An Actionable Plan to Formulate and Automate Your Processes with Matt Spiegel

Do you need help improving your law firm's client journey? Are you finding it hard to get clients? In this episode, Matt Spiegel, the co-founder and CEO of Lawmatics, discusses the importance of providing excellent customer service in the legal industry and improving the client journey.

It is evident that lawyers are not CEOs. They don't run businesses. But, Matt emphasizes the need for law firm owners to run their practice like a business. Law firm owners need to go out and find clients to grow their firm just like a CEO would go out and make connections to grow their success. Part of growing your business and law firm ensures the client is always happy because a happy client equals a happy practice. Matt delves into the ways to prioritize the happiness of a client.

1 | Client Begins 

The client journey begins the moment a client reaches out to your firm via email or phone. This is part of the “client intake phase”. This phase is crucial to getting a client because they are reaching out to multiple firms at once. You need to ensure staff are engaging right away so they don't lose the client. Immediate engagement shows the client exactly how you will respond to them throughout the process. It shows that those in the firm care and are ready to provide the client with what they need, even if it's just basic legal information.

2 | Active Client

The “active matter phase” is the communication throughout the length of a client's case. Like phase one, communication is key to getting and retaining a client. It is important to provide the client information throughout the journey. Make it a habit to market to them. Send them information like newsletters that include things that are external to your firm. It is a good idea to set up a client portal, where individuals can go into a system and get updates on their case. If email communication is too much (and it can be in this industry), a client portal is a great way to input all necessary information and the client can retrieve it on the other end. 

3 | Former Client 

The “former client phase” is a neglected but important phase in the client journey. 75% of clients come from referrals. Even when a client’s case is complete, the relationship between the attorney and client needs to continue. There are many ways to maintain a good relationship with a former client. Send a birthday and holiday email every year or add them to a mailing list for networking events. What this does is let the client know the firm has their best interests in mind even after the working relationship ends.

Matt speaks about only doing things in your law firm that you can measure. You need to be able to back up your success with KPIs and numbers. Think about the conversion rates of initial screening calls that lead to actual clients. This will measure how successful the intake process is for your firm. Cost per lead and cost per client is another metric to consider to ensure the amount it takes to bring a client on board and how much you are making from that client makes sense.

Take a listen!

Episode Highlights:

• 6:57 Immediate engagement and rapid response to create a positive first impression
• 8:45 Focusing on maintaining the relationship with a former client
• 8:58 Providing excellent customer service from the very first contact with a client
• 9:53 Delighting clients through effective communication during the active matter phase
• 17:29 The importance of automation

🎥 Watch the full video on YouTube here.

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Transcripts: An Actionable Plan to Formulate and Automate Your Processes with Matt Spiegel

Speaker 1 (00:00:00) - In today's episode, we're sharing a presentation from Max Khan 2022. Keep listening to hear Matt Spiegel as we share his talk. An actionable plan to formulate and automate your processes, you can also head to the maximum layer YouTube channel to watch the full video. Now to the episode.

Speaker 2 (00:00:17) - Run your law firm the right Way. The Right Way. This is the Maximum layer podcast podcast. Your hosts, Jim Hacking and Tyson Metrics. Let's partner up and maximize your firm. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 3 (00:00:41) - Hey, everyone. Matt Spiegel here joining you guys remotely. But I'm excited to talk to you nonetheless and still have the opportunity to share some thoughts with you guys and some some holistic ideas that we've kind of developed over here at Maddox and just in my history and my experience in the space and as a lawyer and in legal tech space, just this topic, this idea of the client journey and this path to delight is something that is really, really important to me is something I'm very passionate about. So I'm going to start sharing my screen here so that hopefully everybody can see and the way we go, the client journey, the path to delight in it.

Speaker 3 (00:01:17) - And we're going to get right into it here. And I'm going to talk with you next 20 minutes about, again, this topic, very passionate. I am about it, that is really focused on not being a lawyer. Right. And it's it's the idea of thinking about your law firm and the most basic sense of a business and how to approach just providing good customer service, really. So for those of you that don't know me, I'm Matt Spiegel. I'm founder and CEO of Law Maddox. I have been around legal tech for a long time. I am the original founder and CEO of my case. I'm assuming that most people know what my case is. My case obviously is one of the biggest practice management systems on the market. I'm a golfer. I'm a dad. I'm a girl, dad. I'm my life consists a lot of softball right now as I'm coaching my daughter's all star softball team. So that keeps me very occupied. Less time for golf, more time for softball these days and running a business in between.

