What do your clients and real estate agents secretly say about you and your law firm, behind your back?
Well, if you’re like most firms, it’s probably something like “they’re a nice person but I really wish the communication from the law firm was better…”
Every real estate attorney knows that referrals are the #1 way to get clients. And every attorney knows that great communication makes for a great client experience that’s more likely to get you referrals.
The idea is that while your real estate firm is busy doing all those closings, you’re supposed to be doing a great job, making clients happy, so they will want to refer even more clients to your firm, and pretty soon you’ve got tons of clients, making lots of money, and the firm grows by leaps and bounds on autopilot. Right…?
Well not exactly… because that part about providing a great client experience so they are eager to refer more clients to you is exactly where real estate attorneys start to screw up.
Most real estate attorneys suck at providing great client communication until they start using software for real estate attorneys to help them manage everything
Unfortunately providing that good client experience is where most real estate attorneys fail to deliver because they’re simply too busy, too hectic, and too unorganized to be able to afford the time it takes to deliver that amazing service which clients want. And as a result, they greatly reduce the chances of getting more client referrals.
The difference between those rare few real estate law firms that deliver a great client experience and gets lots of referrals – and most other firms, is like light and day. While most firms struggle to float financially and make payroll, with just a little bit of cash left over at the end of the year for the owners/partners, the firms that deliver outstanding client experience and thus cultivate more referrals, by comparison, are much more profitable and grow at a faster rate.
But just because there’s not enough time in a real estate attorney’s day, doesn’t mean that you still can’t get things done.
Now thanks to specialized software for real estate attorneys, through technology you can actually deliver a better client experience and more touchpoints, updates, and handholding… all on autopilot, without actually taking more time to do it.
Because of poor communication habits on transactions, real estate attorneys are actually losing out on huge amounts of money from potential client referrals that will never materialize
But why do so many real estate attorneys screw up the single most important thing that contributes to more clients, and more profits?
Why is it that consistently those bright-eyed and bushy eared buyers and sellers end up disappointed, and not to keen on referring their lawyers to someone else by the time their transaction closed? Industry surveys show that as an industry overall, real estate lawyers have lower Net Promoter Score (a measure of how likely a customer is to trust and refer a business) than airlines and car rental places.
If you ask most real estate attorneys what the biggest problem they have is, most would say “there’s not enough time… I wish I had more time.” Does that sound like you? And if someone asked you what do you think it would take to deliver a better experience for your clients, better communication, and more hand-holding that clients and brokers want on a transaction – if you’re like most people you would also say, that it just takes more time... which you don’t have enough of, in the first place.
And the truth is, they’re right.
There’s simply not enough time in the day in a busy real estate law firm to get everything done for all the closings, and still have time left over to handhold and babysit clients with the “white glove” treatment.
Faced with this challenge of either handling their work or spending time on the phone or emailing with clients to update them about things – most attorneys choose to just get the work done and deal with the client fallout later.
Fortunately, there’s a better way when law firms adopt specialized software for real estate attorneys that lets them manage all the transactions from start to finish, as well as puts most of the client communication and updating tasks on autopilot. This finally allows a real estate attorney to deliver great client experience, without actually sacrificing valuable time that they don’t have and needs to be directed at actually running the firm.
Your clients and referrals should actually start growing automatically from your law firm adopting the right software for real estate attorneys
What real estate law firms need is specialized real estate law firm transaction management software, because that’s all they do all day… property transactions. Software for real estate attorneys will let them save valuable time, and deliver a better client experience that gives their buyers and sellers, as well as real estate agents, the feeling of white glove” treatment without actually taking more time out of the attorney's day.
Software for real estate attorneys accomplishes this by first centralizing everything relating to a real estate transaction from contract to closing all in one place securely on the cloud. TrackWithEase, which pioneered this concept for real estate law firms, calls this centralized place for your real estate matter a “Track” - and it includes everything from contacts, contracts, workflows and checklists, communications, key dates, and more. This allows a real estate attorney to centralize everything in one place and allow the software to handle the routine updates, communications, and other touchpoints together create a seamless and outstanding client experience, versus organized law firms that don't leverage technology to do a better job at keeping in touch with clients.
