Record retrieval can be a very clerical, procedural, time-consuming, and ultimately, unavoidable part of the legal process. It can involve funnelling hours into completing forms, making phone calls, or scouring the nation for the right doctor’s office, police station, employer, or medical service provider to reach out to. If not handled properly, record retrieval can be a thorn in the side of a legal practice, impeding processes and generating unneeded costs. At worst, a poorly thought-out approach to record retrieval can result in wasted employee hours.
Due to the efficiency borne of their extensive experience and economies of scale, it’s often recommended that record retrieval be outsourced to specialized third parties, such as Record Retrieval Solutions. The speed with which such organizations can complete record retrieval activities easily cover the cost of contracting them to begin with. Moreover, handing the task over frees up internal teams for more value-generating activities that are more worth their skills and expertise.
But what exactly should you do with the time freed up by outsourcing record retrieval? Here are just a few of our suggestions.
1. Building client relationships
The legal industry is, in essence, a service industry. More than just representing their clients in a court of law, the ultimate objective of legal practices is to guide their clients throughout the complex and stressful litigation process.
Clients are often wracked with doubt and uncertainty throughout, and a legal practice that handles their case with the utmost care and dedication without being hindered by record retrieval can provide superior service.
Time saved from doing record retrieval can be allocated to communicating more closely and more frequently with clients. These sessions will enable you to keep them updated on the progress of their case, understand their concerns, and act directly on these by obtaining more information or advocating your clients’ needs.
2. Business development
A law practice is still a business, and an important but oft-neglected aspect of its daily operations is business development. This involves identifying avenues for growth for the practice, whether that takes the form of revenue, market share, or brand equity.
It’s also important to prepare for the future by expanding your practice’s knowledge and specialization so you can take on a wider variety of clients and cases. Other areas that you can focus on include upgrading systems to improve employee productivity and engaging in marketing activities to increase brand awareness.
Investing time into these activities may not always seem as crucial in the immediate or short term, but it will pay off in the long term.
3. Employee development
An organization is only as good as its people, and that’s more true of a service-based one like a legal practice than it is for any. Simply put, the better the people working for your practice are, the better the firm’s value offering will be. You should therefore invest in their growth and development.
Employees need to be given sufficient opportunities and breathing room to expand their skill sets and gain new knowledge, especially that which had not been commonplace when they last received formal training. Furthermore, investing in employees’ development can keep morale high, leading to improved performance and retention, which will ultimately be reflected on the bottom line.
4. Rest and relaxation
It may seem unorthodox to suggest that the time saved from record retrieval simply be tossed to the wind, but the truth is, the legal profession involves long hours. It’s very much possible that before outsourcing this time-consuming process, your team had simply been working overtime to get the job across the line.
If so, there’s no need to be hesitant about handing this time back to them. Work-life balance is important, and when the two are truly in balance, both halves are the stronger for it. Having a bit of time on their hands to use as they see fit outside of their roles in the legal profession is likely to make your team more effective than ever when they are on the job.
Outsourcing record retrieval opens up an array of possibilities for a legal practice. Get your practice started and contact Record Retrieval Solutions today.
