Set New Clients Up for a Smooth Relationship From Day 1

Attorneys must master the art of building strong client relationships.

Clients seek out legal advice during stressful, perhaps even scary times. On top of that unease, they are required to share personal, highly sensitive information, often with many near-strangers. That’s part of why the best attorneys are those who put clients at ease from Day 1 by proving themselves reliable, knowledgeable and always accessible. These traits play a key role in building a smooth relationship — one based on trust and clear communication.

Likewise, if you fail to build smooth client relationships, the likelihood of achieving a positive outcome plummets. Without immediately establishing a trusting bond, communication becomes clouded and sporadic, and clients may withhold key information.

Fortunately, building a smooth relationship with your clients isn’t as difficult as it might appear. Let’s outline the three key areas that attorneys must focus on to effortlessly build strong long-term relationships with their clients.

1. Crystal clear, confidential communication

What separates the best attorneys from the rest? The way they communicate with clients.

They’re easily accessible on a wide variety of channels: email, SMS, phone or in-person. When clients get in touch, the attorney is up to speed with their case. They clearly explain any relevant updates and walk clients through the relevant next steps. Most importantly, clients know anything they say — and any documents they share — will be kept entirely confidential.

Strong, secure communication is built right into the fabric of Smokeball, thanks to Smokeball Communicate.

Our secure portal acts as an all-in-one client communication hub for your entire firm, taking the place of SMS text messages. Reach out to clients ahead of a deadline, and respond to questions when it’s most convenient for you. Every message and document shared in Communicate is searchable and stored to the relevant matter, meaning you’ll maintain a complete record. And because Communicate comes with two-factor authentication and data encryption, you’ll never worry about a breach of attorney-client confidentiality.

Related: Just because technology allows clients to reach you any time doesn’t mean they should. Learn more about setting appropriate communication boundaries.

2. Masterful case management

Juggling multiple cases shouldn’t feel like a literal juggling act. But how can attorneys stay on top of critical details in every case at a moment’s notice?

With Smokeball, every piece of every case — files, emails, billing information, clients’ details and more — is tagged to the related matter. Your staff will never again have to dig for the right document in the wrong place. And because Smokeball is both installed locally to your computer and cloud-based, this information is accessible at all times, from all places.

3. Document automation done right

Creating, updating, and filling out documents has traditionally been a tiresome and time-consuming process. However, it’s also an important process to get right.

Mistakes could be costly — both to your firm and your client relationships. When creating documents manually, human error often creeps in. A typo here or there might not seem like the end of the world, but with legally binding contracts that put an attorney’s reputation on the line, attention to detail is non-negotiable.

As a result, attorneys painstakingly review all documents to ensure they are completely error-free. This diligent approach might be for the best, but clients generally don’t appreciate waiting weeks to see a key document that moves their case forward.

With Smokeball, there’s no reason your firm should manually create documents from scratch. Our library of 20,000+ automated court forms and our legal document software pull from more than 200 specific matter types, making the process of drafting, editing and finalizing key documents as quick and seamless as possible. Automatic paragraph inclusion even suggests relevant content based on the rest of your document and the parties involved.

Strengthen your client relationships, today

Attorneys can build strong client relationships by mastering their communication, case management and document creation capabilities. To learn more about how Smokeball helps strengthen your client relationships, watch a demo today.

If disaster strikes, is your firm prepared?

Join Attorney and Smokeball Legal Technology Advisor Jordan Turk for our next FREE CLE webinar on December 15th at 1 PM CST.