Care and Feeding: How to Keep Clients Updated on Cases

Even at this late stage, with all of the technology available to lawyers and law firms, one of the major complaints of clients is that law firms don’t communicate with them, or keep them abreast of what’s happening with their cases.   

 

So, if you’re hearing that your clients aren’t hearing from you, here are some strategies to employ, to better develop those relationships, and to keep your clients happy: 

 

Communication Tasks Related to Workflows.  Modern law firms should be built on workflows; you’ll want to have a workflow in place for managing every part of your law firm – from intake to cases to administration.  So, it goes without saying that some of those case-specific tasks would involve tasks you’re doing on behalf of clients – no, wait: that all of those tasks.  That means that each time you complete a task for a client, you could update the client on that task.  Of course, you don’t need to do that for everything (don’t make the move from being non-communicative to annoying), eg – you don’t have to tell the client that you drafted a motion, but you will likely want to let them know when you bring that motion before the court, and the result.  Now, you can simply add a subtask to each of those tasks that you want to notify your clients about, and request that the task owner send a text or email (whatever, really) to the client.  And, if you are able to access automations in your software, that next task may not even be required to be done by a human – the system can run on autopilot.  Case management software and standalone task management software both offer workflow features, that you can leverage in this way.

Client Portals.  You can also easily share files and folders, as well as invoices, contracts and notifications via the ‘client portals’ that are now built into most case management and customer relationship management software.  Those notifications are often pushed manually; but, some can be automated, including as part of workflows.  This method is also far more secure than sharing the same information via email, because it remains in an encrypted container that your clients must create a unique login to access.  Popular productivity softwares, like Microsoft 365 (via OneDrive/Sharepoint) and Google Workspace (via Google Drive), as well as standalone document drive tools, like Dropbox and Box, offer similar features. 

 

Notification Software.  There are even some softwares that focus entirely on automating the notification process via workflows, and which softwares can integrate with productivity, case management and CRM tools.  CaseStatus and Milestones are the leading companies in this category. 

 

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So, if you need to build out better systems for client communication, just start communicating with us. 

Through a unique partnership between the bar association and Jared Correia's Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, National Creditors' Bar Association members have access to experienced law practice management consultants at a special discount rate.

To get started, visit Red Cave's NCBA landing page, and start running your law practice like a business.