It's no secret that poor client service can drive away your legal clients. However, there are several factors behind the scenes that could make clients think twice about working with you. One of these hidden elements is the efficiency and security of your IT strategy.
Communication, data security, document organization, and overall collaboration all depend upon reliable information technology. When downtime occurs, it could create confusion and frustration for your clients and staff alike. Here's why that is.
What is IT Downtime?
IT downtime refers to the wasted hours spent waiting for technical issue to be resolved in order to conduct business. This could look like:
- Printing or scanning issues
- Slow servers
- MFA, password resets, and other authentication issues
- Cyber attacks locking you out of critical systems
- Faxing errors
- Broken or faulty phone systems
Downtime can be caused by a wide range of snags. No matter the cause, this is a major roadblock to quality client service and a bad look for your firm.
1. Disorganized Case Management
Law firms deal with large caseloads, so tracking details about each account is crucial to delivering agile and professional service. Information systems should reflect the professionalism, accuracy, and experience of your staff.
Likewise, poorly organized workflows can overshadow the expertise and skill of your legal team. This is why investing in reliable technology is crucial to supporting the legal work that you do.
2. Inefficient Time Tracking
Another key aspect of managing a law firm is time tracking. You need to ensure your clients are billed for the right amount of time, and this depends on accurate and efficient workflows for lawyers to track hours.
Streamlining your workflows starts with investing in quality tools and IT support if things go wrong. If you're forced to go without certain critical tools, your clients could suffer as a result from inaccurate tracking and subsequent billing.
Incorrect billing leads to lost clients. This exemplifies the importance of reducing downtime through high-quality, speedy, and experienced managed IT services for law firms.
3. Poor Client Communication
Communication is at the forefront of any successful business. In professional services, this is especially true. Delicate legal cases require clear, transparent, strategic, and consistent communication between law professionals and their clients.
As many lawyers, paralegals, and other legal professionals often work remotely, they should be easy to reach. Faulty comms systems can lead to miscommunications, and downtime quickly leads to confusion.
To learn how to mitigate common issues with communication in the legal industry, check out our blog: 4 Communications Issues In Law Firms & How IT Services Can Help
4. Data Privacy Issues in Law
Data security is crucial when dealing with sensitive legal documentation, and without the right protections, hackers could take over your network and compromise this data.
Data breaches can be devastating for law firms. Hackers may threaten to release client data to competitors while locking you out of your network, file systems or other assets. This causes prolonged downtime, hurting client service and countless other business operations.
Learn about the possible effects of ransomware in our blog: The Dangers of Ransomware to Your Business. One way you can mitigate data security threats is by working with your IT provider to set up secure document management and Zero Trust infrastructure to lessen the chances of breaches.
What can Information Technology Services Do for Law Firms?
Managed IT services for lawyers can offer specialized technology guidance with your industry's unique needs in mind. A few key aspects to look for in IT services geared towards the law industry include:
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) services - GRC as a Service (GRCaaS) allows you to align with necessary cybersecurity compliance frameworks while tracking assessments, training, documentation, and audits in a centralized location.
Cloud document management solutions - Cloud based document management systems for law firms are efficient in protecting documents while allowing your staff the flexibility to organize files and collaborate through customized naming fields and secure access control.
Learn more about your options for cloud document management in our blog: Best Cloud-Based Document Management Systems For Law Firms
Secure cloud faxing tools - Faxing is here to stay, but cloud faxing is the new frontier of secure document sharing.
Old fax lines are less secure and offer fewer features for contact management and collaboration, making cloud faxing tools crucial for modern legal firms. Learn more about how this technology helps lawyers in our article: How Cloud Faxing Can Help with Your Law Firm's Remote Work Inefficiencies
Cloud communications solutions - The cloud is a huge asset to legal firms, and the remote work capabilities of mobile messaging, calling, and file sharing are endless. You can learn about common roadblocks you may face in the legal industry, and how the cloud can solve them in our article: 4 Communications Issues In Law Firms & How IT Services Can Help
How to Find Quality IT Services for Legal Firms
If you're ready to level up your technology strategy to attract, nurture, and retain your legal clients, managed IT services may be a great solution. These companies can manage vendors to eliminate the headache of waiting in long queues to speak to a representative, and they often have local technicians to make on-site visits for installation and troubleshooting.
If this sounds like something you're ready to explore, click the button below to speak with a managed IT professional.
