Legal CRM (client relationship management) software is a valuable tool for growing your practice. Law firms of all sizes—especially small and medium-sized firms—can use these tools to move clients through the intake process more quickly, improve client communication (and, by extension, client satisfaction), and better invest their marketing spend.  

But there are an abundance of CRM options, with an almost overwhelming number of features to choose from. That’s why this blog post answers the question: How do you decide which CRM features are necessities for your firm and which are superfluous (and likely to go unused)? 

Read on, and we’ll cover how to: 

• Identify your firm’s needs in a legal CRM 
• Evaluate the options available to you  
• Ensure all your employees are ready to get the most out of your investment 

Identifying your firm’s needs for specific CRM features 

Start by assessing your firm’s needs for a CRM. How will it interact with your current client intake, marketing, and communication processes?  

Account for details like: 

• Target clients and practice areas 
• Current vs. ideal intake process 
• Source(s) of leads 
• Speed to lead 
• Current marketing initiatives 
• What software it will have to interact or integrate with 

In addition, consider whether your firm has room for improvement and for streamlining manual tasks in the areas of client intake, document automation, analytics/reporting, or text and email marketing.   

Legal vs. generic CRMs: what’s the difference? 

If you’re combing through G2 or TrustPilot, you’ll come across a lot of options for CRMs, both generic and legal-specific. While generic CRMs can offer helpful features, they fall short in some notable ways.  

Legal-specific CRM systems are designed for the workflows and industry nuances of law firms. More precisely, they help with areas that law firms greatly need support in, including: 

• Client intake 
• Client communications 
• Marketing automations 
• Document-sharing and eSignature tools 

On the other hand, generic CRMs have a much broader set of functionalities. They can be helpful for general sales and customer service, as well as marketing activities, but tailoring them to a law firm’s needs requires extensive work. 

Evaluating your options: the best CRM software 

Each law firm will come to its CRM search with unique priorities, but some functionalities should be non-negotiable. Whichever legal CRM software you choose should include at least these essential features: 

1. Smart intake forms. Client intake can be an unwieldy process. Smart intake forms reduce manual data entry and duplication of effort. They also help eliminate unqualified leads from your sales pipeline, allowing you to focus on your most qualified leads.
2. Automated email and text marketing. These features reduce effort in client communication, allowing you to engage more effectively with your clients. You can also tailor your communication method to each client’s preference (text, email, or phone calls). 
3. One-click eSignatures. When you simplify the signing process, you expedite contract and document approvals. Document tracking also ensures seamless collaboration and compliance throughout your entire legal workflow.
4. Text and video messaging. Create more dynamic, personalized interactions with clients. Text and video messaging also simplify follow-ups and strengthens your client relationships, leading to more efficient communication and more engaged clients. 
5. Insightful dashboard analytics provide valuable information about client interactions and campaign performance from an intuitive dashboard, so you can make decisions based on real data. For instance, the information your legal CRM stores can help you identify and contact your most profitable leads so it’s more likely you’ll successfully convert them to clients. 

Additionally, law firms should carefully consider whether a CRM will sufficiently integrate with their current tech stack. For example, if data from a legal CRM has to be manually input into practice management software, law firms may want to focus on options that don’t create information silos or create extra work.  

Strategies for evaluating legal CRMs 

When evaluating new CRM software for legal firms, involving relevant stakeholders is essential. This includes partners, associates, paralegals, marketing professionals, and more.  

Their input should inform the selection process, ensuring the chosen system meets the firm’s needs. By understanding the exact ways different departments might need to use the software, you can make an informed decision.  

Getting feedback from stakeholders also facilitates adoption. When staff have a say in what tools are used, they’re more likely to embrace them. This eases the transition and increases staff engagement and satisfaction.  

Training employees to use CRM tools 

Implement a comprehensive, consistent training program to ensure all your firm’s employees benefit from whichever CRM software you end up landing on. 

When you switch, begin with an orientation session that covers the fundamentals of the software, focusing on how they can streamline their daily tasks. Provide hands-on training that uses real-world scenarios to make sure employees can apply what they learn in practice.  

If your firm is large enough and has enough employees, you may want to have separate training sessions tailored to different job roles, focusing on the functionalities of the CRM tool that are relevant to each group. For instance, you may have different training sessions for paralegals, attorneys, marketing professionals, and partners and firm owners, among other key roles. 

For best results, make training ongoing 

Once the initial stage of training is complete, move to the ongoing training and assistance stage.  

Offering easy-to-access online tutorials and training documentation can help address any technical difficulties that arise. You can also plan to assess employees’ understanding with interactive sessions on a regular basis, such as every six months or annually, depending on what works for your firm.  

Get more than a CRM with CosmoLex   

It’s easy to integrate CosmoLex CRM into your larger CosmoLex practice management workflows. That’s because it’s designed to work within the CosmoLex software ecosystem, which includes: 

• Automatic time tracking 
• Legal-specific business and trust accounting 
• Compliant online payment processing 
• Legal billing 
• Professional, modern, mobile-optimized websites made for you 
• File sharing and eSignature for legal practices 

The functionalities above mean that CosmoLex allows your firm to streamline and automate all your most tedious tasks, leaving more time to focus on providing top-notch legal services to your clients.  

Keep up with the latest technological developments in the world of legal software and choose a tool that’ll make client relationship management a breeze.  

Schedule a one-on-one demo or start your ten-day free trial of CosmoLex today.