Speaker 3 (00:02:17) - I like you guys. I'm a lawyer, right? That's that's my trade. And that's what we are. We are lawyers, right? We are not CEOs. And this is a cliche. I know that this is well, it's becoming a cliche, probably in large part because of me. But it's talked about, you know, many companies talk about this like, hey, you know, you're a lawyer, you're not a businessman. And but it's really true. And, you know, the reason why it's true is just go back to law school, right? Law school is all about teaching you how to lawyer. Right. Teaching you how to understand the law, how to apply the law, how to think like a lawyer. It does not teach you how to think like a CEO. Not even remotely close. Right? There are maybe 1 or 2 classes nowadays in law school that are geared towards managing a firm, and some of the things that are a bit intangible that you that are hard to learn, but generally speaking, you don't learn how to run a business.

Speaker 3 (00:03:08) - And running a business is a really hard thing to do. It's not an easy thing to do. There's so many things that you have to juggle. You've got to maintain an office, right? The office doesn't just run itself. You have to focus on growing, right? Your goal is to grow, not stay flat. Okay. You have to. You have to be a successful lawyer. Okay. I'm going to talk to you a lot about not worrying about the law and trying to focus on some other aspects of your business. But at the end of the day, you still have to be a good lawyer. You still have to focus on getting great outcomes for your clients if you don't do that. Well, I'm going to make an argument later that even if you don't do that, you could still have a successful business. But obviously it's going to be much harder on yourself if you just suck at practicing law, right? So you still got to focus on being a good lawyer. New clients, you got to go out and drive new business.

Speaker 3 (00:03:58) - If you're not driving new business, then your business will slowly die, right? That goes in line with growing scheduling right on top of all this stuff, you have to worry about your calendar. You have to you have court dates, you have client meetings. You have so much that you need to keep track of. The list really goes on and on. And then you have to you have to worry about marketing. Right? And again, this kind of goes hand in hand with growing and bringing on new clients. But there's a lot of aspects to marketing that as a business owner you need to think about. And these are very difficult things. Not only are lawyers, not CEOs, generally speaking, they are also not marketers. Right? And you can go and, you know, you can hire a marketing agency and there are plenty of really good marketing agencies out there to help you as a law firm now. But the bottom line is you have to think about it, right? You can't just completely ignore it.

Speaker 3 (00:04:48) - So all of these things just make running a business very, very hard. But at the end of the day, I really believe that. A successful law firm or really any business for that matter. But a successful law firm really comes down to this simple equation. Happy clients will equal a happy practice. It's just that simple. If your clients are really happy, then your business will thrive and you will be happy. Now, what does it mean to have a happy client? That's what we're going to be focusing on a lot because I'm going to share with you that a happy client is not necessarily just a client that receives a good outcome. A happy client is somebody that receives a really good experience with your firm. Part of that experience is going to be the legal representation that they get, but a lot of the experience is going to go far beyond the four corners of the representation that you provide them. So what is the client journey? The client journey is really just your customer's experience with your law firm.

Speaker 3 (00:05:49) - So think about it with any other business, right like that that you might go through a journey with. So whenever you use Amazon, right, there is a customer experience that you go through when you are using Amazon to purchase something. When you go to the grocery store, when you go anywhere. You are on a journey, you are going through an experience with that provider, with that business. And so when we look at it in terms of a law firm and its clients, it's just simply that what is the journey that the client goes through with your law firm? And it starts from the very beginning. Every single stage is an opportunity to delight your customer. Again, the client journey begins from the very moment that they first reach out to your firm. And we're going to talk about all these stages. But it starts from the very moment that they reach out to your firm and it goes in perpetuity. Long, long, long after their matter is over with you. Every single stage, every opportunity, there is a chance for you to delight them.

Speaker 3 (00:06:57) - So here are the three phases of the client journey. The way that I break it down and I feel very strongly about this, there's three phases to the client journey. Phase one client intake. From the moment that a lead contacts your firm to the signing of the fee agreement and payment of any initial fees. That is the intake phase and there's a lot that happens inside of that phase. Phase two active matter. You've retained a new client, now you have an active matter and you've got a defined scope of service. You're representing them on a case or whatever it is, and that's phase two. Okay. Phase two has a definitive beginning and an end point. Right? Phase three, they're now a former client. The matter is over. And now you have to maintain that relationship. This is arguably the most important phase of the whole journey when it comes to your business. That's a source of reviews. That's a source of referrals. That person is critical to the success of your business going forward.

