Your Law Firm is a Business. Take it to the Next Level

Today we are talking all about scheduling tools. 

When we say “scheduling tools,” we’re talking about apps that allow referral sources, clients, and potential clients to schedule a time in your calendar to meet with you. These tools are truly fantastic. The capabilities they offer and the flexibility they allow for both you and your clients could be a game-changer in your law firm.

In this episode, we discuss exactly why and how you should be using these scheduling tools. We go over each of the features these tools offer that you don’t want to miss out on. Finally, we cover which scheduling tool may be best for you to use.

Whether you’re brand new to scheduling tools or have heard of them but have hesitations, tune in to learn the countless benefits of using this resource to take your law firm to the next level.

Show Highlights:

• The various benefits of scheduling tools.
• How to use a scheduling tool without losing control of your calendar.
• How these tools can enhance the quality of your customer service.
• Why you should create different types of appointments.
• Seven features of scheduling tools that you should utilize.
• How to decide which software to use in your law firm.

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We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

Supporting Resources:

Microsoft Bookings

Calendly.com

ACTION STEPS:

1. If you aren’t already using a scheduling tool, go to Calendly.com and sign up for a free account. It will limit you in the number of appointments that you can make but it’s a great way to start using it and getting a feel for the possibilities.
2. If you are using a scheduling tool, start talking to your team about how you’re using it and write down some guidelines that you want to follow. For example, (1) never let the person scheduling the appointment pick the type of appointment, (2) never refuse to schedule over the phone; in that case, schedule the appointment in the tool for them.
3. Brainstorm the different types of appointments that you want to set up. Generally, the more detailed the better. This ensures that you know what the appointment is for when you see it on the calendar and that the client knows what to expect as well. Some common examples are a consultation for a potential new client, a short status update call with an existing client, or a 2-hour trial prep with a current client or witness.

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Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

For many law firm owners, marketing feels daunting. It’s easy for it to become overwhelming with all of the options, channels, and platforms out there. However, because marketing is so critical to getting leads, we have no choice but to learn how to do it. Today, we’re going to make this simple and easy for you.

A couple of episodes ago, we mentioned key trends law firms should incorporate into their marketing and one of those was multiple channel marketing. That trend is the key to reducing your overwhelm around marketing. It sounds like a lot of work but you can build a process that only takes a couple of hours a week.

In this episode, we discuss why a little planning goes a long way, the types of content you should create, and an outline for creating that content each week. Tune in to learn how to maintain an amazing multichannel marketing process in just two hours a week. 

Show Highlights:

• What marketing channels are.
• Why you should have a quarterly marketing strategy.
• How to come up with content ideas.
• Why video should be your primary starting content source.
• How to repurpose your video content.
• Other marketing content channels to utilize.
• Why having an email list is so important.
• A weekly multichannel content strategy that you can repeat each month and quarter.

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We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

Supporting Resources:

https://searchresponse.io/people-also-ask

ACTION STEPS:

1. The first step is to sit down and jot the top 10 questions you get. If that is not coming off the top of your head, put a pad next to your phone and write down questions as you are talking to prospective new clients. 
2. Download our PDF and follow the marketing schedule.
3. Take six questions and record your videos.
4. Get the videos transcribed and edit them into an article or blog (you can actually outsource this over time as well).
5. Find a freelancer to edit and create video snippets and social media posts.
6. Use a tool like Hootsuite to schedule the social media posts for the month.
7. Don’t forget to create an email newsletter once a month using this content too.

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Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

A couple of episodes ago, we talked about turning the dread we share about billing into action. We talked about all the issues and concerns around billing and how to combat them.

Today, we are diving deeper into that topic. Today’s episode is all about online payments. 

The truth is, offering to accept online payments just makes it easier for you to get paid. It eases the billing process for both you and your clients. Many of the concerns we talked about in the billing episode would be solved by default if we transitioned to online payment methods.

