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The Role of Trust in Client Services and Customer Success
When it comes to creating and developing bonds with your customers, it all comes down to one thing — trust. Your customers need to trust your brand and feel like they’re appreciated and taken care of. This is true for all industries, especially the legal field that deals with eDiscovery. It involves dealing with hundreds and thousands of documents, some of which contain sensitive and privileged information. Your customers need to know that you are taking meticulous measures to ensure the safety of their data.
This article covers the importance of providing optimal client services and ensuring customer success in eDiscovery.
Project Management
An important part of the eDiscovery process is project management. Having an eDiscovery software without efficient project management will make you miss out on the benefits of the former. The reason for this is that if certain aspects are not taken care of properly or if there are errors at any stage, the entire eDiscovery process might break and you will have to start all over again.
When it comes to successful project management, there are three elements that must be managed:
The project should move ahead as per the schedule.
Time
The resources used for the project should be on or under the budget.
Cost
The tasks pertaining to the project must be completed.
Scope
During eDiscovery, project managers can improve the efficiency of the processes. They will be the central point of communication for the team and a direct line to the required information. By overseeing the details of the project, they allow their team to focus on creating the legal strategy. They will be responsible for ensuring that the deadlines are met and unpredictable data is avoided.
Every case is different, meaning the day-to-day role of a project manager won’t be the same. The eDiscovery software hence must be able to deal with the specific case challenges. Their responsibility can include performing data sampling, creating reports, managing databases, establishing project milestones, overseeing reviewers, establishing discovery protocols, performing QC, consulting with the client, and more.
A project manager can help a law firm or an in-house legal department with the following:
Serving Clients
When it comes to eDiscovery solution providers, both internal as well as external clients deserve similar attention and respect. Even though there is a difference in the way you approach them, the end goal must be the same — providing exceptional service.
Attorneys are required to keep up with technological changes. So, whether they know the details or not, they have to partner with technologists like you. Working with you will help their litigation support team create a strong case strategy.
When you are dealing with an external client, you are a representative of your firm. Your client will consider you the same. So, it is important that you stay professional. Similarly, establishing a positive relationship with your clients is crucial as well. Your internal clients are the paralegals, attorneys, and partners you are supporting. They might be your coworkers, but they must also be treated as clients. They have a lot of options for eDiscovery services, and if they are not treated well, they might go a different way.
Keeping Communication and Expectations Open
Now that you know the importance of providing exceptional service, let’s get into the how. And the answer is simple — communication.
For an eDiscovery software provider, good communication refers to setting clear, realistic expectations. You need to have level-headed discussions with your clients while being professional and respectful. You might end up working with people who are difficult to deal with. But, by using some basic tactics, you can foster effective communication with them.
One of the most important tactics that you can use is staying calm. If your client has sent you a contentious email, you must take some time to get calm before responding. You can even ask your peers to review the email to ensure that your message is professional. Also, make sure that you don’t take things personally. You have to develop a growth mindset and consider the challenges as opportunities.
Effective communication is crucial, especially when it comes to costs. What’s better? Having a conversation about a potential expense or having a conversation after a client has received the bill? You need to be transparent about the costs and inform clients of the changes at each stage. By sharing the project’s details and giving advice on potential strategies, you can empower your clients.
Faster Services
Here are the services that you need to make readily available for your clients:
When your clients on board to your platform, you must provide them with comprehensive training on how to use your solution. Your clients should also have a dedicated success manager who will ensure a smooth onboarding process.
Onboarding
You should also provide your clients with migration services to help transfer their data. This way, they will be up and running quickly.
Migration
Your support team should comprise reliable and responsive tech experts who are there to help your clients around the clock. They must have the technical expertise and some form of legal experience.
Tech Support From Experts
If possible, you can also get valuable industry training and certifications. These will serve as proof of expertise to prospective as well as existing clients.
Advanced Training and Certifications
The Importance of User Adoption Teams
As subscription-based software licensing continues to increase in popularity, it has become more important for companies to focus on product adoption and product management. The job of a product manager has always been to improve the customer experience. But today, promoting early activation is more important than it ever was in the previous era. The reason behind this is simple — acquiring more customers is more expensive than retaining an existing one. So, if you lose a client after putting money into acquiring one, it’s not a viable business strategy.
Having a good user adoption team can help you as well. It can encourage your current customers to expand their services. Apart from this, it can also improve your demo conversion rates and boost product engagement. To see the impact your user adoption team is making, you can measure metrics such as Churn Rate, Customer Lifetime Value, Customer Acquisition Cost, ARR, MRR, etc.
User Adoption Strategies You Can Use
For an eDiscovery software provider, it’s not enough to just acquire the client. You have to take steps to ensure that your client stays with you. For this to happen, the customer must have a satisfying journey from the initial consultation to the adoption phase.
The first step for you to take is to understand why your clients are using your product in the first place. The best place to get this information is to ask the sales team, as they are well aware of the pain points your customers are dealing with every day. By understanding the challenges that your prospects are facing, you can get key insights for improving user adoption. Another way to get this information is through surveys where your existing customers can answer questions on your product’s strengths and weaknesses.
You can also use your best customers as a template for your product usage. Check how they talk about your product, how often they use it, and how they share feedback. If you want to know more, you can also get in touch with them directly. It will help you get a better understanding of how your clients perceive eDiscovery companies. Then, with this information, you can pinpoint the exact parts that will benefit your prospects the most. Getting an understanding of your product and your customers is the first step toward improving user adoption. It will help you create a more engaging onboarding experience.
Another great user adoption strategy that you can try is to offer a trial period. It allows your prospects to browse through different functions and see if it helps them with the challenges they are facing.
If you are an eDiscovery solution provider and don’t have a Customer Success department, you should rectify it immediately. This department uses product telemetry data to understand the way your clients are interacting with your product. They can help bring a proactive approach to your adoption strategy.
Adjusting to a New Reality
Global working hours and conditions have changed. If you are an eDiscovery company, you must be able to provide customer support hours that help your clients maintain the business community. Your clients expect world-class support with rapid response times and first-issue resolution.
You must also have a knowledge base library and provide training sessions that help your users learn and master your platform. These sessions should cover basic topics like getting started on the platform as well as advanced topics such as organization administration, document review, etc.
With your support, you can enable your clients to focus on other aspects of their work, such as creating a legal strategy and communicating with the client. Having a cutting-edge solution with responsive and empathetic customer service will make their job a whole lot easier. The world around us is changing, and you must change with it to create long-lasting partnerships with your customers.
Conclusion
Clients of today want companies to understand their issues, needs, and questions. You must have a consultative mindset, along with the expertise needed to ensure customer success in eDiscovery. It is important to engage with them and discuss things as a team. This will help create well-rounded awareness of the project and help you create better solutions. When it comes to eDiscovery, lawyers might not always know the right questions to ask or even know the types of solutions that are in the market. You can steer them toward innovative solutions that are there to help them.
