Today, businesses are requiring more and more legal support which puts pressure on legal teams to not only deliver high-quality legal services, but also to perform their daily workflows and tasks more efficiently and effectively than before.
Legal intake and triage technology helps to improve turnaround times as business users can self-serve tasks such as document generation, approvals and advice. For legal teams, better intake and triage workflows ensure lawyers are always working on tasks that are high value and best suited to them, while having full visibility into the volume, type, and status of requests from intake through to resolution.
Legal Service Request Journey
- Business user submits request
- Structured intake form captures details
- Automated triage routes to the right person
- Legal team focuses on high-value matters
- Full visibility into volume and status
- Faster turnaround and measurable impact
The best way to streamline legal service request workflows is by implementing workflow or service request automation to route and direct requests with full visibility across the legal team.
Let’s explore some steps that in-house legal teams can take to successfully implement legal service request management.
1. Identify the Legal Department’s Needs
Before implementing legal service request management technology, it is essential to identify the specific needs of the legal department. What types of legal requests are common? What is the volume of requests? What are the pain points of the current intake & triage and request resolution process? What is the main problem that I’m trying to solve? Gathering this information will help in selecting the right technology and customizing it to meet the specific needs of the legal department.
2. Choose the Right Technology
Selecting the appropriate client or customer request management system can make a world of difference for your legal team. With competing technologies on the market, choosing the right technology can be a daunting experience, but there are a set of specific questions to ask yourself when evaluating the best legal service request management software. For example, ask yourself questions like:
- What features am I searching for and what does each unique platform have to offer?
- What are the factors I should consider when evaluating different legal service request software?
- Which legal technology can solve my intake and service request management requirements?
- How will I know if the platform I choose adds value to my team?
3. Identify Potential Objections or Change Management Requirements
As with any technology that involves and brings benefits for not just the legal team, but for the wider business, there are concerns often associated with implementing such a system. Some concerns include the risk of losing personal touch from legal or the heavy change management lift in changing business user behavior.
4. Define Workflows and Processes
Before implementing the technology, it’s important to define the workflows and processes that will be used to manage legal requests. This includes defining your organization’s specific steps for intake, triage, and resolution of requests, as well as the communication protocols with internal stakeholders and external partners.
5. Train the Legal Team
Once the technology is selected, it’s important to provide awareness and training to the legal team on how it will affect processes and activities. This will help ensure a smooth transition and prevent any confusion or errors during the implementation process.
6. Test and Refine the System
After implementing the technology, it’s important to test the system thoroughly and refine it based on feedback from the legal team and other stakeholders. This will help ensure that the technology is working effectively and efficiently, and that any issues are addressed promptly.
7. Monitor and Evaluate Performance
Once the system is up and running, it’s important to monitor and evaluate its performance regularly. This includes tracking key performance indicators such as response times, resolution rates, and customer satisfaction, and using this data to identify areas for improvement and adjust as needed.
Key Legal KPIs to Track for Service Request Optimization
Monitoring the right metrics helps legal teams identify bottlenecks, improve performance, and unlock the full value of their Legal Service Request Management (LSRM) platform.
- Response Time Track how quickly the legal team acknowledges or engages with incoming requests.
- Resolution Rate Measure how many legal requests are completed and closed within a given period.
- Time to Resolution Calculate the average time taken from intake to completion for each matter type.
- Customer Satisfaction Gather feedback from business users to understand satisfaction with legal support.
- Request Volume by Type Understand which types of requests are most common and where demand is growing.
- SLA Compliance Measure how often requests are completed within predefined service-level timeframes.
- Reopened Requests Track how often closed requests are reopened, indicating potential quality or clarity gaps.
Want to learn more about how to facilitate successful implementation of your legal service request management tool? Schedule a meeting with us to get insights and advice for successful implementation.