Listen in as we cover some of the common myths around online payments, put them up against the facts, and discuss how online payments can affect your business. Spoiler alert: you’ll get your money faster. Join the conversation to hear more!

Show Highlights:

• Myth 1: accepting online payments will cost you more.
• How online payment methods actually allow you to get paid faster and more.
• The time you will save by using online payment methods.
• Different online payment methods to consider accepting.
• Why you should increase your rates by a small percentage.
• Myth 2: your clientele prefers to pay with checks.
• How to manage online payments when dealing with trust funds.

Subscribe and Review

We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

Supporting Resources:

"The Lowdown on NC Lawyers Taking Credit Cards"

Clio's 2019 Legal Trends Report

ACTION STEPS:

1. Increase your prices by 3% and eliminate the argument that it will cost you more.
2. If you’re not sending your bills out electronically, research those options. They may already be included in the software that you’re using.
3. On whatever type of bill you send, add a message to start marketing the idea that you accept online payments. Put it on your website and let your clients know.

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Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Mark and his team are always working to uncover what is working right now in marketing. They do their research on where things are headed and adjust their client’s marketing campaigns to fit those predictions. Their suggestions are always based on data and industry research, making them rock solid.   

As a result, we thought it would be helpful to have Mark pull together the marketing trends he and his team have discovered over the last couple of years and then share those trends with all of you. In this episode, Mark will also cover why we should be spending time, money, and effort on marketing in the first place.

Tune in to hear his incredible insights into today’s top three marketing trends and what you can do to leverage those trends for your firm.

Show Highlights:

• Why marketing is important for every business, including law firms.
• The effects marketing can have on your firm. 
• Trend 1: the way people find your law firm is more fragmented than ever.
• Why you should be using multiple marketing channels.
• Trend 2: consumers want to have digital service options.
• How law firms can adjust their marketing to leverage trend two.
• Trend 3: Google is one of your biggest referral partners.
• How to take advantage of Google as a referral partner.

Subscribe and Review

We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

ACTION STEPS:

1. Start investing time, energy, or even some money into your marketing to future-proof your new business. 
2. Think about ways to take the content you already have or some content you can create and repurpose it into other marketing channels.
3. For those of you who implemented Zoom calls, client portals, e-signatures, electronic payments, etc., BRAG about it on your home page. Trust me: very few of the law firms in your town are talking about that and it is a great way to differentiate yourself right now.
4. Think about how you can leverage the fact that about 50% of people are searching for a law firm and not using a referral. Go back and listen to the Google My Business how-to episode and start looking into ways you can improve your search engine optimization.

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Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Billing--it’s one of the most dreaded parts of owning a law firm. 

When it comes to billing, we hear the same things from attorneys over and over again. They don’t record time for things they don’t think they should charge a client for. They write off time or give discounts for tasks that they think shouldn’t have taken so long. They delay sending out bills because they fear their client’s response or that the client won’t pay them. They don’t follow up on unpaid bills because they’re worried their client will argue or feel bad that they charged so much when they know their client doesn’t have the money.

This is a no-judgment zone. Both of us, Melanie and Mark, have done all of these things in our businesses. However, we want to help you overcome this dread and avoid that vicious cycle where the bills get larger and larger and you get more and more concerned.

The facts of hourly billing don’t have to be “just the way it is.” Melanie has learned ways to overcome her dread of billing in her law firm. In this episode, she’s sharing great insights that can help you not dread it quite so much either.

Show Highlights:

• Why you need to hold your clients responsible.
• How to value the service you’re providing your clients for all that it’s worth.
• The financial impact this dread of hourly billing can have on your firm and life.
• What to do if you often don’t record time for things you don’t want to charge your clients for.
• What to do when you think something shouldn’t have taken so long.
• Why you should never delay sending out bills.
• Why you always need to follow up on unpaid bills.

