Workflow Pipeline Assessment

1. New Client Onboarding Process:

a. Our client onboarding is informal and not structured.
b. We don’t use a formal onboarding process, but rather we meet our clients where they are at to provide a customized experience.
c. Every new client is processed through our onboarding system. We measure the outcomes of each new onboarding process and utilize the onboarding meeting as the baseline marker to measure the clients progress.

2. Scheduling Onboarding Meetings:

a. We don’t have a new client onboarding process.
b. We try to schedule an onboarding meeting soon after client retention but might have some delays.
c. We always schedule onboarding meetings during the initial consultation process, ensuring a smooth transition.

3. Welcome Packages or Gifts:

a. We rarely send welcome packages or gifts to new clients.
b. We occasionally send welcome packages, ensuring they are within bar guidelines.
c. Every new client receives a thoughtful welcome package or gift welcoming them to our family of clients, strictly adhering to bar guidelines.

4. Creating Space For Clients To Ask Their Questions During Onboarding:

a. We don’t have a new client onboarding process.
b. Clients ask questions, that’s what they do. We don’t need to create space for that, it just happens.
c. During the onboarding process, we create space for the clients to ask questions and we have prompts to help them think of questions they wouldn’t have ordinarily asked. The better job we can do of this during onboarding the lower the stress we’ll place on the client success team.

5. Identifying Right Client Fit:

a. We don’t use a new client onboarding process.
b. We occasionally identify that a client won’t be a good fit during onboarding, but we don’t do that in a structured way.
c. Our onboarding process has specific checkpoints to ensure the services we offer can provide the client with an adequate solution and that we don’t let a crazy client in the building.

6. Involvement of Client Success Team:

a. We don’t have a new client onboarding process.
b. We onboard every new client but that work is managed by the legal team.
c. Our client success team plays a pivotal role, ensuring a smooth and efficient transition from sales to onboarding and ongoing client success during the matter management process.

7. Setting Clear Expectations:

a. We don’t have a new client onboarding process.
b. We often miss out on communicating expectations clearly during the onboarding process.
c. Clear communication of expectations, both from our side and the client's side, is a cornerstone of our onboarding process. These expectations include but are not limited to what the client wants the outcome of their case to be, what we believe the outcome of their case will likely be, how our firm manages communication and how we expect the client to respond.

8. Post Onboarding Personalized Communication:

a. We don’t have a new client onboarding process.
b. We communicate with the client regarding their case after the initial onboarding meeting but the communication is in direct relation with the needs for managing the matter.
c. In addition to communicating with the client regarding items they need to provide to us or we need to provide to them, we create a special personalized message from our team thanking them for trusting us and recapping next steps.

9. Client Journey Visualization:

a. We don’t have a new client onboarding process nor do we share with the client a visualization of their expected journey.
b. We verbally tell the clients what to expect during their client journey.
c. Clients receive a clear and detailed visualization of their journey with our firm, ensuring they know what to expect at every stage. We provide this outline verbally, in writing and we’ve created artwork so a visual learner can comprehend the journey best.

10. Post Onboarding Satisfaction Review:

a. We don’t have a new client onboarding process.
b. We don’t have a process to ask our clients about the satisfaction with our firm after the onboarding process.
c. We provide our clients with the ability to let us know how satisfied they are with working with our firm to this point. We do this because we have a limited guarantee on satisfaction and we want to ensure we catch unsatisfied clients before it’s too late.

1. Workflow Documentation:

a. We don't have a documented workflow for managing client matters.
b. We have a basic workflow documentation, but it might not cover all aspects of our operations.
c. We have a comprehensive, well-documented workflow that clearly delineates every step in managing client matters based on practice area, it’s clearly written, and we have a visual representation created as well as a video explaining that visual representation. This provides us with a birds eye view of how the matter management process works.

2. Workflow Management:

a. We don’t have a dedicated team to oversee and improve workflow.
b. We have managers of different departments and it’s their job to improve workflow.
c. We have a dedicated team to manage workflow. Their primary aim is to ensure the workflow is matching the market demand sales is providing. They identify bottlenecks, inspect processes, train and communicate with sales regarding the total throughput of the workflow operation.

3. Bottleneck Identification:

a. I’m not sure what you mean by a bottleneck. If you mean something that slows down production those issues are everywhere.
b. We do our best to identify bottlenecks regularly, but it feels like we’re playing a game of wack-a-mole, we find and fix one bottleneck only to find another popping up.
c. Identifying bottlenecks, and preventing new bottlenecks from occurring is the primary aim of the workflow process management team. Their primary aim is to reduce the amount of time it takes to move a case from opened to closed.

4. Continuous Improvement:

a. We expect our team to work towards continued improvement but we don’t provide them a clear path to accomplishing that goal.
b. We expect our management team to help the team members consistently improve.
c. The company takes personal responsibility for providing the necessary training for managers and employees alike to improve their performance and maximize workflow capacities.

