ready to take these services off firms' hands. Over the past decade or so, we've seen outsourcing on the rise as firms take steps to address a changing market for law firm services, including:

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  • Increasing reliance on allied professionals and specialists;
  • Expanding partnerships and the outsourcing of non-lawyer services;
  • Creating "captive" subsidiaries for legal related services; and
  • Expanding the use of technology to improve legal work processes.

Here's the thing, overall satisfaction rate from outsourcing agreements has hovered around half. See, Altman Weil Law Firms in Transition 2019. This trend held steady, in fact, every year prior to the pandemic. Though the numbers may have varied by a percentage point here are there, in general, slightly less than half of both large and small firms were satisfied with their outsourcing engagements.

Today we see outsourcing accelerating as the pandemic has served to highlight the traditional benefits of outsourcing: cost reduction, flexibility, expertise and efficiency. See, Deloitte 2021 Shared Services and Outsourcing Report. But providers need to do something more to increase satisfaction rates among their law firm clients.

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Efficient, Cost-Effective Service Is Table Stakes

Historically, outsourcing providers were selected on criteria such as optimized staffing levels, service level agreements, ticket closure time, and the use of technology to streamline, track and enhance work product. Today, these criteria are now table stakes. Staffing coverage is formulaic, technology is widely available, and traditional mail and reprographics volumes have reduced dramatically.

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