What is a Client Portal?
A legal client portal connects you with your clients while streamlining across communication channels. As important as communication may be to your firm, balancing phone calls, emails, and a seemingly endless array of messages can be challenging and client portals seek to solve these challenges.
Why are communications so important?
The answer is simple. In legal services the customer is a person and the stakes are often high. As such law firms are frequently overwhelmed by all the questions clients ask because they want to know their case or matter is moving forward. Clients requesting status updates often interrupt workflows and case work that are the lawyers priority. Thus the challenges are compounded.
A client portal app can help your firm improve customer satisfaction while reducing the number of inbound calls and messages. Instead of replacing a lawyer’s consultation, it offers guidance and, in some cases, virtual assistance or self-service, to support clients throughout the legal process while providing attorneys with more time to perform their valuable work.
Read on to learn more about how client portals work, the benefits of adopting a legal client app, and what to look for in the best client portal software, like Case Status.
What Is a Client Portal Used For?
In its simplest form, a client portal gives legal clients a place to log in, read about their case or status, and send messages to their lawyer. The user-friendly design allows them to get answers to FAQs, send or receive messages, and even upload documents that their lawyer requests.
Lawyers use client portals to improve communication with their clients and maximize their efficiency. With a client portal in place, clients will have a designated hub to find valuable information whenever they need it. This reduces the frequency of clients calling firms or sending multiple emails to ask routine questions.
This convenient tool is a straightforward way for law firms to free up more time without disconnecting from their clients. What’s more, client portals allow for 24-hour support. Even if an attorney is not online, clients can still send messages, get helpful links, and review documents. Ongoing access to their firm can reduce anxiety and help clients feel more satisfied with their level of care throughout the legal relationship.
Are Client Portals Secure?
As with any online activity it’s important to choose a secure client software that has been designed to support the level of strict confidentiality law firms must maintain. The best legal client portals will use high-level encryption that ensures client information and case details remain safely secured on a protected cloud-based server.
Before you join a portal, read its data protection and privacy policies. You can confirm how they handle you and your clients’ data, where it’s stored, and who will have access to it and for what purposes.
Client portals are actually the most secure way to share documents and important information in today’s high-tech era. Emails can be hacked easily, and direct mail can be lost in transit.
Using an encrypted cloud-based solution, you can ensure that all information your clients send remains safe. Your communication will be 100% protected at all times.
Why Do We Need Client Portals?
If you are asking yourself if you need a client portal, the answer is yes. Think about other industries like banking. 10 years ago we would be willing to go to the bank’s brick and mortar office to deposit a check. But now it is expected to do this and so many other activities from our smartphone. Banking isn’t the only industry making this change. All other industries are engaging more effectively online.
In addition to self service, communications are central to a portal. Attempting to manage all your client communication at once is difficult, especially for large firms that juggle dozens of accounts at once. So many cases means a centralized platform is crucial to keep information organized. And most law firms keep multiple channels open: email, phone, SMS text, and mail. When the firm leaves it up to the individual client about which of these channels to use, the result is chaos.
A client portal also helps streamline the collection of paperwork and appointment scheduling. What’s more, customer portal software can allow multiple lawyers to collaborate with their clients. This even includes attorneys that are not part of the firm.
Case Status’s Co-Counsel is a great example of this. With Co-Counsel, you can refer clients that come to your firm to out-of-business attorneys, all while keeping clients connected to your firm and your brand for the lifetime relationship through the secure client portal. It’s a win-win.
The top reasons to get a client portal are streamlined workflows, less disruptions, and better communication with legal clients. You can enhance your productivity while increasing the level of care your clients receive every day.
What Makes a Good Client Portal?
With so many options out there, how do you choose a client portal? We’ve made it easy for you with this list of features. The best customer portal software will give your firm the ability to communicate more effectively while reducing the number of inbound calls your practice receives on a daily basis.
The goal isn’t to off-shoulder client satisfaction but rather enhance it through on-demand resources that allow clients to get instant answers to their questions. Take a look at some of the best features to look for in a client portal.
All-in-One Client Support
Rather than have your legal secretary take messages, pass them along, and get back to them when there’s time, the client portal gives your clients 24-hour access to information. Case Status has found that 93% of clients find what they’re looking for when they open our app, saving them and the law firm time from another phone call.With ongoing support and at-their-fingertips educational resources, clients have a better experience of your firm without constant contact. Even though they may not be communicating with you as directly every day, they’re still having their needs and concerns addressed.And when they do need to reach out? That’s no problem with built-in messaging that makes sending and receiving messages a breeze.
