Martin Linusson Chief Customer Officer, Elite

In today’s legal market, customer service has become increasingly important as a competitive differentiator. Clients are looking at the way law firms deliver their services just as much as they are thinking about the legal expertise they offer. Subsequently, the way legal teams communicate and interact with each other internally, and externally with their clients, takes on greater significance.

Finding ways to improve collaboration is vital to boost efficiency and effectiveness, so that firms can focus on the activities that add most value to clients.

In the same vein, providers of services to law firms must take a similar approach. When it comes to software, for instance, firms want robust solutions that solve problems, ease pain points, and deliver technological innovation. However, it’s also clear that great customer service comes high up on their priorities list.

Just like law firms, software providers must streamline their own ways of working, smoothing out how internal colleagues work together, and how they collaborate with their networks of technology partners. That way, they can devote more attention to developing customer relationships by providing excellent technical support and spending more quality time with law firms to ensure their expectations are being met or exceeded.

The role of technology in fostering collaboration has never been more central. True collaboration is as much about visibility as it is about communication—people need answers to their questions quickly, and increasingly want access to automation tools which can ease the admin burden, or show them what they want to know without having to ask anyone. Tech that can provide real-time insights into activity and performance for better decision-making is vital, so that everyone is always up to date, issues can be addressed in good time, and resources can be allocated appropriately.

Ultimately, using the transformative power of technology to improve collaboration creates a virtuous circle of responsiveness and proactivity. Making service management more seamless and transparent, and doing everything possible to ensure that interactions and touch points happen in a friction-free manner will free up more time to spend being customer-facing. Creating the bandwidth and providing the toolkit to listen to what clients want and plan how best to deliver it is the only way to foster innovation and true collaboration.

“Clients are looking at the way law firms deliver their services just as much as they are thinking about the legal expertise they offer.”

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