In this blog, I want to give you a detailed example of how I have used Clio Grow with one of my legal clients to streamline their onboarding process. I’ll outline the tools they were using before and how we’ve managed to bring all these different processes together with Clio.
If you’ve missed the previous two blogs in my Spotlight on Clio series, it’s worth checking them out first for an introduction. In the first blog, I outline seven benefits of using Clio for your law firm, including better time tracking and expense recording and speedier invoicing – something I’m sure we’d all like! In the second blog, I explored some case studies around using Clio Grow and Clio Manage and how this could help improve customer journeys.
So, now that you’re all up-to-date let’s return to today’s focus – onboarding.
What is onboarding?
Onboarding is the first step in your relationship with a new client and the start of their customer journey with you. It begins the moment that the client decides to work with you and it’s important to get it right to form the basis of a good working relationship. In practical terms, onboarding processes are all the steps you take to add a new client to your systems and formally introduce them into your workflow.
Why is onboarding so important?
Everyone likes to create a great first impression – you don’t want to appear unorganised or unprepared. A good onboarding process will serve as a great start to your working relationship with that client, so you want to make the experience as painless and as stress-free as possible. As well as the benefits for your customer, effective onboarding benefits you as well, by helping establish clear workflows and defined internal working practices.
How I helped streamline my client’s onboarding process with Clio Grow
I started working with a legal consultancy last year. The company’s founder came to me as he wanted help with his onboarding process. It wasn’t very streamlined and it was taking longer to introduce new clients than he liked. I introduced him to Clio Grow as a solution to these issues.
Clio Grow is centred on client intake and CRM. It’s designed to make onboarding new clients simple and efficient and allows you to book appointments, manage and nurture client relationships and funnel leads.
Clio Grow for all-in-one onboarding
Before my client started using Clio Grow, his consultancy was using multiple tools for onboarding; including Pipedrive, Typeform, Legl and Legalesign. We’ve been able to streamline this process so that now they just use Clio Grow and Legl instead of having to maintain these four different systems. Here’s how we’ve used Clio Grow in place of each of these tools:
PIPEDRIVE
My client previously used Pipedrive to track leads and where each of them was on the “sales pipeline”. They were using column heading such as:
· Call scheduled
· Quote/materials sent
· Onboarding started
We’ve recreated this approach with the same headings in Clio Grow. However, now that this process is in Clio it works even better for my client. Now, once a new customer has signed the engagement letter and is fully onboarded, we simply hit a button “Export to Clio Manage” and all the information transfers over and the file automatically opens. The signed engagement letter, ID Report and New Client Information Form all sit under the “Documents” tab in Clio.
TYPEFORM
My client previously used Typeform to collect information on new clients. He would send out a New Client Information Form with the initial email asking them to complete their company information. Once this was filled in, I would then copy all the information into Clio when opening up the file.
Now we use Clio Grow for this process from start to finish. Clio Grow has an inbuilt intake form which we’ve styled to replicate the existing Typeform New Information Form. The client fills this form in electronically and all information is automatically pulled into Clio Grow. This saves me lots of time as there is no need for re-inputting any information. The form is also saved to the client’s matter/card for ease of access.
We’ve also used Clio Grow to set up custom fields in this form. These fields are really useful later on for important information such as “case ref” etc. We use custom fields in our template legal documents and once these fields have been completed by the client during onboarding, the information is there for later use. This again reduces duplicate work as I’m not having to re-enter previously provided data.
LEGL
My client uses Legl for KYC (Know Your Client) checks. It’s what we use for new clients to upload their identification documentation. We still use this tool and it’s the only one we use outside of Clio now. However, the system is compatible with Clio as once we have the report from Legl we can upload this directly to Clio Grow.
LEGALESIGN
Legalesign was previously used for signing the Engagement Letter. I used to fill out a template engagement letter with all the details from the New Information Form. Now, we have template engagement letters saved within Clio Grow (with different templates for Hourly/Fixed Fee/Retainer). I choose which letter I need, depending on the client work, and all the information added to the New Information Form auto-populates in the Engagement Letter using the merge fields we’ve set up. It’s a great time-saving improvement.
Clio Grow uses HelloSign which is built into the platform. Once the engagement letter is ready to go I have a template email which is sent through Clio Grow, attaching the engagement letter to be signed electronically.
How I created workflows in Clio Grow
As you can see from the above, using Clio Grow has saved me and my client a lot of time during onboarding. There is much less duplication and re-entering of data as Clio works in a joined-up way and auto-populates forms and databases. There are also significant advantages to using fewer systems. There is less chance of information being lost or corrupted in transfers or data re-entry and fewer programs to understand and use.
If you’re wondering just how easy transferring these processes to Clio Grow is, I’ve provided a breakdown of the key steps here and these are the steps I followed with my legal consultancy client.
First, we mapped out the onboarding process workflow; starting with sending the initial email, sending links for Legl for KYC and sending the engagement letter for signing. All of these steps required action and the use of email templates which can all be set up and added to the workflow.
Clio is great at guiding you through this – it’s such a seamless process and progress is easily tracked with a green bar.
Once an engagement letter has been sent out for signing, you can set an auto reminder for two days later so that Clio Grow automatically chases your client (using one of your templates) for the document if it’s not yet been signed. I love this feature as it takes a job off my hands and saves me from setting lots of calendar reminders.
Once the onboarding process has been completed, you mark the client as “hired” and they move into a new dashboard. Here we can track the progress from Work in Progress > Ready for Final Invoice > Complete.
Of course, a good onboarding process doesn’t finish once the client has signed the engagement letter and work has started, but getting this first introduction right is key. Following this, we’ve added steps so that we’re continually in contact with our clients and can make sure that they are updated and looked after.
Once work is complete, our final task in the process is to send a thank-you email.
Are you ready to find out more about Clio?
If you’re interested in finding out more about how you could use Clio to streamline your onboarding processes I’d be happy to help. It really has saved my client a lot of valuable time by moving from their existing separate onboarding programs to using Clio Grow across the client journey. As an affiliate partner of Clio, I offer a free 30-minute call with any lawyers who are interested in finding out more. If you’d like to book a free consultation, please get in touch.
Coming soon….Clio and the customer journey
There’s just one remaining post in my spotlight on Clio series. Next time I’ll be discussing why you should use Clio Grow and Clio Manage for a seamless customer journey. Be sure to revisit the blog soon for the next instalment!