Below is a list of the top 5 things you can do with TrackWithEase software for real estate attorneys that will make your clients absolutely love you, and result in more referrals from real estate agents as well as your buyers and sellers.
The idea is that it will help make your communication and touchpoints show outstanding throughout the transaction that you will far exceed the expectations that people have of less efficient lawyers who aren't using technology yet to get ahead.
1. When you get the contract, set up a roadmap & timeline for the entire closing, and communicate it to clients often -- using automation features of the software for real estate attorneys
When you get a new real estate transaction with just a few clicks you can instantly set up a workflow, and the timeline for the transaction and instantly share it with your client and the real estate agent who referred them to you to keep everybody on the same page.
Most clients actually have no idea what to expect on their real estate transaction whether they are buying or selling a property and live in a state bordering between confusion, and anxiety. When they're real estate attorney instantly sets out a roadmap for them along with timelines and expectations, it is extremely reassuring to them and it also reduces the anxiety that causes them to constantly reach out for updates.
From the standpoint of the real estate broker and that they're actually used to attorneys being unorganized, and slow – so when they send you a new transaction and you use the software for real estate attorneys to instantly set up a road map and let them know that you're on top of things, it definitely set a certain tone and reassures them that you're on top of your stuff.
2. Allow your clients see all their transaction details & updates on their own, whenever they want 24/7, thanks to software for real estate attorneys
The number one questions but come from buyers, sellers, and their real estate agents is: "where are we at with this closing?” other related questions are, did you get the contract? Are we out of attorney review? Did you do x, y, z?
It is exactly these questions which are the biggest time wasters and account for the majority of interruptions in a busy real estate attorneys office.
And having to ask these questions is also the subtle reason behind most clients as well as real estate agents feeling like the attorney is not doing a good job at communicating because in their eyes their transaction is the single most important thing for them, the only thing they are working on, unlike your law office which is probably handling hundreds at a time. So to the agent whose transaction is the most important thing to them, needing the constantly asked to be updated leaves a bitter taste in their mouth and makes them feel like you could be doing more.
Being able to proactively inform all the parties on the transaction, and keep them updated automatically through software for real estate attorneys and Bash begins to change the normal frustrating nature of attorney - client-broker communication chains and turn them into something that lights delights and exceed their expectations because now they're being told about what they want to know before they even have to ask.
Also, multiple studies have shown that across all legal disciplines, on average out of an 8-hour workday most lawyers only get in about 1 to 2 hours maximum of productive time, the rest of the 6-7 hours is wasted on the administrative back and forth and interruptions, in other words, non-revenue producing activities. And the number one interruption in a real estate law office is people asking for updates And dealing with the various fires that have to get put out relating to those.
So using software for real estate attorneys to keep everybody updated and reduce interruptions, doesn't just create a better client experience that makes them want to deal with you more and – it saves you valuable hours every single day that you can recapture to spend on growing a firm or actually getting things done, instead of wasting them on routine updates.
3. Setup a task list and have the software for real estate attorneys immediately update your clients when work gets done
Similar to the above, you can actually set up a list of tasks, or to-do items with dates, that relate to closing and assign them to people inside your Law Firm, or outside your firms, such as your clients and agents. Then the software for real estate attorneys will monitor your task list for completion, and as things get checked off will actually send updates via email to the appropriate people you select who you decide to need to be updated as things are done, and those notifications will go out real-time.
This powerful feature is something that saves you the manual effort of opening up an email or making a phone call just to let someone know that you did something. But it does more than that because as things get done, and the software for real estate attorneys is updating people on your behalf, it actually builds a level of trust and reassurance with your clients and real estate agents that things are being done. By setting up some tasks such as “drafting contract” or “ordering Title” or “preparing Closing Disclosure” gives some more insight and transparency to your clients about other things that go into their transaction, and reinforces their perception along the way that they’re working with a law firm that’s competent, and makes them less needy in terms of interrupting you for updates. For real estate brokers, it also saves their valuable time having to check in on you since they’re busy trying to get more listings.