Subscribe and Review

We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

Supporting Resources:

The Power of TED* (*The Empowerment Dynamic): 10th Anniversary Edition

ACTION STEPS:

1. Stop writing off and discounting so much of your time and so much of your bills and hold your clients accountable.
2. Remind yourself of your value by listening to and sharing client reviews.
3. Every time that you write off a bill or review a list of unpaid bills, think about the impact that money would have on the firm as a whole and on each team member and family member depending on the firm.

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Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Today we are talking about online reviews. We are so excited about this topic because it’s something attorneys can dive into that can make a big difference in their law firms. 

Everyone knows to some degree that reviews are important. However, there’s a lot of confusion out there about them. There are even those who have concerns and criticism around the topic of online reviews. This makes it an incredibly interesting topic.

Regardless, online reviews are a crucial part of your marketing strategy. They are only growing in importance in today’s online society. So, in this episode, we’re diving into this topic and teaching you everything you need to know about it. 

Tune in to learn a clarification on the growing importance of online reviews for law firms, how many reviews you should be getting, and how to build a culture and a process for getting online reviews.

Show Highlights:

• Why law firms need online reviews.
• How many reviews you need.
• How to make getting reviews a part of your process.
• Why you should choose one person to be responsible for that process.
• How to figure out the best time to ask for reviews.
• How to make it easier for clients to leave you reviews.
• The importance of following up.
• Nontraditional people who you could ask to leave a review.

Subscribe and Review

We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

Supporting Resources:

Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B Cialdini PhD 

“Say the Right Thing: Apologies, Reputability, and Punishment” by David B Wooten

ACTION STEPS:

1. Identify a champion.
2. Set your review goal for the year (twice as many as the direct online competition).
3. Identify the points in the process of a case where there are natural high points of client satisfaction and insert review asks in those places.
4. Gather the links to places where people can leave you a review (Google, Avvo, Yelp, etc.). Default to Google most of the time.
5. Teach the team how to ask for a review.  
6. Make sure your entire team is asking for a review, especially ANYONE who interacts with a client. Your paralegal or assistant may have had to do a lot of back and forth with them on gathering documents and scheduling follow-ups and they may be the person who elevated the client sat. Let them ask.
7. Think outside the box of traditional clients.
8. Follow up.
9. Respond to reviews.

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Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

At Streamline Legal, Melanie helps law firm owners make their firms more effective and efficient all the time. She has seen firsthand what trips law firm owners up most often. Based on this experience, she had identified the top three systems and procedures that law firms overlook that have the biggest impact on their businesses.

You probably already have many of these systems by default. However, don’t shrug this topic off as irrelevant if that’s the case. Today we’re going to take a deeper look at these systems to see how we can beef them up. This will truly take your law firm to the next level.

So tune in to learn the importance of systems in general, which will have the biggest impact on your law firm, and the features you may need to focus in on to make the biggest difference for your business.

Show Highlights:

• How systems can help in times of crisis.
• Why you don’t need to know every detail about your clients as a law firm owner.
• Why having an intake system is so critical.
• The importance of billing systems.
• Where most law firms waste time and energy with billing.
• How a file closing system can benefit your firm.

Subscribe and Review

We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

ACTION STEPS:

1. Start with these 3 systems: intake, billing, and file closing.  Do you have them all documented?  If not, pick the one that’s missing or start at the beginning.
2. As we’ve discussed in the past, you don’t have to make this more complicated than it needs to be. On a piece of paper, Word document, or Google sheet, write down what you want your system to look like.  Write down WHO does WHAT by WHEN for each step.
3. Share it with your team. Get their feedback. This will also help get their buy-in. Once you’ve shared it, hold them to it. This is the new expectation. If you don’t, you’ll get frustrated that your system isn’t working when, in reality, it’s the people not working the system.

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Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Our episodes on marketing up until now have been mainly around the important strategies for level setting. We’ve been covering everything you need to know as you get ready to do marketing. Today, however, we will be diving into a real marketing tactic. This episode is all about Google My Business.

There’s been a lot of chatter on social media recently about Google My Business and for good reason. It is a very important tool for business owners including those of you who run law firms.

