CRM System used for Law Firm Marketing Creates Pop-Up of Amount Clients Owe
According to a great story in Law Technology News, Ulmer & Berne used their CRM (client relationship management) system to spur their lawyers to collect $2 million more than they had expected in 2010 -- and the firm cut the days its invoices were unpaid from 92 days to 76 days.
"When a call comes in to a lawyer, information from the client relationship management system and from time and billing pops up on his or her computer screen — before the phone rings a second time," writes Sam Shipley, the firm's CIO.
Ulmer & Berne is a full-service firm with 180 lawyers operating from three offices in Ohio and a fourth in Chicago. Two years ago the ContactEase CRM system from Cole Valley Software was used only in marketing for little more than invitation lists and holiday cards.
Collections became a problem in 2009. "Typically, our lawyers are effective bill collectors — when they make the calls. But it was difficult to get them to bring up the subject with clients," Shipley said.
Programmer Brad Logozar created an application that brought together information from ContactEase, the Aderant Expert time-and-billing system and the CallManager telephone system. Lawyer phones were already integrated with Microsoft Outlook, so that many of the incoming calls from clients matched a phone number in ContactEase.
The collections application was rolled out firm-wide in November 2009. Whenever a client calls the relationship partner, a pop-up appears on the lawyer's computer if the client has a balance that is more than 60 days past due.
"Now, when we clean up our CRM contact listings, we focus on the records of the clients with the biggest collection problems — to be sure that their incoming calls are more likely to get a 'hit,'" Shipley said.
"Having a concise summary of current billing and collections information presented immediately when clients call helps to both control the growth of receivables and more importantly improve relations with clients by helping to avoid billing surprises," partner Wayne Serra told LTN.
What a great idea! The system should also be programmed to know and pop up with info such as: "You haven't taken this client out for lunch for two years!" "You haven't been on their premises since you were first hired! "The last time you did something as a favor for this client was in 1992!"