How to Get the Most Value from Your Law Firm’s CRM Software

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions have become the standard for managing client and prospect leads, contact information, and relationships. However, just having a subscription for a shiny CRM tool isn’t enough; you and your team need to know how to use it to its fullest potential. If you have doubts that your law firm’s CRM system is not delivering results in terms of return on investment, then there is a chance that you did not select the right features, or maybe you are using it incorrectly. The following are a few tips and tricks that can help you in maximizing the results of your law firm’s CRM software.

Key CRM Features

In order to make the most of your CRM system, you first need to understand exactly what tools your firm has at your disposal. Every CRM system available has certain features that track and store lead and client information, but some have additional features that can power growth and revenue-generating programs. If you’re going to invest in a CRM platform or upgrade to a new one, make sure it has these features that can scale with your firm: 

• Workflow automation – A great CRM system is able to create and automate workflows across various departments (i.e. email automations or lead scoring automations). These programs will help your entire team engage with clients and prospects and conduct business development or marketing activities without manual work. 
• Customizations and integrations – A strong CRM will allow marketers to make configurations without too much coding support. In order to create those valuable workflows we mentioned above, you will need to make customizations and tweaks that work best within your firm’s processes. 
• Reporting and dashboards – The best way to utilize the data within your CRM system is through intuitive reports or real-time dashboards. You want to be able to easily collect, visualize, and analyze data so that you can understand performance and make effective decisions. 

Related: Top 5 CRM Tools for Law Firms

7 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your CRM System

If you’re just at the beginning of the decision or implementation stage, review this list to make sure your platform has the correct functionality. If you already have a CRM system in use, use these tips to get as much value as possible. 

1. Train your entire team

One of the main reasons why law firms are unable to get better ROI from their CRM software is that their employees are not trained to use the CRM. Everyone should be using it, including the attorneys. Your team won’t get any value at all from your CRM if they’re not properly trained on how to use it and all of the features available. Understand what resources are available and even consider bringing in an expert – proper training can make a huge difference in adoption and ROI. Everyone should be using your CRM system – lawyers, business development, and marketing teams included.

2. Create a vision for your CRM use

Your entire team should understand why and how to use the platform. Identify goals and talk about the paths to achieve them, and invite sales and marketing to collaborate. Focus on both quick wins as well as a longer-term strategy. 

3. Consider the future uses of data you collect

Your CRM system is a wealth of useful data. Think beyond your current business uses. There may be new ways to use data for future campaigns or programs. Collect any data that could end up being valuable at any time. 

4. Ask your CRM users what can be improved

Get input from the people who will use the system every day how to make things easier for them. Look for burdensome processes and how to improve them if you want more staff to use CRM. 

5. Integrate with other technology

A CRM system should be part of people’s daily routines. For this to happen, they need to be able to access the platform across devices, and that it’s also tied into their email and calendars. CRM should also complement a marketing automation tool to build out complete, multi-touch campaigns. Combining your CRM with your other marketing technologies helps you build genuine connections and relationships with your clients and prospects. It removes friction from within your team, giving them transparency to work together.

6. Enter data regularly and clean up data regularly

If you want to get the most out of your law firm’s CRM then you should enter data on a regular basis. Remember, only clean data leads to informative reporting, proper contacts (such as for use in account-based marketing), and comprehensive profiles for segmentation. Make sure the entire team knows what’s expected in terms of putting in data uniformly- in fact, make that part of your training. Any CRM system is really only as good as the kind of data provided.

7. Check in regularly

Routinely meet with your team and pull recent CRM reporting. How is the system working at meeting the goals you originally set? Are you able to use it for your regular needs? If you consistently find during check-ins that your platform is letting you down, you need to investigate why, and perhaps even consider a new platform. 

Takeaway

A lot of law firms struggle when it comes to getting the desired ROI from their CRM implementation. The reason is that they simply jump on the bandwagon and license a CRM but fail to adopt CRM best practices. Proper training, collaboration, and regular data cleansing are all key to the success of your CRM use. Like every technology investment, CRM requires active participation from executives, managers, and frontline staff.

If you need more advice on leveraging your CRM or want to know what technologies can add value to your law practice, contact us today.