In this episode, we are teaching you everything you need to know about Google My Business. We’re giving you an overview of what it is and then explaining why it’s so important. After that, we’re going to give you actual success tips to make sure you are creating and optimizing your GMB profile as well as you can.  

Get ready to take your law firm to the next level with Google My Business.

Show Highlights:

• What Google My Business is and does.
• Why you should care about GMB.
• Where people search for law firms.
• How to optimize and claim your GMB profile.
• Which keywords to add to your GMB.
• What a tracking number is.
• What kind of pictures and videos you should include on your GMB.
• How often to post on your blog and social media.
• Why you need to monitor your Q&A section.
• The importance of reviews and how to optimize them.

ACTION STEPS:

1. If you haven’t yet, claim or create your Google My Business profile
2. Review this podcast as you fill out the data in your GMB. We will try to get more detail added to our blog to support this episode
3. Once your GMB profile is up and optimized, begin to think about posts, questions, and answers you can add each week

Subscribe and Review

We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

If you enjoyed this episode, we've also created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from it. Just go to the episode page at http://www.nextlevel.legal/episode/lfn012 to download it.

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Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

In our episode on how to become a paperless law firm, we mentioned something called the Rocketbook in passing. We didn’t have time to dive into it then, so that is what we are going to do today.

The Rocketbook is an amazing tool that can help take your law firm to the next level. However, we don’t want you to give into the shiny object syndrome. That is why we are taking the time to explain the Rocketbook in depth in this episode. We are going to teach you how to use it to become more successful and help your law firm grow.

So tune in to hear what the Rocketbook is, why you need one, and what all you can do with this incredible tool.

Show Highlights:

• The various features of the Rocketbook.
• What the Rocketbook app does.
• What OCR software is.
• Why you should get a Rocketbook.
• How to send your Rocketbook notes to the right people.
• Specific ways you can use your Rocketbook.

ACTION STEPS:

1. Go to the Amazon app on your phone
2. Type in Rocketbook
3. Click Buy Now
4. When it’s delivered fill out the front cover that indicates where you want each of the symbols to send your notes
5. Hand it and your phone to the tech-savvy intern in the office and ask them to set it up using the simple steps on the Rocketbook website

Subscribe and Review

We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

Supporting Resources:

See a demo of the Rocketbook being used for Intake forms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_PYbX0OexE&t

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Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Last week, we dove into an article recently put out by the ABA on women in legal. We got the chance to have a great conversation with Valerie Fenchel on working mothers and women in the legal industry in general. However, though it was an amazing conversation, we couldn’t end the conversation there.

As important as discussing issues like this is, taking action is even more important. It is through the actions they take that law firms can affect change. So today we are talking all about taking actions within our businesses to support the ideas and causes that are important to us.

To discuss this, we will go through a few different things. We’re going to talk about values and how to understand what your firm believes and supports. From there, we’re going to discuss company culture and how important it is to running a business. Finally, we’re going to teach you specific things you can do to reinforce the culture you want in your firm. 

Start taking action now by listening in!

Show Highlights:

• How to figure out your personal values.
• What firm culture is.
• How establishing a strong firm culture helps your bottom line.
• Why you should make your firm culture public.
• Why you should never hire someone who doesn’t fit your culture.
• Actions you should take to support your firm’s culture.
• Examples of some of these actions. 
• Why reinforcing firm culture includes supporting both your team and your clients.
• How to enrich your firm’s diversity and limit your unconscious bias.

Subscribe and Review

We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

Supporting Resources:

https://nextlevel.legal/

ACTION STEPS:

1. Think about what you stand for and stand against. Really dig into the values you want to represent to your team, clients, and community.
2. Work with your team to define these values - we recommend aiming for no more than five.
   1. We talked about some examples for policies and systems to encourage work/life balance, your team’s personal and professional growth, and giving back to clients and community.
3. Identify specific actions you can take in your day-to-day business that reinforce your culture and values. 

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Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com