Speaker 3 (00:07:52) - So let's talk a little bit about each phase. Phase one. Hello. I'd like to talk to you about my case. That's it. That's the beginning of phase one. Maybe it's reaching out on a website, right? Filling out a form saying, Hey, can you please contact me? That is the the the first. Part of phase one. What can you do here? Right. Well, immediate engagement. Do not give them a reason to call the next lawyer on Google. You've probably heard this already from someone. Whether it's me in the past or whether it's from a marketing associate that you use or another lawyer. But time is everything. If you do not respond and immediately engage that lead that's reaching out to you, you're going to lose it. Right? There's tons of data that supports that first impression. Showing a potential client rapid response indicates to them how you will communicate during their matter. Okay. So by engaging with them right away and providing them this excellent service, you're telling them like not only are you providing them a good experience which will carry throughout their whole thing, you're actually helping sell, right? Because you're showing.

Speaker 3 (00:08:58) - You're showing them, hey, look, you know what? This is the level of service that you're going to get from me if you hire me as your lawyer. It's on from Hello. What I mean by this is that from that very first hand raise, that very first contact that the client has with your firm, you have an opportunity to give excellent customer service. And that's all you should be thinking about, right? You need to get the client. But think about it as just I just want to provide a great experience for them. I want to immediately engage them. I want to communicate with them in the ways by which they want to be communicated with. Maybe they want text message. Maybe they want a phone call. Maybe they want an email. I want to delight them. I want to communicate with them the way that they want to be communicated with. Now, in this phase, automation is absolutely critical. You cannot. You cannot engage rapidly enough without automation. So it's very important that you maintain some level of automation.

Speaker 3 (00:09:53) - Phase two, the active matter. Well, this is where I will tell you the outcome is only part of the experience, right? So the result you get your client is just a small part of it. They are more than just a matter. They hired you to represent them zealously, but that's not it. Communication. Communication is the easiest way to delight your client during this phase of their journey. The number one complaint at all state bars is still and it's been this way for like 15 years from when I started my case, actually. Still attorney client communication number one state bar complaint. There is plenty of tools out there to make sure that that is not the number one complaint ever again. Marketing. You can communicate to your current clients about things that are not related to their case. You can market to them. You can send out your newsletters, you can show them life beyond you as just their lawyer. And technology. I mean, guys, I think you guys all know this now.

Speaker 3 (00:10:46) - There's so much tech available to you in your practice practice, management, CRM. The bottom line is there's so many opportunities for you to let your clients into your tech stack and you should let them into your tech stack as much as possible. Perfect example of this is client portal, right? How many different pieces of software out there have client portals? Now that is a way to let your clients into your tech stack. Phase three former client. This is the most neglected and it's the biggest opportunity. And it's because of this number right here. 75% of law firm business comes from referrals. That means that as soon as that case is over, that person who's walking out the door is going to be the main source of your future business, of the success of your law firm. It's not going to be Google. That might help. It's not going to be seminars or whatever else you do that might help. But 75% across the board is going to come from referrals. You have to remember that as soon as their case is over, your relationship is really just beginning.

Speaker 3 (00:11:50) - Okay. And there are lots of different ways to communicate with them. Email cadences, birthday reminders. I mean, how many people in this room send something to their clients, their former clients, every year on their birthday? My guess I can't see you guys. And I think I asked this a couple of years ago, maybe to to a few of you, but I know the answer is minimal. I know there's a bunch of people using LOL Maddox and they all probably raise their hand because it makes it very easy. But generally speaking, you're probably not not doing what you should do for your former clients. And there are lots of easy ways using automation and using platforms to ensure that you are nurturing those former clients and making sure that you are getting reviews. You are getting, you know, the full weight of the referrals that they could they could provide you. You got to remember, it's not just about referring other people for the same practice of law, but it may be someone who needs a different type of lawyer.

Speaker 3 (00:12:43) - That's could still be a great source of referral for you. So again, we just kind of talked about this, but what are you doing to actually delight those former clients into referring business? I like milestones, so delighting your customers with birthday emails and newsletters, engagement like drip campaigns that we talked about. There's there's a plethora of things that you can do. You just have to remember that all clients are people and they are someone who you can have a relationship with. Now, you may be thinking, I do criminal defense and like some of the people, I don't want to have a relationship with them. I get it. That's what I did. But it doesn't mean that, you know, you don't have to have a personal relationship with them. You have to treat them like a person, right? That's how they want to be treated. What you have to remember, too, is that I've been mentioning this to a lot of customers bars lately and other lawyers that I've been talking to. So you have to remember that to the client, this is the most important thing that they have going on in their life.

Speaker 3 (00:13:35) - And that's true for almost any practice area. Criminal defense, bankruptcy, family law. Immigration. Personal injury. What this case is almost assuredly the most important thing that they have going in their life for you. It's just another case. You have to put yourself in their shoes and think about the way that they want to be treated, not just how they want to be represented, but how they want to be treated. And if you do these things, you're going to have an incredible experience and you're going to see a lot more business from it. So I hope that gives you a little summary on on how we think of this journey and how we think about providing good customer service and not worrying about the outcome. Here's what I will tell you. If I can leave you with one thing, I will tell you that you can be the best lawyer in the world, but if your customer service sucks, you will not be successful. You will not have a great business and the vice versa is true as well.

