Handling Client Enquiries

Numerous telephonic enquiries are not only disruptive, but they can can also be a real productivity killer. How often do we get a phone call from a Mr. Smith, for instance, and we are not sure who Mr. Smith is, where his physical file is or what the latest progress is on his Matter. In cases like these, we would more than likely have to phone him back once we had found the file, read through the contents and updated ourselves on the progress of the Matter.

This is highly ineffecient, costs the firm money in terms of an outgoing call, but more importantly, it does not leave the Client with a very good impression of you or your firm.

LegalSuite offers a number of ways to reduce the number of telephonic enquiries and keep your Clients updated at the same time.

One method is to make regular File Notes on every Matter you or your colleagues work on. If a someone calls, make a File Note. If you have an appointment with someone, make a File Note with a brief description of the meeting. If you have secretaries or assistants working for you, insist that they make File Notes too.

Many File Notes, are also created automatically as you work on the Matter. For instance when a document is generated or when a certain stage in the process is reached, a File Note is added automatically.

Gradually, a detailed history of the Matter will be built which can give you an excellent overview of what has happened on the Matter and its current status.

The Document Log is another useful way to gather information about what has happened on the Matter. It should contain all outgoing documents, letters, emails and SMS messages, i.e. those produced by the program. It should also include all incoming documentation. Incoming mail can be scanned and saved in the document log and emails or electronic faxes should be dragged and dropped into the Document Log as well.

By having this information at your fingertips you are able to see at a glance what the status of any Matter is.

Another way to cut down on telephonic enquiries is to be proactive and keep your Clients informed of the progress of their Matters by sending them Emails and SMS messages. The easiest way to do this is to use the Automatic Notifications feature in LegalSuite. In the Address Book you can specify how a Party will receive their progress messages.

You then need to setup an Event and add a Notification task to that Event. The Event can then be linked to a certain Stage so that when that Stage is reached, the Event is triggered and the Notification is sent out. See our White Papers on the LegalSuite web site (www.legalsuite.co.za) for a more detailed explanation of this process

Once this is setup, the Client will get an SMS message (in this example) every time their Matter reaches a critical Stage.

The benefits of this system are that it is cheaper, reduces telephonic enquiries, increases productivity and your Clients are continuously being updated on their Matters' progress. It is actually a great marketing tool.

The above is called the "push method" of information flow, i.e. you are "pushing" it to the Client.

Another option is to use the "pull method" by giving your Clients (and other Parties) access to their Matters via the Internet so they can "pull" the information off your system when they want it.

This is especially useful for Estate agents, Mortgage Originators, Property Developers etc. who need constant feedback on the progress of a transfer, for example. You can give each of them a login code and password which will allow them to access basic progress information via the Internet using the LegalSuite Online (LOL) module. It can be accessed through any Internet browser such as Internet Explorere *and from anywhere in the world 24/7). The login screen looks like this:

When the user clicks on "Login", the LOL program will authenticate the user (i.e. check the user name and password) and extract the progress information for their Matters directly from your computer system. In other words, the progress information the Client sees is real time. It is then displayed in a user friendly format like this:

This should also help reduce the constant telephone calls from anxious Parties asking for updates on certain Matters and hopefully reduce your telephone bill as well. Your Clients should be impressed by the service you provide and get the impression that they are using the most up-to-date and sophisticated law firm in the country!