Built-in Messaging and Text Support
We live in a mobile-first world, so why aren’t law firms relying on texts and smartphones to communicate with their clients? Email is still valuable for some situations, but in-app messaging and texts save time and lead to faster responsiveness across the board.
With a client portal, you can send and receive messages both in the app and via text that allow for fast replies and rapid solutions. Case Status even offers templates that you can use to speed up your response time and keep clients satisfied.
There’s even a bulk messaging feature that lets you send a message to your entire client base with a single tap.
Real-Time Translation
Language barriers can prevent clients from working with the best lawyers for their case. Not anymore. Case Status uses real-time translation, seamlessly translating 138 languages to English and back through Google’s Neural Machine Translation System.
This allows your firm to assist English as a second language (ESL) speakers with ease and expand your prospects. There are even bulk messaging features and message templates that make communication faster.
Automated Daily Tasks
Law firm workflows are often interrupted by repetitive daily calls and requests for communication. A good client portal eliminates these by offering on-demand touchpoints to help clients find what they’re looking for without the need to contact the firm.
This makes the meetings you do have with clients more meaningful. It also allows your firm to focus more on client acquisition while the retention handles itself.
Most importantly, you’ll have the ability to work faster and focus more on delivering great results, so you can celebrate them with your clients.
With Case Status, there’s also the option to automate happy birthday and happy holiday messages, keeping your firm front-of-mind with clients and making them feel more supported.
Client Feedback Tracking
Case Status makes it easy to see how your clients are feeling throughout the case. We help you keep track of your Net Prompter Score (NPS), which is a customer satisfaction metric used widely throughout marketing.
Knowing your NPS makes it easier to identify where your firm can improve its services. Throughout the case, Case Status requires clients to rate their satisfaction on number scale, giving your firm insights into how you’re performing. Whether your client gives you a high score, a low score or something in between, you can automate a playbook to make sure the proper engagement response is executed by your team.
Client Alumni
Even after a client's matter or case is closed, a good client portal will allow you to continue to drive the relationship. This can include regular communications triggered by events such as the settlement anniversary or the client's birthday and can expand into helpful tips and reminders for each season of the year. A happy client is a client for life and a good portal will allow the firm to continue to nurture these folks well into the future to help with reviews and referrals.
Case Status helps firms identify their happy clients 95% more easily, and it raises customer satisfaction by 2X. This means that you know who to ask for a referral or a review. This is how you generate future clients for the firm.
Easy Integrations
The right client portal app for your firm will integrate with the software you already use and love. Make sure you research a portal’s integration options before buying. The best portals will partner with the leading legal practice management software, like Clio, Litify, MyCase, Filevine, Assembly Neos, SmartAdvocate and CASEpeer, to make your workflows even easier.
How Much Does It Cost to Build a Client Portal?
If you wanted to build your own client portal from scratch, you would need to find a legal software developer. It’s vital to work with a software company that understands the nuances and needs of law firm software.
To create a fully branded portal with all of the above mentioned features, you’d likely spend between $10,000 to $20,000. Some developers can give you a basic portal for as low as $5,000, but the most comprehensive legal portals can cost over $50,000.
On top of development, you’ll also have to consider ongoing maintenance costs. Because your firm owns the portal, you’re also responsible for ensuring it always works and stays updated with security trends.
Sound daunting? We know. That’s why we’ve made it easy to get your own branded client portal starting at $49/month. Because Case Status has its own dev team, you won’t have to worry about maintenance or troubleshooting, either. In fact, you actually receive support from IT experts throughout your subscription.
What Is a Client Portal Software?
A client portal software, equipped with personalized customer portal names, is an all-in-one communication tool that helps law firms connect with their clients better. It offers immediate answers to clients through a user-friendly dashboard, and it helps reduce the number of unnecessary calls or redundant emails that a firm receives on a daily basis.
Case Status is the leading legal client portal software on the market. Our integrations with the industry’s top practice management software make it easy to get started.
After they go through an easy client portal sign in process, clients will have on-demand access to your firm through the messaging system. They’ll also be able to find helpful resources that answer common questions and resolve concerns without the need to speak with an attorney.
Get started by scheduling a meeting with one of our team members. We’d love to help you learn more about Case Status and how it could benefit your firm.
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