Speaker 3 (00:14:31) - You could be a terrible lawyer, maybe not terrible, but you could be a mediocre lawyer and provide mediocre outcomes for your clients. But you can have the best customer service and provide the best experience and you will have a massively successful business. It's not always about the outcome. And so the final part of my talk here, before we sum it up, I always like to talk about measuring things because as you're as you're building out these automations and as you're looking to delight your customers every step of the way and you're going to be spending more money maybe on marketing or you're going to be doing more things to run your business, not as much practicing law. I encourage you to only do things that you're able to measure and you need to set critical KPIs for your firm, right? These are performance at key performance indicators. These are business metrics that have nothing to do with practicing law that I think everybody should be really keeping track of as a law firm. Number one is conversion rates. This is just the percentage of leads that go on to become clients.

Speaker 3 (00:15:34) - What is your conversion rate? Is it 50%? Is it 80%? Is it 20%? Doesn't matter what it is, it's important that you know it and you should know it like the back of your hand. Number two, CPA and CPC. Most people probably don't know what this is. This is cost per lead and cost per client. This is probably the most important metric to your business period, because if these metrics don't make sense, then your business is failing. And what I mean by that is, let's say that it costs you $5,000 to acquire a new customer, a new client. But your average revenue from that customer is $4,000. Well, guess what It means Every customer you bring on, you lose $1,000. Most of your law firms are not suffering from that. But the point is that it's very important to measure these things for all of your different marketing sources, for everything that you're doing. And I'll see you in the next one. You don't want to just know this, General.

Speaker 3 (00:16:35) - You do want to know this generally for your firm, but you also want to break it down by all your different sources that you have, right? Whether it's referrals, whether it's Google, marketing seminars, whatever it is you want to understand, how much does it cost for every lead I bring in and how much does it cost for every client that I retain? You have to make sure you know those numbers and that and that they jive compared to the revenue that you generate. And the last one here, I really like everybody to measure their their initial consultation show rate. If they don't show up, they can't hire you. Right? So when you're booking consultations for those for those new leads, I think it's really important to measure what's the rate of them showing up. If you have a low show rate, then there's lots of things that you can do to improve. The whole point of these KPIs are to know exactly where you need to improve your business. It's that simple. So all of this comes down to automation, right? You have to automate.

Speaker 3 (00:17:29) - In order to do any of this, you're not going to be able to engage everybody as much as you need to. You're not going to be able to measure everything if you don't have automation. And to give you my quick strategy, I think it's really important to know your process. You have to understand what you have a process for, and you have to create processes where necessary. You might think you have a process for something, but then when you sit down and think about how it goes, you might think, Oh, well, this time it does this, and then the next time it does that. That's not a process. A process is something where every time it happens the same, write them out, sit down, literally write down on a piece of paper all of the different processes that you have or that you would like to have and write them out. The first step is to determine the triggers. Each process will need a trigger, something that indicates that the process is supposed to begin.

Speaker 3 (00:18:14) - So write down This is when I want this to happen, and then you just list each action. Once you have your triggers, you list out step by step. Everything needed to complete that particular process or workflow. It's that simple. It takes a little bit of a little bit of work. Building an automation strategy and a platform is some heavy lifting in the beginning, and I can't even tell you how much it pays off in the end. So what's your tech stack for this journey that you want to create, right? What tech do you need to cover the full lifecycle? All three phases. Well, phase two, which is that active matter, that's practice management. That's things like Cleo, my case file, Vine practice, Panther smoke ball and a host of others lol. Maddox Good CRM. That's what sits in phase one and phase three and then plays nicely with what happens in phase two. But this is a good idea for like where the different technology that you might already have fits into the journey.

Speaker 3 (00:19:10) - There's not one great solution for all three, although I'm working on that. But you can get the best in class by having something like Maddox combined with a Clio or a file Vine, something like that. So I hope that my timing was good. I believe that I was limited to about 20 minutes and I think we're at about 22 or 23 minutes on this presentation. Again, I sincerely apologize that I was not able to be there with you guys in person this year. I look forward to seeing all of you again soon. You can always reach out to me with any questions that you might have. I can be reached on my email address. Matt Atlantics Very easy way to get a hold of me. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your conference and I look forward again to seeing all you guys very soon.

Speaker 2 (00:19:56) - Thanks for listening to the Maximum Lawyer podcast. Stay in contact with your host and to access more content content, go to maximum lawyer.com. Have a great week and catch you next time.