Think about it – Why would a real estate agent continue to refer business to a less efficient attorney, who doesn't update them automatically, who they have to constantly be second-guessing and wondering if they're actually working on something or if they've forgotten about certain tasks? Obviously, a real estate agent is going to want to refer business to the more efficient law firms which use software for real estate attorneys to provide better communication about things being done because that makes the agent look good to the clients too.
4. Let your referring brokers see the status of all their transactions through an online “self-care” portal
For most real estate law firms in the majority of their business comes from broker referrals, so it's not uncommon to have a few agents who have many transactions with you at once. These are your top producers who need special attention to make them feel taken care of, so they keep referring your business. The way to make them feel “taken care of” is them getting constant and timely updates from your firm. Unfortunately, time is short and you don't always have time to give these agents the touchpoints that you'd wish.
However -- using software for real estate attorneys you can create an amazing experience for those agents by allowing them to log in and view the status of all there closings with you since you have already centralized everything from contract to closing in one place.
An agent who has multiple transactions with you in different stages will be able to log in anytime, anywhere, to see that you're working on each one, and they won't have to bother to reach out to ask about whether you've received the contract or started working on it, or order titled on another one etc. Then when they reach out it will only be four important things since the basic status questions are always available at their fingertips.
Again. - think about it, when agents have 2 attorneys to choose from and one of them needs to be asked by phone/email for updates, while another one uses software for real estate attorneys to automatically update everyone with what's happening at the law firm on their referrals...
which one do you think the agent is going to start sending more business to?
The next question is… if you are currently not using software for real estate attorneys, and other lawyers in your Market are... Do you have the courage to admit to yourself and realize that right now you're actually losing business to more efficient attorneys in your market literally right now as you are reading this article? Brokers are choosing them over you, every single day, because their communication is better, and you’ll never know about it. Here is a slightly more in-depth article called “Are you losing clients to more efficient attorneys who are using real estate lawyer software?”
5. Use software for real estate attorneys to send nicely pre-formatted updates to everyone on Mondays & Fridays, making clients and agents LOVE your firm’s special touches
Imagine being a home buyer, or seller, or real estate agent and – and Monday morning while you’re drinking your coffee, you notice an email from your real estate attorney.
You open it up and it appears that without you having to ask them, they’ve actually taken the time to send you a beautifully formatted email that outlines the whole timeline of your current real estate transaction, everything that has already been completed, and all the steps that remain along with the expected dates, contingencies, and other notes that are relevant to your particular deal.
You will probably think “Wow, this lawyer is organized!” and appreciate the fact that they took the time to send you that, so you're not wondering what's happening, and you don't even need to reach out to ask. Then you get the same email on Friday, recapping whatever happened during the week and was expected next week. And you get this set of emails every week from the start of your transaction until it closes.
That's what that experience is like for clients or agents referred to your Law Firm, except instead of having to take the time to write those detailed emails, it's all done automatically by the software for real estate attorneys. The software pulls all the relevant info from your transaction and writes the email for your staff to send on a certain schedule.
How's that for me than client service and communication?
Now multiply that by hundreds of transactions, and hundreds of clients and their agents and dash all of them being updated with the right info by the software for real estate attorneys, at exactly the right time. It would literally be impossible for a law firm that's not using software for real estate attorneys to have this level of communication, was that many people, across all the deals. It's simply impossible.
That's exactly why law firms that communicate this way thanks to leveraging technology, really stand out from the crowd. And that’s why they continue to slowly but surely steal all the referrals from slower, and less efficient real estate law firms.
See how you can deliver a much better client experience, and grow your referrals using TrackWithEase software for real estate attorneys
Times are rapidly changing and technology is making your clients and Brokers expect more, faster, and better communication. They want everything at their fingertips. Software for real estate attorneys will help your Law Firm provide the experience they want, without you having to take extra time to do it. If you're not using software for real estate attorneys to deliver a better experience, you'll be left in the dust by the savvy law firms that do use it to get ahead, it’s that simple.
See a demo of TrackWithEase software for real estate attorneys, and start providing a better client experience today:
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