Thanks to the omnipresence of new tech, hustle culture, and “life hacks” you can find scrolling through social media, our obsession with efficiency only grows stronger as we simultaneously get busier and busier. Regardless of the industry, it’s a common goal among business owners to find a harmonious balance between their work life and their personal life. Attorneys are no exception. Legal professionals have also begun evaluating the way they work.
Remote work was once perceived as a solution to this life-work balance, but now it is on the decline overall. But here is where an exception may apply to the legal field. Solo and small law firms have a growing opportunity to take advantage of resources that can transition their practice from an expensive office-only model to a remote or hybrid model. Armed with the right tools and tech, attorneys across practice areas can improve their operations, dedicate more focus to delivering high-quality service to their clients, and scale their business – all while working less.
In this blog, we’ll explore the benefits of adapting a remote or hybrid model for your business, how your law firm’s website can work harder for you by becoming the epicenter of your business, and finding the best tech to complement your law firm website.
The Benefits of Adapting a Remote or Hybrid Model for Your Business
Sometimes, the old way of doing things is just… old. Before the pandemic, the legal industry dragged its feet when it came to adopting new tech that could help attorneys perform their duties more efficiently. However, in unison with other industries stuck in their ways, the pandemic forcibly shook the legal industry from its traditional work model and transformed the way lawyers were serving clients. Although there has been building pressure from law firms who want their attorneys back in the office, solos and small law firms are experiencing more freedom in their choice to remain remote or adopt a hybrid model. This is thanks to advances in technology, but also due to a larger cultural acceptance of remote attorney services.
So, what are the benefits for attorneys when they break from the traditional legal industry mold and adopt a remote or hybrid service model? A remote or hybrid model can help you:
- Reduce overhead costs
- Optimize your time and resources
- Reach a wider customer base
If you currently have a physical office space, you’re likely dealing with some overhead costs. Adapting a remote working model could help you save on things like rent or mortgage, insurance, office supplies, cleaning services, and more. Many attorneys find that adopting a remote or hybrid model helps them shed the “fat” of a traditional work model. Not only is time saved on travel and commute, but it’s likely that, in your transition to remote work, you adopted tech and tools to help you work more efficiently.
With less expenses and more time and resources, you can boost your business by serving a broader customer base. You no longer have to rely on clients being physically close to your office. Instead, you can provide services to clients who reside outside of your typical network, increasing your pool of potential clients.
The benefits of a hybrid or remote work model don’t end with the attorney – your clients can benefit as well. For example, you can break down the boundaries of physical space for your clients so they can have access to the best services regardless of location. If travel is a barrier to them receiving high-quality legal services, your firm can provide much needed relief and greatly increase client satisfaction.
Maximizing Work-Life Balance Using Your Law Firm’s Website
For the attorney who dreams of closing their (physical) office doors in pursuit of a remote or hybrid law practice, their law firm website can be one of the most important factors. When you no longer have a physical office, it can be especially important for your clients and potential clients to have a digital landing space that accurately and effectively represents you. Your website’s URL is effectively your new office address while your homepage is your new front door. With strategic optimizations, your website can effectively help you run your law practice more efficiently and at a lower cost.
Read on for the top ways you can make your website work harder for you and help you achieve a better work-life balance and/or make the transition to a remote or hybrid office.
Work How You Want to Work
One of the easiest ways to make the shift to a remote or hybrid business model is to limit your offerings to services that can be handled remotely. Taking an honest audit of your services and deciding where your passions lie is one of the most helpful ways to start enjoying the work you do and achieving balance between work and life. In the past, this idea would feel radical and unsustainable. However, with the help of their websites, more and more attorneys are thriving while working remotely.
Optimize Client Intake
To grow your business, you will of course need to establish an effective way to attract and convert new clients. For the majority, this will look like creating an efficient client intake process. For example, your website needs to have multiple optimized contact forms.
Forms can be used for a variety of purposes throughout your law firm website. They can help encourage potential new clients to contact you, help with client intake once someone is already engaged, or facilitate client communication throughout their time with your firm.
In order for your web forms to be successful, they need additional support. For example, the web form needs to be part of a compelling webpage on your law firm website. An effective web form cannot exist in a vacuum, instead it relies on a page with high-quality content to achieve its purpose.
The page or pages where you feature web forms should have:
- A clear directive. The page and the form should be easy for a potential client to navigate, understand, and use.
- An obvious answer to “why” a potential client should complete the form. Whether the purpose of the form is to get in touch with you or to subscribe to your newsletter, the call-to-action should be clear and to the point.
Note: The LawLytics system allows you to easily create and nest forms on your law firm website and in blog posts. There are several options for where you can place a web form, such as in-line with the text on your blog posts and practice area pages or in the sidebar of your web pages. To learn more, schedule an interactive demo with us.
In addition to offering contact forms on your website, you may also want to consider online scheduling tools for your web visitors. These tools help keep your calendar organized, allow greater flexibility in scheduling for the client, and help reduce administrative work.
