Copyright (c) 2010 Benjamin Glass
When most people hear the word "outsourcing" they immediately conjure up images of overseas call centers, badly disguised accents and customer service headaches. While it's true that there have been many outsourcing disasters, you shouldn't let the bad conduct of other companies ruin your opportunity to take some of the chores of running your legal business off your plate.
What Can Be Outsourced
You're probably already outsourcing on a personal level within your law firm. When you need research done on a case, you don't always do it yourself, sometimes you hand it off to an intern or a paralegal. This internal outsourcing leaves you free to tackle the more important daily needs of your legal business.
Outsourcing is especially helpful when it comes to improving your legal marketing. Because many legal marketing methods can be time-consuming to get up and running, you're going to want all the help you can get.
When it comes to legal marketing, you can outsource many tasks, including:
- mailing of newsletters, books, information packets, etc.;
- answering incoming client phone inquiries;
- organizing/analyzing medical records;
- conducting follow-up calls with clients; and
- client screening.
Basically, anything that costs you overhead in terms of office personnel can be considered a potential place to outsource.
If your office manager is tasked with printing, folding, sealing and mailing your monthly newsletter, you can outsource this process to a printer and free your OM up to do more critical work. This will help with running your legal business as it'll free up more time for everyone to deal with the important office needs.Outsourcing for the Legal Business
There are hundreds, even thousands of companies out there that specialize in services for professional businesses.
In fact, just like the legal business, competition among these service providers has gotten so heated that many have begun to niche their services to specific business types.You can find outsourcing resources for all types of businesses - medical, financial, and yes, even legal. There are numerous outsourcing companies that specialize in the needs of the legal business and are familiar with the types of help a law firm will request. Even if you can't find a company that specializes in legal-relevant services for what you need, you can find a general business outsourcing company that will tailor itself to legal business needs.
Legal Marketing and Outsourcing
Many of the legal marketing methods that are popular among successful lawyers are perfect grounds for outsourcing. Many lawyers cut corners on their legal marketing because they fear new methods are too much work. Outsourcing can fix many of those fears by decreasing the amount of work required on your part, while still allowing you to enjoy the benefits of a great legal marketing system.
The mailing of your newsletter can be handled by a printing and mailing company, a content producer can write your website articles and update your lawyer blogs and a call center can handle your inbound client inquiries. These are just a few examples of how your legal marketing can be simplified by handing off some of the generic needs of a legal marketing system through outsourcing.
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