CRM Has Greatly Benefited My Work

Attorney Jane Xu

My work has greatly benefited from the implementation of CRM.

As a production attorney, I have a huge caseload with over 300 pending cases and 80 processing cases. To efficiently serve my clients, I need to check the key information of a case or client frequently from time to time. Before we have CRM, I relied heavily on my supporting clerk for this information to respond to an inquiring email or phone call. With CRM, a click leads me to the information I need, wherever I am, in office, on a business trip, or at home, as long as I am connected to the internet! This not only improves my efficiency but also impresses our clients, who are most happy because their inquiries are always addressed within 24 hours. In addition to the improvement of my own work, CRM is a good tool to help us work as a team and to achieve the goal of efficient client service. Prior to CRM, I have to go back to my supporting clerk to check whether my assignment has been completed on schedule or not, now I can always check the status of my task without leaving my desk. As I open my calendar to everybody in the firm, other people can see my schedule and make appointment for me easily without the need to check with me first. This, surely increase the efficiency of the whole team.

As a managing attorney, CRM has become a necessary and powerful tool in my daily work. With all cases and client information accurately recorded in this centralized online system, it is easy for me to find the information I need to respond to clients, to check the work of my colleagues, and to monitor the important steps to be taken such as the filing of an RFE response and the collection of approval balance. Moreover, CRM has become increasingly important for our sales. Previously I have seen attorneys chasing the same client and competing with discounted price, which is a very unhealthy habit that not only blurs the firm’s reputation but also reduces our competitiveness in the market. Since the adoption of CRM, as every potential client’s inquiry has been timely recorded, whoever takes the first inquiry is accorded the status of “lead owner” or “assessment Attorney”, therefore almost eliminating the fight for cases as well as duplicated service on the same client. More importantly, as most important events are recorded in CRM, in case a lead is transferred from one attorney to another, the next attorney can easily follow up with all the information available from CRM.

Furthermore, CRM is a great tool for case and sales analysis. With the sales effort and attorney preference or referral recorded in the system, the firm can more objectively evaluate a colleague’s sales effort or client recognition based on solid data.  This will advance the firm’s mission to promote or demote employees based on merit.

Overall, it has been my personal experience that CRM has and will continue to play a great role in my daily work, as well as the firm’s overall operation.