Scaling up your firm requires tech investment. Here’s why.
Clio’s practice management system plays a critical role in driving business growth for amicable, an online family law service
It became clear early on that in order for amicable, an online family service to grow while still maintaining an excellent client experience, technology would need to drive the business. In 2019, the business implemented Clio as its legal practice management software.
The London-based firm, founded in 2017, has 34 members of staff and operates a fixed fee model. Amicable’s services range from divorce coaches to mediators, all with a common goal — to help couples divorce, separate, and co-parent amicably.
When we started, we were using an Excel spreadsheet to track our customers,” says Emma Robinson, head of operations at amicable. “We needed to find a better way to manage cases. We were looking for a platform that we could use to automate as much as possible.”
Automate workflows without disruption
Moving away from spreadsheets wasn’t the only reason that amicable chose to adopt Clio to help increase firm efficiency. Streamlining their divorce specialist’s workflows ensured that staff members were maximising the most out of their day.
Automating client-facing processes with Clio has helped the team deliver a world-class customer experience. By setting up task lists, Ella Chard, product owner at amicable has ensured that nothing falls through the cracks as everyone working on a case can clearly see what is required of them at anytime.
“We essentially mapped out the divorce process through the task lists. We can automate the client requests as the client purchases, and that’s because of the task list workflow. So we know exactly what’s going on with the case at any time.”
Manage staff’s time more efficiently
When a legal service like amicable has a large client base and an ever-growing team, it’s vital that change management doesn’t actually increase staff workloads. Using Clio, amicable immediately noticed an improvement in its work-life balance.
Using Clio’s Outlook Add-in integration enabled staff to manage emails and create time entries — removing all previous manual filing processes.
“I used to have to manually type out client emails every time. We’ve saved so much admin time by setting up automated emails based on task lists in Clio. I’m not sure we could do the volume of cases we have at the moment with the people we’ve got.”
Enhance your firm with Clio’s API and integrations
From day one, amicable knew that to reach as many clients as possible, was to have Clio do the heavy lifting when it came to the day-to-day management of cases.
Thanks to Clio’s API and integration library, amicable was able to link with Zapier to integrate the applications they were already using. This, in turn, enabled the business to create a customised platform for customers and staff alike. With a single login, staff can pull any data that they need.
“You can really make Clio work for you. We rely on the quick integration of features with Clio’s API. The technology is set up for it, so it’s really straightforward.”
Get documents signed within minutes
The amicable team saves time by using features such as Clio’s e-signing tool, to create and send templates to clients for e-signatures. Developers at amicable also manipulated Clio’s API to have multiple teams feed into workflows, so everyone working on a case is informed on exactly what they need to do for each case.
“We use HelloSign through Clio when we create the template and then send it for e-signature. Everything is very quick for the customer and our business is maximising efficiency.”
Grow on the cloud
Having everything securely stored in Clio gave amicable the opportunity to not just operate ‘business as usual’, but rather to scale significantly.
Now two-thirds of amicable staff work entirely remotely, and since everything is in the cloud and can be accessed through a simple internet browser, new staff can get started on cases straight away.
“Since everything’s in the cloud, we could also start to recruit remotely and have people working anywhere in the country. In terms of the people delivering and using Clio, we doubled the size of the team during 2020-2021.”
Dominating the market
Emma and the team at amicable have officially transitioned from start-up to scale-up, and are showing no signs of slowing down. The team is dedicated to reimagining the divorce process by moving hand in hand with technology as it inevitably evolves.
With Clio supporting them, it looks like the journey is just getting started for this tech-forward business.“We’re very proud of the tech abilities that we achieved with Clio. We are constantly looking for ways to make sure everything is as efficient as can be.”
