Data to remember
Hamilton says the ‘big thing’ for Radiant Law at the moment isn’t tech specifically though it of course draws on it – it’s data and analytics.
“We’ve figured out a way to change our work turnaround time to a half-day, which will double our productivity. It came out of a lot of data analytics we did because we built our own workflow, and case and practice management system. The developers we had working on those were throwing out a tonne of data about what works and what our activities look like. And it was a bit of an aha moment when it came together.”
Data and analytics is an area of tech that has stayed pretty comfortably in what we’re calling the ‘business as usual’ section of our competitiveness v efficiency graph (pp6-7). However, this doesn’t mean that data and analytics is business as usual; in fact, it’s quite the opposite – other sectors know how to leverage data much more successfully than legal.
But SME law firms are finally getting to grips with how they can leverage data – step by step. Camp says Stephens Scown has been looking at data analytics for four years and has involved a data analytics company as well as investing in an in-house data analytics apprentice, who’s recently left to work in London.
“The results were very rich, but it’s getting lawyers to understand that that’s the bigger challenge. There’s a real gap between lawyers’ understanding of what data analytics means and what it can do to help them. We’re not a numbers profession – we’re a words profession, historically.”
It’s a lack of understanding and confidence because it’s an area that the legal sector is not used to dealing with, says Camp.
He says leveraging marketing data is half the problem. “We want to adopt a slicker use of data in marketing and really be targeting our clients using the data we have on them. We can use data to build an advertising campaign to make sure it’s going out to the right people and not blanketing our market and perhaps sending irrelevant information to our clients.”
‘Marketing tech, including online’ has been an area consistently top of mind for the SME legal sector on our competitiveness v efficiency graph – ranking quite high on the competitiveness scale and performing moderately well on the efficiency scale. Interestingly, this is in contrast to where client relationship management (CRM) sits on the map – bottom left quadrant, which puts it in that ‘business as usual’ set.
Sean Stuttaford, COO at Thompson Smith and Puxon, says with the marketing systems the firm currently has, providing up-to-date and ‘live’ information about a client’s prior relationship with the firm and the original source of that client is problematic.
“We’re all about trying to provide a seamless and high-quality client experience and for our teams not to operate in silos of knowledge. We find that there are occasions when repeat clients use different departments and the valuable information that is already known about that client is not readily available. This leads to repetitive questions being asked of the client, leading to a less-than-ideal experience, and also time and resources not always being used in the most efficient way. In relation to actual business development, it’s also a barrier to cross-selling services that could add value for the client.”
Camp sympathises: “I suspect with most firms the inputting is so bad because people don’t understand how data analytics can really benefit and drive a growth agenda.
“Law firms have data that most organisations would kill for but we’re not leveraging it. And it can be used in such simple areas. For example, for wills we’re looking at how we can use dates of birth of children and, using automation, send updates to clients. ‘Your child is now 25, have you considered redoing your will?’”
Law firms are reluctant to spend a lot of money on something unless they can see a return on investment, whereas you go to any other commercial organization and they’d be happy to pay for good data analytics, he adds.
So, although this year’s results find data and analytics may not be a ‘hot topic’ – top of mind to SME legal leaders – it is clearly a massive area of growth.
“Data is key to everything that we will be doing in the future, especially if we want to use more automation and machine learning and so on. The data has to be right in order to understand it and drill down into it to produce valuable insights.”
Sponsor comment: Accesspoint Group
I’m sure we can all agree that if the past few months have taught us anything, it would be to make the most out of the resources you have available in your firm.
As we all know, data is a valuable resource that’s often forgotten or used sparingly. However, if you want your firm to gain a competitive edge while improving efficiencies within your workflows, explore integrations that will allow your firm to use data-driven, PMS-centric marketing that can attract a wealth of new clients. I’d urge you to seriously consider these things when making your next strategic move – take the time to collect client information via webforms, so that new enquiries can be seen faster and then dealt with immediately. This information gathered can provide you with cross selling opportunities in the future, which previously you may not have been prepared for. Additionally, try and identify which marketing channels are providing quality leads and providing a positive return on your investment, and equally those that aren’t, through client tracking. All of which can go straight into your PMS.
SME firms don’t have the luxury of missing opportunities or waiting around for prospects to flock to them, which is why I would continue to stress the importance of staying data driven and very much more prepared as life slowly but surely returns back to normal, or at least the new normal.
