Former Clients Send More Referrals When Someone Keeps in Touch
What it takes off your plate
The Client Retention Agent is what keeps a firm in touch with clients after the matter ends. The AgentWorks Client Retention Agent sends closing surveys, asks for reviews and referrals at the right moment and keeps your past-client list current, so your attorneys and intake staff spend their time on active matters and new intakes instead of remembering who to call.
Here is how it goes at most firms. A matter closes. The client says thank you, the file goes to storage and the relationship goes cold. Nobody asks how the experience was, because there is no survey. Nobody asks for a referral, because it feels awkward at the closing meeting and nobody remembers later. Years afterward, the same client needs a will updated or a new contract reviewed, and hires whichever firm they found first online. The firm's best source of new business, satisfied former clients, goes untapped.
The cost is referrals that went elsewhere and repeat work the firm never knew about.
What the Client Retention Agent does, step by step
The Client Retention Agent starts with the messages to former clients, then keeps the records that make the next message relevant.
- Sends a closing survey. When a matter is closed, it sends the client a short survey about their experience, by email or text, in a message the responsible attorney has approved.
- Routes concerns to the attorney. When a client reports a problem, it alerts the responsible attorney right away so they can call, and holds any review request for that client.
- Asks satisfied clients for a review. When a client reports a good experience, it sends a review request following your firm's policy and your state bar's advertising rules as your firm applies them.
- Asks for referrals at the right moment. It sends a referral note after a positive survey, and again at points your firm chooses, such as the anniversary of a closed matter.
- Keeps in touch. It sends past clients the firm newsletter and practice updates they opted into.
- Maintains the past-client database. It records each client's matters, practice areas, outcome and preferences, so outreach fits the person.
- Triggers re-engagement. When a legal need is likely to recur, such as an estate plan due for review or a lease nearing renewal, it drafts an outreach message for the attorney to approve.
The Client Retention Agent does not give legal advice or solicit in ways your firm's policy does not allow. Every message template is approved by an attorney, and any client question about a legal matter goes to a lawyer.
Where the work is recorded
An agent that cannot record its results is a chatbot. Every survey, answer, review request, referral note and reply is logged on the client's record in your practice management software, such as Clio, and in the CRM your team already uses, so a person can pick up exactly where the agent left off.
Referrals are recorded on the new intake with the former client who sent them, so the attorney can thank them personally.
So the next morning your managing partner opens one list: surveys returned yesterday, any client who reported a concern, reviews posted, referrals received and past clients due for a check-in.
When a referral calls, the rest of the front door has to be ready, as in how the Case Intake Agent clears conflicts across every name variation and how firms are capturing overnight client intakes.
What your people do instead
Your attorneys stay with the clients in front of them: preparing for trial, meeting a new client, negotiating a deal. They still make the personal thank-you call when a former client sends a referral, and the call means more because it is personal.
Your intake team handles referred intakes that arrive warm. Your managing partner reads closing surveys and learns what clients value, instead of guessing.
The agent keeps the surveys, the requests and the check-ins moving. Your people keep the relationships that bring clients back.
One next step
Not sure client retention is the first workflow to hand over? The free Legal Industry Assessment shows which workflow an agent should take first in your firm. To see the AgentWorks Client Retention Agent alongside the rest of the legal team, visit the Legal industry page.
See where the Client Retention Agent would start in your legal business.
I'm Victoria, the Legal ambassador here. The free Industry Assessment reads your website and asks how calls, follow-ups and records happen today, then shows the first workflow worth handing to an agent like this one — and what your team gets back. Leave your email and I'll send the link.
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