Beyond technology

While CRM software can unlock data and make vital client information more accessible and timely to lawyers, it is nothing without the people, processes and culture in place to drive its effective use. By Joanna Goodman.

Intense competition in legal services provision and the fact that many law firms offer comparable levels of skill and expertise have resulted in mid-tier firms in particular focusing more sharply on marketing and business development and committing more resources to improving the service they offer their key clients.

Although marketing expenditure has risen exponentially in the past few years, adopting a strategic
approach helps to prevent a proportion of what is often a considerable budget from being wasted. As a consequence, there is renewed interest – and investment – in customer-relationship management (CRM) systems, which have been implemented by more than 60 per cent of the UK top-100 firms and are fast becoming the backbone of many overall marketing strategies.

Firm-wide access to client data
CRM technology enables firms to build a better understanding of client requirements as well as the value, strength and depth of their relationship with the firm, by combining all client data in a common, secure online repository accessed via the firm’s intranet or portal. In theory at least, a rich picture of the firm’s dealings with its entire client portfolio is only a mouse click away.

Marketing and CRM managers agree that the decision to invest in CRM software must be underpinned by strategic marketing and business-development objectives and are at pains to emphasise that CRM programmes are supported, rather than driven, by technology. However, the integrated capabilities offered by the latest software can be leveraged in a variety of innovative ways, which enable firms to promote and deliver a new standard of client service that is fast becoming a differentiating factor in the legal services marketplace.

Knowledge-based marketing strategies
CRM software facilitates the development of knowledge-based marketing strategies, which target products and services to clients’ specific legal service requirements and communication preferences, making sure they receive timely and relevant information via the channels that best
suit them.

It can also empower clients to choose the type and amount of information they receive from their lawyers. For example, two or three times a year clients could be sent an e-mail link setting out the range of available publications and resources. They then have only to check the relevant boxes that are of interest to them and the CRM system automatically updates the mailing lists. Responses to invitations can also be fed into the system to generate automatic lists of those attending client events. The statistics that result from these processes can then be used to segment and target future marketing activities.

The ability to compare and analyse information about existing and potential clients means that marketers – and lawyers – can rank clients by their value to the firm in terms of revenue and the number and frequency of services they use. They can also identify issues that need attention and highlight new business opportunities.

A helicopter view of client relationships
Over the past 18 months, international firm Simmons & Simmons has rolled out a comprehensive business-management solution (BMS), which includes InterAction software, to all of its offices. As Helga Butcher, client-relationship manager, explains, the technology was introduced to give everyone in the firm a better understanding of clients’ business and enhance the firm’s relationship with its key global clients. Although the project stemmed from a desire to increase financial clarity through an integrated CRM and billing system, the resulting comprehensive client information has become a lynchpin of the firm’s global marketing strategy. “Aligning client billing systems with marketing activities enables us to cut the data in different ways and analyse our client base on the financials as well as the strength and depth of the relationship,” says Butcher. “The majority of our clients are global companies, so we can look at how many of our offices and practice groups look after a particular client, how much they are spending and where in the organisation the relationships are – whether they’re at headquarters, business centre or subsidiary level – and segment and target our marketing activities accordingly. The BMS has given us a helicopter view of all our client relationships across the firm.”

The BMS helps to align client marketing to the pattern and direction of each business relationship. “Tracking how much and how often we’ve billed a client indicates the value, to the firm, of maintaining particular relationships and enables us to prioritise key clients,” says Butcher. “Global businesses have ongoing legal-services requirements, so we need to offer capabilities that match these. The BMS quickly finds the right fit for each client by practice area and by geography.”

Collaboration and cross-selling
An important benefit of this holistic approach to CRM is increased collaboration between different offices and practice groups. “If someone in Hong Kong has developed a local relationship with a global company, they can find out whether we work with this client anywhere else in the world and whether there are any existing agreements that dictate how the relationship should be managed,” says Butcher. “The BMS also highlights cross-selling opportunities, which are particularly valuable for a full-service firm. For example, if a client has major operations in a different part of the world, we can specifically target them in that area.”

Furthermore, firm-wide access to all client records and contact reports is helping to shift client relationships from individual partners or practice groups to the firm as a whole, addressing the potential risk of losing clients if a partner or associate leaves the firm, or if the client’s requirements shift to another practice area or region.

Getting lawyers involved
Leveraging the information on the CRM database depends on the records it contains being comprehensive, valid and up to date. In addition to integrating a firm’s existing databases into one system and ensuring that the transferred information is relevant and useful, a key challenge is to convince partners and associates of the value of sharing client knowledge and devoting potentially billable time to CRM activities.

London-based media and entertainment firm Harbottle & Lewis devised its ‘6Plus’ relationship-management programme to address precisely that challenge by combining the tradition of lawyers ‘owning’ particular clients with technology-enhanced collaboration. As Deborah Kay, head of marketing and business development explains, each of the firm’s 80 lawyers is responsible for recording and updating the firm’s contact with at least six of their key clients on ContactPlus, the firm’s CRM system, which is based on InterAction.