5. Task Communication:

a. Tasks are often communicated from management to their team verbally or via email.
b. We have a tool to help us manage tasks in our matter management program but often these tasks become unruly and difficult manage..
c. Our workflow management team is constantly working to make task creating efficient, ensuring that repetitive tasks don’t clog the system while maintaining strict rules of engagement that all tasks issued to a team member must be entered into the matter management system.

6. Team Capacity Measurement:

a. We don't have a clear system to identify our team’s capacity.
b. We typically discover that our team is out of capacity only when workflow is backed up.
c. Our workflow management team regularly inspects the capacity of our matter management team, works with them to increase capacity and communicates current capacities to the sales and client success teams so they can set proper expectations for the clients.

7. Client Matter Tracking:

a. We are still using paper files and spreadsheets to manage our workflow.
b. We have a matter management system but we don’t use it to it’s full capabilities.
c. We maximize the utilization of our matter management program to ensure we can track client matter from beginning to end and identify any bottlenecks along the way.

8. Workflow Collaboration:

a. Our departments don’t collaborate with each other often.
b. We do our best to have our teams collaborate, however, it feels like this often creates tension and the different teams are often at odds.
c. We have inner department collaboration and the workflow management team facilitates a vision for all departments that fits the firms vision to serve the clients. While nothing is perfect, all teams are marching to the same beat.

9. Client Satisfaction and Workflow:

a. We don’t measure the satisfaction of our clients during the workflow stage.
b. We pay attention to any negative feedback from clients during the workflow stage but we don’t proactively communicate with all clients.
c. We see client satisfaction as the primary indicator that our workflow system is performing as designed. And we do our best to improve client satisfaction by properly managing the expectations sales provides and the workflow department’s ability to meet or exceed those expectations.

10. Workflow Measurement:

a. We are not sure how to measure the efficiency of our workflow.
b. The best measurement we have for our workflow is the number of cases we close.
c. Our workflow management team breaks our workflow into stages and we do this by practice area. We then measure the number of cases in each stage.

11. Time And Workflow:

a. We have a rough idea of how long it takes to close a case but there are so many variables we don’t track it.
b. We do track the amount of time it takes to close a case and do our best to reach that goal.
c. We measure how long it takes for our workflow to move from stage to stage based on practice area and we do our best to reduce the amount of time.

1. Feedback Solicitation:

a. We rarely ask our clients for feedback.
b. We ask for feedback occasionally or after a case is closed.
c. We regularly and systematically request feedback at various stages of our client engagement.

2. Proactive Communication:

a. Our firm waits for clients to reach out with concerns or questions.
b. We touch base with our clients periodically, but it's not always consistent.
c. Our firm prioritizes proactive communication, ensuring clients are always informed and attended to.

3. Communication Mediums:

a. We generally use one mode of communication, such as email or the phone, with all our clients.
b. We use a couple of different communication channels, but not necessarily based on client preference.
c. We utilize a variety of communication vehicles tailored to each client's preference, ensuring their comfort and accessibility.

4. Inspiring Positive Reviews:

a. We don't have a system to encourage satisfied clients to leave reviews.
b. We occasionally remind clients about leaving a review if they were happy with our services.
c. We have a structured approach to inspire and make it easy for satisfied clients to provide public testimonials or reviews.

5. Escalation Paths for Dissatisfaction:

a. We don’t have dissatisfied clients.
b. We address dissatisfied clients' concerns, but the process may not always be streamlined.
c. We have a clear, structured path to escalate non-satisfied clients to higher management, ensuring their concerns are promptly addressed.

6. Monitoring Feedback:

a. We don't have a centralized way to track or monitor client feedback.
b. We document feedback, but it might not be in an organized or easily accessible manner.
c. Our firm utilizes a comprehensive system to continuously monitor and analyze client feedback for actionable insights.

7. Client Rating System:

a. We don't have a formal rating system for client satisfaction.
b. We have tried using a rating system, like a simple scale, occasionally.
c. We employ a systematic scoring method, similar to the net promoter system, to gauge client satisfaction consistently.

8. Proactive Communication Stages:

a. We haven’t considered the importance of proactive communication to ensure client satisfaction.
b. We do our best to proactively communicate with clients, but we don’t have our communication schedule broken into stages by practice area.
c. Each practice area we offer is broken into stages and at each stage we proactively communicate with our clients to ensure satisfaction.

9. Training and Skill Development:

a. We don't invest in training our team on client communication and satisfaction best practices.
b. We occasionally hold training sessions on client communication.
c. Our firm understands the importance of client satisfaction and regularly provides training to our team, ensuring top-tier client interactions.

10. Client Satisfaction Firm Culture:

a. We expect if we do good work, our clients will be mostly satisfied with us.
b. We let our team know that it’s our responsibility to satisfy the client.
c. Our firm has built a culture of client satisfaction. We measure client satisfaction and post the results for the entire team to see it. We discuss those results during the weekly management meetings and in department meetings. And we celebrate excellence in client satisfaction with the team.