Insight into the State of Law Firm CRM in 2014. A survey of law firm customer relationship management initiatives at the year’s end 2013 by LexisNexis InterAction. Law Firm CRM Spending to Rise. 63% of survey takers said their firm will fund additional CRM investments in the next 12 months.

1. InterAction®
Insight into the State of Law Firm CRM
A survey of law firm customer relationship
management initiatives at the year’s end 2013.

2. 2013 Law Firm CRM Survey Executive Summary
 Law Firm CRM Initiatives are Mature. 41% of respondents stated their firm’s CRM initiative was
more than five years old. Another 23% put the age in between 3 and 5 years. About one-third
say their CRM projects are less than a year old.
 Law Firm CRM Spending to Rise. 63% of survey takers said their firm will fund additional CRM
investments in the next 12 months. 53% either “strongly agree” or “agree” they will upgrade
their firm’s existing CRM in the next three years.
 Law Firm CRM Seeing ROI; Success. 50% of respondents “strongly agree” or “agree” their law
firm is seeing measurable ROI from their CRM initiatives. Absent ROI, when asked whether or not
the CRM project was successful, a plurality of 41% said their CRM project was a success.
 #1 Barrier to Success is a Lack of Employee Buy-In. 33% of respondents reported “lack of
employee buy-in” as the top barrier to CRM success.
 The Difference between Success and Failure. Cross-tab analysis suggests firms with successful
CRM projects are more likely to implement CRM as a firm-wide, strategic process, that accounts
for the human aspects of change management, rather than merely a technology implementation.
 Successful CRM Projects Yield Better Client Relations and Cross-Selling. More than 50% of
respondents cited “better client relationships” as the primary benefit as the result of a law firm
CRM project. Another 48% cite “improved ability to cross-sell.”
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3. Law Firm CRM Initiatives are Mature Endeavors
Within law firms, CRM projects have
been around a while. More than
60% of CRM projects within law firm
are three to more years old. By
contrast, just a little more than onethird of all CRM projects are less
than a year old.
N = 145
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4. A Majority of Law Firms Plan to Fund Additional CRM Projects
Despite the maturity of CRM projects, law
firms are actively considering additional
investments in CRM projects, which could
span process or technology. Additional data in
this survey suggests this investment will
come in the next year or so.
N = 91
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5. Longer Term Investments Center on Upgrades
While the majority of law firms are
considering additional CRM-related
investments in the next 12
months, most law firms are also thinking
long term as well.
A majority of respondents (53.9%)
“strongly agree” or “agree” that they will
upgrade their existing CRM system in
the next three years. The data
suggests law firms see the value in
investing in CRM projects.
About one-third are unsure if they will
upgrade the existing CRM system and
roughly 13% appear to be disinclined to
update their platform.
N = 91
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6. Majority of Law Firms Give CRM Projects High Marks
Most respondents – more than half – either “strongly agree” or “agree” their firms are finding a measurable
return on investment (ROI) from law firm CRM projects. Just about one-third are unsure, and a
minority, about 14% say their firms have not found a measurable ROI.
These results were also reflected in a similar question that simply asked respondents to indicate whether or
not they felt their CRM initiative was successful. A majority, nearly 42% classified the project as
successful, and about a third, or 36% of respondents said it was either “too early to tell” or were “unsure” if
the CRM project was successful. Another 22% state the projects were unsuccessful.
N = 91
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7. Why CRM Projects Fail
With 22% of respondents saying their CRM
projects are unsuccessful, it’s important to
take a look at why this might be the case.
What are the barriers to a CRM
implementation?
The number one barrier to CRM
implementation is a “lack of employee buy-in.”
Data quality, technical challenges such as
integration, and strategy all drew a similar
volume of responses.
A lack of leadership drew about 13% of the
responses, and which nests with answers
citing a lack of employee buy-in. The data
points to people or process challenges, rather
than technological, as the barriers to CRM.
Just 4% cited a lack of accountability as a
barrier to implementation.
N = 91
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8. Defining the Difference between Success and Failure
What is it that separates successful CRM
implementations in law firms from those that fail. A
cross-tab analysis provides insight.
The top challenges identified by respondents that
label their CRM projects a success include, 1) lack
of employee buy-in, data quality and lack of
leadership.
By contrast the top three challenges identified by
respondents that label their CRM projects as
unsuccessful include: 1) integration challenges, 2)
no long term strategy and 3) lack of employee buyin.
The survey indicated that successful projects are
more likely to implement CRM as a firmwide, strategic process, that accounts for the human
aspects of change management, rather than merely
a technology implementation.
N = 58
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9. Successful CRM = Better Client Relationships and Cross Selling
“better client service from the
marketing staff regarding email
marketing and event marketing”
More than half of respondents said that
“better client relationships” were a benefit
their law firm experienced as a result of a
customer relationship management system.
(open ended response)
Cross-selling, collaboration, and efficiencies
gained were all cited as other key benefits.
Interestingly, about 20% or roughly one-fifth
of respondents cited “improved staff
satisfaction” as a primary benefit – a reminder
to management that employees really do, by
far and large, want to do well by the
customer.
N = 91
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10. Economic Effect on CRM Projects
The thinking going into this questions was in
this time of this prolonged economic recovery,
CRM would be viewed as ever more
important for two reasons:
1. More than ever, law firms need to hang
onto their existing customers;
relationships are one way to reduce
attrition.
2. Improved relationships lead to additional
cross-selling opportunities.
Elements of these two themes can be found
in other responses in this survey, however
when asked pointedly if the economy has an
impact on CRM projects 44% said the
economy has an impact on CRM programs
while just 5.5% said it did not.
Additionally about 50% said the economy had
no impact on the CRM program.
N = 91
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11. Survey Demographics and Methodology
This survey of primarily marketing and business development personnel within law firms and was
conducted online by LexisNexis from September 17, 2013 to October 31, 2013. The survey was
distributed to the email subscriber lists of independent industry trade publications not affiliate with
LexisNexis. The source or origin of the survey was not revealed until the after the survey was completed.
No incentives for completing the survey were offered other than the option to obtain a copy of the results
by email once the study was completed.
N = 91
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12. Additional Law Firm CRM Resources
•
InterAction Webinars and Videos: More than a dozen resources including productions
such as “Leveraging Firm Experience as a New Business Catalyst” and “Capturing
Success Using Pipeline Tools: New ways to focus sales & CRM adoption.”
•
Report: Thinking Like Your Client: Strategic Planning in Law Firms
•
Make More Rain Blog Posts:
• Lawyers Need Help Looking Good on LinkedIn
• Four Ways To Get Users (Lawyers) To Adopt The CRM System
• 7 Unique Ways Law Firms Can Breathe New Life Into CRM
• 7 Amazing Statistics For Law Firm Business Development
•
Social Media:
• Join More than 2,000 Peers: InterAction CRM LinkedIn Group
• Twitter: @LNInterAction or @Business_of_Law
• Facebook: LexisNexis Business of Law
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