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First Look: Lexicata CRM and Client Intake Software
For a while now, I’ve been wondering if we have hit peak practice management software. How many different ways do we need to reinvent the wheel as to how lawyers manage calendars, email, documents, and time-tracking? A smart choice for the budding software developer-cum-lawyer is to focus on a portion of the legal tech market that is underserved. Enter Lexicata, which focuses only on CRM (customer relationship management)—basically lead management, client intake, and client retention.
It does not store your documents, track your time, or invoice your clients. It doesn’t need to. Lexicata’s goal is to help you track your client from the moment you meet them (be that in person or virtually) to the moment you formally retain them.
Dashboard
Lexicata is a CRM with an impressive combination of tools, including a form builder, a lead tracker, engagement letter templates, and automated emails. When you open up the program, there is a nicely-designed dashboard that will give you a quick glance at how you are doing in regards to finding and signing clients.
You can see your total matters and a breakdown by matter type. You can see your intakes in progress and attach a dollar value to that. You can also see how your leads are finding you. It is a smart way to figure out which advertising/lead generating methods are performing best. Lexicata also helps you figure out if you’re focusing on a practice area that is not profitable.
Integrations
Obviously, this sort of fancy informative dashboard only results if you input good data, and Lexicata works to ensure that happens in a couple different ways. First, they have a WordPress plugin that integrates with your law-firm website (as long as you have a WordPress website, obviously) and creates a contact form that, once filled out, will dump info directly into Lexicata as a new contact.
Next, you have the ability to create custom checklists so that you can control what information gets collected, who is assigned to what follow-up task, and what email reminders get automatically kicked out to potential clients. There is also a pretty robust form builder that allows you to ask your prospective clients the usual things like name, address, and occupation, but also allows you to build in conditional questions, where the next action changes based on your answer, like this:
Currently, Lexicata boasts tight integration with Clio so that you can basically handle your intake side with Lexicata and then use all that contact and follow-up data as the basis for your case management data in Clio. It is a nice and seamless process: You track your leads in Lexicata up until you sign them up as a client and then you export all the intake information over to Clio, where Clio can create a pending matter for the client. They are also working on Zapier integration, which will allow the end user to connect Lexicata with other apps with Zapier integration.
Pricing
Lexiciata will run you $49/month for the first user and $25/month for each additional person. If you pay annually, costs drop to $40/month for the initial user and $20/month for each additional. That amount is roughly comparable to practice management software costs, but there is a hitch: since this isn’t actually practice management software, you will need to pay for that as well.
Final Thoughts
If your practice is lead-generation heavy and you need to track a lot of leads from first contact to (hopefully) signing, Lexicata will really streamline that process. If you need metrics on how successful advertising campaigns and other ways to reach out are, Lexicata provides you with a wealth of data that you can slice and dice to see how to improve performance. However, if your practice doesn’t rely on a lot of client volume but you do have a lot of document, invoicing, and time-tracking needs, you may find paying for both Lexicata and practice management software is cost-prohibitive.
First Look: Lexicata CRM and Client Intake Software was originally published on Lawyerist.com.
Source: https://lawyerist.com/102130/lexicata-crm-client-intake/
