Written by Candice Hill, Business Development Manager, Altair Computer Systems, New Zealand
This is an ideal time, while there are fewer projects on the go, for staff to prioritise scoping, implementation, training and roll-out of new client care initiatives.
If staff have less billable work output, and you are still paying base salaries (for support staff – full salaries, regardless of utilisation), then maximise this time to gather as much accurate information as possible on clients and prospects, update marketing lists, verify contact details/Christmas card lists, etc.
Implementing a system like CRM4Legal will provide the repository for all of this information to be centrally stored. I know of a large multi-national company that did this in a quiet time in the past and they had their staff busy finding out information such as spouse name, children’s names, birthdays, etc to put into their CRM system.
When things are busy again, will you be too busy to implement new client management systems? Think of rollout, training, etc. Will not being able to implement get you further and further away from your client management and maximising revenue goals?
You can use CRM4Legal to help you create relationships that aren’t based on the immediate selling of your services, but when things pick up again, it will be your firm that has established strong relationships and a rich, accurate database to springboard from (it’s all about the long term view, but using this time to intelligently gear up for the inevitable good times when they roll on back).
When things are moving again, will you need to employ new lawyers to grow your firm? Will CRM4Legal assist you in attracting good fee earners? Will they see having CRM4Legal as an advantage to their own “practice within a practice”? If you don’t have it, will other firms that have more robust CRM systems be of more interest to them? CRM4Legal will need to be in place when things pick up in order to take advantage of this.
Are your major competitors taking the conservative road and putting all projects on hold? If so, is this an ideal time to get ahead? This benefit may not just be felt now, but for a significant time into the next growth period.
On the other hand – are your competitors using this time to quietly gear up themselves? Can you afford not to be?
CRM4Legal is all about finding out who your clients are, what you do for them, and how you can do more. During these quieter times, this couldn’t be more important. While most of the ideas addressed here focus on using this quiet time to gear up for when things are better, it shouldn’t be forgotten that the system will also help you right now. It will help you retain clients, cross-sell a broader range of services, maximise earnings from clients, and secure new clients.
Even the most negative recession analysts say that the economic downturn will last approximately two years, nearly one year of which has already passed. If we were to start a project in three months’ time, with a 6 month finance holiday, things should be almost turning around by the time the first monthly payment is due on the system. However, the system will be all ready to go, the database will be clean and accurate, and the staff all trained in order to take advantage of the upturn in business. On this basis, it may be possible to start this project much sooner than you otherwise think, even if all new projects are on hold, based on a decision to limit capital expenditure. That is, it may be nearly a year before any expenditure is necessary. Conversely, if we were to wait until the next growth period before even beginning to evaluate new CRM tools, then there may be a year, or even more, of the new growth period without the benefit of having CRM4Legal.
