The environment 

For this Boutique Law Firm, the old ways of doing things were starting to become burdensome. In the process of consolidating and reviewing files that had been sitting in a storage unit and then left sitting piled up in boxes around the office for the next few months, it became evident that something needed to change. After all, even law was moving into a digital era. With little experience implementing new technologies outside of the traditional case management software and an uncertainty about how to bring both staff and clients on board, our role in the implementation of this new client-facing interface involved the development of new training materials and facilitation of training for staff and key clients.

The challenge

Anticipated resistance by clients

Having found a great online platform they liked, there was concern about utility as success depended heavily on proactive usage by clients, many of whom were based in Asia and for whom English was a second language and the cultural expectations differed to Australia.

Requirement for upfront time investment by staff

Despite requiring little effort once up and running, the initial process of transferring all processes and documents into this new online platform would necessitate an investment of time from the already busy lawyers.

The strategy

Recognising the cultural differences and expectations of the clients, it was important to tailor training and resources to accommodate their expectations and learning styles. From creating initial walkthrough trainings in which the platform was demonstrated and questions could be asked to providing ongoing support and materials, the training strategy for clients heavily focused on their cultural expectations and needs. Further, by showing how intuitively designed the platform was and giving the clients the ability to navigate for themselves, it aided in building their enthusiasm and willingness to use the software. The creation of complementary resources and training materials was then provided to alleviate any time burden that the legal team may have otherwise faced.

The outcome

• Trained and transitioned the 5 largest clients to adopt and utilise the platform within 2 weeks with few follow-up queries or concerns.

• Trained all staff in the new platform so that they were capable of both navigating the platform and answering any questions raised by clients.

• Created training resources and guides for both staff and clients to use.