Looking to Boost Your Law Firm’s Productivity? Follow These Tips
Every law firm can use a productivity boost. The question is how to enhance productivity without spiking costs or reducing employee morale. If you are like most attorneys and law firm managers, you have tried numerous strategies to bump up productivity, keep employees happy and ultimately add to the bottom line. Unfortunately, achieving such a delicate balance is akin to walking a tightrope. Here is a quick look at some tips that will boost your law firm’s productivity.
Focus on Communication
Communication with clients, staff members, opposing counsel and courts are essential to your law firm’s success. Missing a single call has the potential to hinder a case. You need reliable communication to meet with pertinent parties without encumbrance, obtain payment for services rendered and get work done with efficiency. If you are unhappy with your current traditional phone system, consider the digital version of a phone line known as VoIP. VoIP lets you to use the internet to make and receive phone calls. VoIP has the potential to reduce your phone bill, improve the quality of communications and empower employees to work with the utmost efficiency regardless of location.
Collect Payments With Vigor
Do not let clients slack on their payments. Send a payment reminder at the end of each month to all clients in arrears. Continue to send bills until they are paid in full. If necessary, threaten legal action to spur clients to provide payment. After all, a client who refuses to pay until threatened with legal action is not a client worth keeping around. Once the payments start rolling in, you will have the capital necessary to reinvest in your law firm, bring on a new staff member or two and ultimately ramp up efficiency.
Consider a Call Routing System
If your law firm does not have a call routing system, the time to consider adding one is now. Once calls are quickly and accurately routed to the appropriate parties, everyone at the firm will find operations move along that much more smoothly. Combine your new call routing system with a live receptionist service and/or a web chat and your office’s communication setup will prove quite efficient.
Learn to Delegate
The most successful attorneys embrace the opportunity to delegate. Do not attempt to do it all on your own. View the client recruitment process as similar to the sales funnel. If you recruit a new client, hand him or her off to those who specialize in new client intake. Delegate work to support staff as appropriate to streamline appointment scheduling, daily reminders and other tasks that have the potential to chew up your time and energy.
