By Jim Gillon
Versys Corp.
Client Relationship Management (CRM)technology is acquired by law firms beginning at about 15 to 20 attorneys to improve the process of sending out e-mails, letters and publications to clients and prospective clients. However, an equally important benefit from CRM technology is how the same contact in more than one attorney's Microsoft Outlook folder is kept up to date.
It would not reflect well on a law firm if one attorney was advised about a job title change and the client later received correspondence that did not show their correct title.
The client might ask, "What else is this law firm not keeping up-to-date on?" Until bills are produced, one practice group might not even know that a client is working with another practice group.
In Outlook, each attorney has a separate copy of the contact information. When one attorney's contact information is updated, nothing happens to any other attorney's contact information - unless someone advises all the attorneys who have the same contact. CRM technology fixes this problem by updating each attorney's contact information when it is changed in Outlook by any one of the attorneys sharing the same contact.
To recap how CRM technology is implemented for law firms, the following basic capabilities are included: 1) integration with Microsoft Outlook and Exchange to collect and update the contacts that each professional wants to share; 2) the maintenance of a central database for contact information, typically with Microsoft SQL Server; 3) the ability to track firm-defined data fields about contacts; 4) easy control of contact participation in marketing events and mailing lists by attorneys and administrative assistants; and 5) for the marketing staff, efficient event and mailing list participant selection, mass e-mail production, mass mailing label production and analysis and reporting.
Beyond improved communication capability and keeping contact information accurate, law firms can derive additional benefits from CRM technology, including improved collaboration and cross-selling and better relationship management. The achievement of these benefits is predicated on attorneys being willing to share their contacts and to provide some incremental information about each contact.
Successful CRM systems integrate to Outlook with a minimum impact to attorneys in their normal use of Outlook. Being aware of the potential for resistance to change is an important design criterion for all computer software; because CRM technology is used by a large number of participants without extensive training, this is especially true for CRM systems. A quote that sums up our natural resistance to change is "the only people in this world who actually want change are babies in wet diapers."
The basic information needed to be shared for a CRM system includes the contact's name, address and e-mail address. With options provided by CRM systems, additional information can be tracked for contacts to meet the individual needs of each law firm. At a minimum, three additional types of information are needed for each contact.
The first type of additional information is knowing who else is working with a contact, which is automatically tracked by the CRM system based on which attorneys have shared the same contact to the central database. Opportunities for collaboration and cross-selling might arise from attorneys knowing who else is working with a client. The second type of additional information is used to identify the type of contact, e.g., "Client," "Prospect" or "Attorney." The third type of contact information would categorize the purpose or nature of the relationship. It is normally based on the practice area that is either actually or potentially associated with a contact.
With a contact type, one or more practice areas per contact and the contact's name, mailing address and e-mail address, the marketing staff can pre-select contacts for marketing events and mailing lists. Attorneys can refine each list by adding or removing contacts. This refinement process can be accomplished online with a view of their own contacts and a check box to indicate inclusion.
Relationship management can be improved if all attorneys working with a contact can see common information, including their participation in mailing lists and marketing events. By sharing contact information, a firm can avoid the embarrassment of more than one attorney working with a prospective client without knowing that another attorney in the firm also is working with the same person.
CRM technology can be used for more in-depth information tracking, but because of our resistance to change, it is recommended to start with only what is initially needed. Then, after the attorneys have realized some of the benefits that CRM technology can provide, more information about each contact can be tracked.
Jim Gillon, executive vice president of Versys Corp., has worked in the computer field for 42 years. He has worked as a computer systems consultant and has been involved in the management of computer technology companies. His work at Versys and its predecessor companies has included the design and implementation of the IntelliPad CRM.