Offer Electronic Payment Options
If you’re a solo attorney or run a small law firm, it’s likely that you’re dealing with administrative tasks you wouldn’t normally perform. Fortunately, administrative work is one of the most improved areas of office operations that benefit from technology. For example, your website can support online payments.
An electronic payment system on your firm’s website can help you get paid faster than traditional payment methods while also saving you time processing payments and managing payments. In addition, you can increase your client satisfaction by offering the flexibility of online payments. Finally, your payment software may link directly with your accounting software which helps you with faster and more accurate bookkeeping.
Note: LawLytics integrates with multiple electronic payment technologies and other practice management softwares. To explore our full list of integrations, click here.
Automate Your Workflows and Increase Productivity
The right case management software (CMS) can help you effectively run your business. While there are several great options available to attorneys, the majority of software will help with things like managing cases, clients, documents, bills, appointments, time-tracking, reporting, accounting, and more. For many attorneys, a good case management software paired with a modern and optimized website is the key to running their business more smoothly and sustainably.
One popular feature that tends to be shared across multiple CMS platforms is the ability to automate workflows. By pursuing automation in your day-to-day tasks, you can effectively decrease your time spent on repetitive tasks and greatly improve your productivity. This automation capability in addition to the organizational support of the software can be very impactful to your ability to run your business with as little overhead as possible.
Support Remote Meetings and Consults
One of the most important aspects of running a successful remote or hybrid law firm is your capability to support remote meetings and consultations. Video conferencing has come a long way in recent years, and has become a socially acceptable replacement for in-person meetings, consults, and even court hearings.
While choosing the right technology is important to creating a positive video conferencing experience, there are also other elements that can take your on-camera presence to the next level. For example:
- Invest in a high-quality webcam. The camera on your laptop is likely low quality and grainy, and could come across as unprofessional. Opt for a higher-quality webcam that delivers clearer images instead.
- Be choosy with your background. It can be easy for a client or potential client to get distracted by what is behind you while you’re on camera. To put your best foot forward, opt for a clean, plain background that features your firm’s name or logo.
- Boost your light. Oftentimes, even a well-lit room can still come across as dark and moody on camera. Try using a ring light attachment for your computer to help illuminate your appearance better.
Finding the Best Tech to Complement Your Law Firm Website
Many great practice management software exist on the market, so it can be overwhelming for attorneys to determine which are best for their business needs. To minimize anxiety, it’s helpful to first identify the reasons you need new tech.
When making a transition from a physical office space to a remote one, consider the following questions:
- How will you handle client intake?
- How will you take meetings and perform your services?
- How will you manage your books and accept payments?
- How much does your budget allow for practice management software?
There needs to be a way for you to accept and process client intake. In the absence of a physical office and receptionist, many remote firms are turning to virtual receptionist services to screen incoming calls and avoid missed calls, which can also mean missed opportunities. Not only will this help deliver better service to clients, but it also costs significantly less than hiring someone for a full-time position.
Attorneys also need to make sure they have the right tech to perform their basic business operations such as video conferencing and cloud document storage. These essential tools will make sure you have reliable capabilities to conduct virtual meetings and store client documents that are necessary to serve your clients and keep their information secure.
Another important aspect of running your business remotely is your system for bookkeeping and accepting payments. With the right tech, it may be possible to track your time, tasks, expenses, payments, and more within a single platform. This will aid with organization and overall efficiency.
Once you have a good understanding of what you need, it’s time to find a solution that works with your needs and your budget. From this point, you may want to explore multiple options for each area of need to see what is going to best complement your current – or desired – operations.
Once you narrow down a practice management software that aligns with your needs and budget, request a demo for each. Demos are the easiest way to get to know how the software works so you can determine whether it will be a good fit. Plus, it’s a great opportunity to ask any questions you may have.
Ultimately, the best way to go about finding new practice management technologies to identify what you need and outline a budget. You might need more than one practice management software, and in those cases, you may want to prioritize implementation. Taking on multiple new technologies at one time can be difficult while spacing them out can help you determine whether you really need the additional technology or not.
Prepare for a Better Tomorrow, Today
If you’re a solo attorney, run a small law firm, or have been thinking about starting out on your own, there has never been a more exciting time in the world of remote and hybrid working. As a collective, our eyes have been opened to the possibilities that remote work creates for work-life balance, business growth, and overall productivity, and the interest only continues to grow.
As a LawLytics member, your business goals are within reach with our cutting-edge technology tailored specifically to attorneys. Our platform is constantly evolving and improving so that you always have what you need to make your law firm’s website work harder so you don’t have to. Plus, you’re never alone with added value such as one-on-one support and strategy and our ongoing education resources.
If you’re not yet a LawLytics member and are interested in learning more about how your website can take your business to the next level, schedule a no-obligation demo with us.
