Last year I was asked to speak at the Legal Ex conference in London. Having worked in the legal sector for over twenty years I knew what a big opportunity this was. However, I also felt a responsibility to present something that would not only be interesting, but valuable, to an audience of time-stretched lawyers running busy practices. I gave it a lot of thought, but one topic kept coming back to me again and again: onboarding.
Onboarding is one of the most critical client-facing processes for law firms. It applies to every client in every law firm and has a big impact on customer experience. Do it well and it can help you with client retention, customer satisfaction and reducing staff admin hours. However, if your onboarding processes aren’t working, then you run the risk of losing customers, money (in the form of the lost opportunity cost of future business) and wasting valuable staff time.
Over the course of two blog posts, I’m going to share my experiences of onboarding by working through the key points of my Legal Ex talk. In this first blog post, I’ll be highlighting why onboarding is so important to law firms and what’s at stake in terms of your reputation with clients if onboarding goes wrong. I’ll also be helping you to spot if your onboarding processes are working.
In the second blog post, I’ll work through an example of how I helped a client to completely revamp their onboarding process and also set out steps you can take to improve client onboarding in your own law firm.
Why is onboarding so critical to law firms?
The quality of your onboarding experience makes a significant impact in three areas. I call them the three C’s:
- Customer experience,
- Commercial opportunity,
- Company organisation,
Onboarding and customer experience
The experience a new client receives during onboarding is crucial. It’s the first impression they’ll have of working with you and will play a big part in how they perceive your business. If you get your client onboarding right you can:
- build trust;
- create a strong foundation for a new client relationship; and
- encourage customer loyalty.
A good onboarding experience will set your new working relationship on a positive path. It’ll also help you further along the pipeline; a positive onboarding experience can help with client retention and earn positive reviews for your business.
It’s important to remember too that law firms work with customers at critical stages in their life. This could be;
- Divorce,
- Buying or selling a house,
- An employment dispute,
- Signing a big corporate deal.
For your customers, it’s more important than ever that they get good customer experience at this time. These people are not going to choose your law firm to represent them lightly. They’ll want to see from reviews and testimonials that you’ve supported other clients well. They’re also more likely to recommend you themselves if they receive a good customer experience.
Onboarding and commercial opportunity
Law firms often view marketing as a tool for getting leads to the top of the funnel, but then don’t always think about the step beyond. Marketing doesn’t stop when your client signs an engagement letter and customer experience is part of your ongoing marketing. A good onboarding process will help you to convert a one-off customer into a lifetime client. More than that, it opens the door to upselling other services.
Your most valuable customers are the ones you already have. They’re the easiest to sell to and their opinion of you has the greatest impact on securing potential new customers. That’s why customer experience is so crucial
With a good onboarding process, you can make your existing customers your advocates; earning reviews and recommendations that will encourage other clients to work with you. The onboarding process can create new commercial opportunities for your business and you don’t want to lose out on this through a poor onboarding experience.
Onboarding and company organisation
So far I’ve focussed mainly on the customer experience of onboarding, but it’s also an important process for your firm and staff. If onboarding processes are well defined, with template documents and clear roles and responsibilities, it will be a much quicker and easier process for staff to complete. You’ll save time and resources, not just at the start of your journey with a client, but every time you need to retrieve their documents or contact details throughout the time you work together.
What does a good onboarding process look like?
Sometimes law firms aren’t aware that they have an issue with their onboarding process. However, just because a client hasn’t raised a concern, it doesn’t mean that things are working well. Here are some signs of good and bad onboarding processes to look out for.
| Good onboarding processes… | Poor onboarding processes … |
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If you recognise some of the negative features in your own onboarding process it’s a strong sign that your process needs some improvement.
Get help with your onboarding processes
As an experienced legal virtual assistant, I work with a lot of law firms on their onboarding processes. To help, I’ve created a series of onboarding packages for law firms. I can work with you to review your onboarding processes and use Clio Grow to help track new leads, generate new workflows and create standard forms and documents you can use to onboard new clients.
A great place to start is the Optimal Onboarding Audit. We’ll undertake a critical deep dive into your existing onboarding process and identify what is and isn’t working. I’ll create a bespoke action plan with recommendations and clear actions to improve your onboarding process and answer any queries you may have.
Find out more about my onboarding packages, or if you’re ready to get started, contact me to discuss how I could help your law firm.
Don’t miss my next blog: How to improve your client onboarding
In my next blog post, I’ll be working through a detailed example of how I helped one of my legal clients to completely reinvent their onboarding process. I’ll also be setting out actions you can take to improve your own client onboarding process.