Recognising that this represents an additional task for busy lawyers, Kay has limited their responsibility to contact reports with a manageable number of key clients. In order to minimise the workload, routine information contained in e-mails, such as address changes and responses to invitations, is automatically transferred to the central database, and support staff update most client data. “We’ve adopted a coordinated approach, which ensures that people become familiar with using the software, and highlights opportunities to enhance client service and develop target marketing initiatives,” she says. “ContactPlus also avoids the potential embarrassment of clients being sent irrelevant marketing material, multiple invitations to the same event, or different lawyers working with the same client without being aware of each other’s activities.” Kay describes the system as “a key pillar of the firm’s overall marketing strategy”.

Simmons & Simmons deploys a number of tactics to ensure that all data on the BMS is fresh and relevant. “Significant factors include ease of use and the ability to update records via other applications,” explains Butcher. She responds to the classic excuse that lawyers are too busy, by allowing them to delegate this task. “As well as providing a central resource in the form of data stewards, we have given support staff proxy access, so although it looks as if a partner or associate has updated the information, their secretaries and assistants can do it for them.”

An effective way of getting everyone in the firm to use the CRM system is to demonstrate early success. Again, Butcher focuses on user-friendliness. “For example, lawyers can build a ‘watch list’ of important clients, which is automatically updated and accessed via the portal,” she says. Butcher and her team drive firm-wide buy in to the BMS by travelling around each office troubleshooting specific issues and providing training and support, which encourages people to use the system. “One way of convincing even the biggest sceptics is to use the system to solve a problem they’re currently struggling with,” says Butcher. “Sharing success stories drives people to use the system.”

Kay agrees. “It’s important to promote quick wins so that people will want to learn more.” At Harbottle & Lewis, these range from reducing the time it takes to compile invitation and attendance lists and analyse client feedback, to using the comprehensive reporting process to improve response times and offer key clients tailored services.

Technology and beyond
Kay believes that creating internal brands such as ‘ContactPlus’ and ‘6Plus’ reinforces the message that effective CRM goes beyond technology. Improving client service and driving business development also depend on leveraging the information on the system. ‘ContactPlus’ has enabled Harbottle & Lewis to develop some innovative new initiatives. “For example, clients can have access to a legal helpdesk as part of their package of services,” says Kay. “ContactPlus underpins this by giving the lawyer manning the helpdesk immediate access to all a client’s information as soon as they call in.” Although the firm differentiates its service offering by its expertise in specific areas of the law, these extra facilities help to win business by demonstrating to clients and prospects that it offers them value for money, as they can call up the helpdesk for advice at any time without clocking up additional fees. “As well as creating visible customer value, this facility shows clients that we value their business to the extent that we are prepared to go the extra mile to accommodate their needs,” adds Kay.

The ability to align a wide range of legal services to the specific global requirements of international clients helps Simmons & Simmons develop its existing clients and successfully pitch for new business in the global marketplace. As Butcher explains, the BMS helps to ensure the best fit to client needs both in terms of law-service provision and relationship management. “We can manage complex global relationships covering different practice areas and regions, and fulfil clients’ specific requirements in terms of matter and relationship management only because all our offices have instant access to information about our entire client base,” she says, adding that the key is to map clients’ requirements to the firm’s full scope of services, rather than just the few they currently use.

It’s good to talk
Exemplary client service and effective marketing needs to be based around what clients value most in their dealings with the firm and how they define customer satisfaction. Although technology can quickly log and analyse responses to marketing initiatives, and the resulting statistics can guide future strategy, it does not dispense with the need to conduct client surveys and interviews and simply to talk to individual clients and find out what they expect from their lawyers. When firms act on client feedback and surpass their expectations, client care becomes a differentiating factor in winning and retaining business.

Delivering measurable benefits
Finally, because CRM systems represent a significant investment of time and technology, partners are looking for a clear return. Although it is difficult to isolate benefits, such as enhancing the firm’s reputation, lawyers’ system of time-based billing means that the time saved by providing firm-wide instant access to comprehensive, up-to-date case-matter reports and client information makes the firm more competitive on cost as well as client service. Integrating CRM and billing has also reduced billing time and write offs, and the ability to link marketing spend with new revenue on a practice-group basis makes it possible to quantify the benefits of particular activities. Increased revenue from existing clients through cross-selling or repeat business can also be attributed to excellent CRM through recording and analysing client feedback.

Although CRM programmes have enabled many firms to target their marketing activities more accurately, there is general consensus that delivering outstanding client service that successfully differentiates a firm from its competitors, enabling it to win and retain business, requires more than implementing effective systems and processes; it also depends on the human factor – consultative selling and a commitment to identifying, promoting and delivering the services that existing and potential clients value most.

Sidebar: The survey said...
Managing Partner magazine’s 2006 CRM legal survey cited better firm-wide client information and enhanced cross-selling and marketing opportunities as the main benefits of investing in CRM software. In answer to the question, ‘Which of the following statements would best define your current CRM strategy?’ the three most popular choices were:

We are using CRM to improve internal knowledge sharing about clients to enable cross-selling and a more holistic service to clients (26 per cent);
We are using CRM to generate business-development opportunities across the firm
(18 per cent);
It is about targeting a select number of key clients of the firm and improving our relationship with them (17 per cent).

Although 64 per cent of respondents believed that CRM was not driven by technology, a significant 41 per cent agreed that the right software was essential to support CRM activities, all of which involved delivering better client service with the objective of winning more business – in other words, achieving a strategic marketing strategy focused on growth.