A Little Client Self-Help Goes a Long Way

Sometimes the best advice to give your clients is to do it themselves.

That may sound counter intuitive. Clients come to you for assistance, after all. They want you to do something to ease their predicament.

But in today’s tech-centric world, the best advice might be DIY – or perhaps DMOIY (Do Most Of It Yourself) – before an initial consultation. This is often in the best interests of both you and your client.

“It may seem like a paradox, but the less work that a legal firm does for a client is sometimes for the better,” according to this post on the Thomson Reuters Legal Blog. “By employing legal self-help technology, clients reduce their expenses while law firms put their lawyers to better use. Self-service enables clients to get most of the way there, in terms of their queries, before they need to talk to a lawyer at billable hours.”

Encouraging new clients to educate themselves adds value to your service.

“[I] makes the conversations between clients and lawyers more precise, more valuable, and more productive,” says Thomson Reuters. “Further, changes in work culture, post-pandemic, have established remote technology as a preferred option for many clients.”

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Helping Clients Hep Themselves

Here are some pointers for helping clients help themselves, courtesy of the Thomson Reuters Law Blog. 

• Add a robust FAQ page to your website. Give visitors basic information so they can determine whether they even need a lawyer. Provide questionnaires for prospects to complete before calling you. That way, they’ll enter the initial consultation well-informed.
• Use technology. “Client portal software is a way for law firms to meet their clients’ expectations of remotely accessing legal services and related information,” according to Thoms Reuters. “Say that a client has a question about which execution clause they need to use in a transaction. By answering a series of questions and previewing sample clauses, the client can confidently determine the correct execution clause and automatically insert it into their document.”
• Allocate your time wisely. If prospects have a base of knowledge when they come into your office, you can get right to the meat of the matter.
• Encourage interactive collaboration. “[This] enables a client to access the opinions of a variety of a firm’s lawyers, rather than being confined to the perspective of their specific one. For example, a query about risk analysis in a contract negotiation will draw upon the knowledge of lawyers with expertise in contract drafting as well as those with substantial experience in risk management.”

Source: Legal self-help: Self-service for clients | Legal Blog (thomsonreuters.com)

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