Picture this: a law firm where competitive, innovative, forward-thinking customer facing applications are being developed not by a slow-moving IT department, but in collaboration with the legal professionals at the forefront of the industry. Equipped and empowered with modern low-code/no-code (LCNC) tooling, legal professionals with the most accurate consumer knowledge are conceptualizing and building MVPs in days while validating and launching apps within weeks. This is a future-proof law firm, and here’s the thing: these already exist.
The Consumer Age is Here
It is no secret that the legal industry as a whole is still firmly rooted in outdated and traditional methods. Compared with various other industries, the law is running behind the universal technological revolution. According to KPMG, legal teams and law firms will continue to digitize and invest in technology in the coming years. All around your law firm the industry is digitizing and onboarding innovative technologies.
Meanwhile, we are in the age of the consumer, where clients have countless choices and high expectations, and never have to settle. According to EY, the most forward-thinking businesses put customers at their center. The consumer age, thus, redefines technology management archetypes and business models, requiring both the business and the IT departments to develop an understanding of and responsiveness to their customers. It is no surprise that legal companies and departments lagging in their digital innovation are losing both potential and existing customers to their tech-savvy and client-prioritizing competitors.
On top of that, constantly emerging innovative legal-tech companies are posing a real threat to traditional law firms. Here’s the reality: if you won’t offer clients a digitally-enabled, quick, efficient, and top-quality service, someone else will. The time to start investing in innovative customer facing applications is now.
Consumers Always Have a Better Choice
Consumers’ choices and options are increasing while their expectations and wishes are constantly rising. This poses two major challenges to your law firm:
- Consumers and their wealth of choice:
In an age of (digitally-enabled) transparency, consumers have the tools and abilities to weigh up and make all of their own decisions. They can access any information on a potential service or provider and compare this with any competitor. Increasingly, consumers are spoiled for choice in hugely competitive markets such as the legal industry. It's no longer enough to be good: you have to be better than anyone else. - Consumers and their high expectations:
Meanwhile, consumers are increasingly used to self-service solutions being developed in every industry. Contemporarily people can access and operate any service from their phones - from 24/7 customer service contact, online shopping, adjusting your heating from abroad, or doing all your banking from your phone. Consumers select services and companies which are the most convenient, user-friendly, and digitized.
Your law firm is facing a customer pool that is part of the technological revolution, spoiled by a wealth of choices, and used to high-tech self-service solutions. To stay competitive and become future-proof you only have one choice: create innovative Customer facing apps.
Becoming the Best Player in the Game
Customers expect services which are smarter, faster, and more efficient. Services which remove any barriers, complications, or unnecessary personal interactions. It is your job to create these.
Through the development of innovative customer facing applications, clients are given access to expertise, resources, services, and support without requiring any time from or interaction with a legal professional. They are provided with the efficient and seamless customer service they expect.
Examples of such innovative customer facing applications include a customer portal or case management system. Applications in which customers can log-in to receive round-the-clock support, make requests, perform calculations, and check in on cases. Innovative customer facing applications remove lawyers as the middlemen in the client service process, instead allowing technology to take over and facilitate. In a future-proof law firm, tech and human expertise work in tandem to provide the highest-quality customer support and service.
The Right Weapons for the Customer Experience Battle - Low-code/no-code Development
Low-code/no-code (LCNC) platforms enable legal professionals, without any coding experience, to be at the forefront of innovative customer solution development. LCNC development is an increasingly used method for application development within businesses and companies. LCNC development, thus, is the way forward to realizing your innovation plans.
Allowing legal professionals and business users to create solutions puts app development in the hands of those with the most in-depth and current knowledge and understanding of the exact pains and needs of your clients. Rather than outsourcing expertise and tech-development, working with a LCNC platform allows you to invest in your firm’s existing knowledge. Through this development process your company benefits two-fold:
- Empowering legal professionals by putting them at the forefront of development
- Prioritizing customers by putting them at the heart of innovation efforts
In a process where MVPs are built in days, and apps are validated and launched in weeks, the response-time to market changes and evolving customer needs is immediate. As a result, a law firm permanently provides the most competitive and high-quality customer offer and service. This, too, increases the (new and existing) customer satisfaction, as well as employee satisfaction. This is how your law firm not only comes out on top of the race to innovation, but stays on top.
Developing customer facing applications, thus, is the way for you to future-proof your law firm.
Interested in knowing more? Read how Clifford Chance, a leading law firm, has used low-code/no-code development to build innovative apps and boost efficiency.
