Three Ways New Technology is Making Immigration Law Practices More Profitable
In this article, we’ll discuss three ways immigration technology can be used to solve problems, improve process, drive down costs, and even increase your firm’s revenue.
As you are aware, government forms are a necessary part of immigration practice. No one can get past USCIS without filing them. And because they are a creature of immigration policy, they change frequently.
Even some of the most experienced immigration professionals find completing immigration paperwork time intensive, but what if immigration documents and associated workflows didn’t have to be a pain point?
Essential, but Tedious Work….
In practice, immigration forms amount to an administrative burden. Efficient and accurate production of immigration forms is no easy task. Filling them out is tedious, but what if the work could be done more efficiently and accurately?
More importantly, what if the same work could be repurposed to better serve clients and increase revenue? Technology exists that makes this possible. And here is how it can be used to reduce administrative burden and deliver better results for you, your firm and your clients.
#1 Stop Duplicative Data Entry:
Get Out of “Immigration” Ground Hog Day
Remember the classic, Bill Murray film: Groundhog Day? If you don’t, the plot is simple. Bill Murray’s character, a news anchor, finds himself reliving the same day over and over. Like immigration professionals filling out immigration paperwork, he does the same thing hundreds of times repeatedly. It nearly drives him mad.
Fortunately, for Bill Murray’s character, he eventually finds his way out of the vicious cycle after falling in love. Unfortunately, many immigration professionals have yet to love their way out of their own personal version of Ground Hog Day, but by leveraging Road to Status’ universal form technology we can help put an end to it.
With our system, you only need to enter an applicant’s or beneficiary’s relevant information once. This ensures the data remains accurate and consistent across an entire application package. You’ll never have to enter the same address on a different form, ever again.
And because Road to Status’ technology is account based – when / if an applicant or beneficiary needs to renew their benefits or petition for a family member, new forms are automatically populated with the relevant information from their previous application(s).
#2 Provide Better Service:
Engage Clients Where They Are
In today’s world, your clients have grown accustomed to on-demand services. Innovative companies, websites, and apps have given the public access to near instant gratification. While it is extremely difficult to provide traditional immigration legal services on-demand, with Road to Status, potential clients and beneficiaries can get involved and take on an active role in pursuing their desired legal status.
Road to Status’ technology allows for client interaction and participation. At your direction, using a secure link, clients can start an application, provide your office biographic and other relevant information, and instantly review and / or approve their application for filing with USCIS.
Clients can also be given electronic access to the platform to receive case updates from USCIS and your firm. Instead of reacting to a client’s request for a case update, our platform gives you the ability to be proactive.
The technology helps keep clients informed about their case (which increases client satisfaction). It also frees you up to devote your time to higher-level legal work so you can spend your time practicing at the top of your license.
Better Access = Increased Business Development Results
For law firms and other immigration professionals, giving clients the ability to participate in their immigration application provides significant benefits (to both your firm & to your clients).
The Road to Status technology platform allows your clients to engage with your firm online. Clients can access their application on-demand from any phone, tablet, or computer.
The tools built-in to the platform can also be repurposed to pre-screen potential clients. This allows your firm make your marketing and business development efforts more efficient & effective (allowing your firm to better concentrate your resources on viable cases).
Using a single link, you can invite potential clients that visit your website, social media pages, or digital ads to visit your platform (created, managed, supported, & branded specifically for your firm by Road to Status) to help determine eligibility and to schedule an intake appointment.
This enables you to leverage the same platform you use to process forms, to be efficiently repurposed to build a pipeline of viable cases. Because you work hard to attract business, retaining more of the potential clients you attract is one of the most profitable activities you can invest in.
By leveraging Road to Status’ technology, you will help engage potential clients where they are, you will provide them with a high value experience through your platform, and you will likely see an increase in the percentage of potential clients who choose your firm (not to mention an increase in repeat work from past clients and in referrals!)
#3 Better Manage Your Process:
Communicate Using Tools That Save Time & Improve Workflows
Managing files and immigration documents can be a pain. Traditional case management systems are great for tracking and billing purposes, but not many are designed to specifically address the issues inherent to immigration practice.
As a result, many immigration practitioners that are using a traditional case management system only use a fraction of their current system’s capability. And those immigration professionals not using a case management system at all, typically complain that many of the tools on the market today are poorly designed and are too confusing for clients to interact with.
For these reasons, we have found that many immigration lawyers choose to manage their files using excel spreadsheets and manila folders. If you’re currently using out-of-date technology or nothing at all, there’s a better way…..
The Road to Status system is designed to make communication easy. On one screen, lawyers, their support staff, and clients can easily interact with one another to complete applications and share relevant supporting documents. Team members can monitor applications that are in progress and easily identify what needs to be completed. And our online checklists can be utilized by support staff to more efficiently collaborate to complete critical tasks and spend less time filling out forms.
In fact, many of our partners report a 60-80% increase in time savings.
Technology Is Offering Immigration Attorneys More Leverage & Efficiency. Do You Accept the Offer?
Immigration professionals who are using technology to:
- Reduce duplicative work
- Provide better access to their clients
- Manage their work flows more effectively
These ‘tech empowered’ attorneys are poised to deliver better outcomes for their clients and have an even more profitable 2017!
In today’s competitive legal services market, clients are demanding to work with responsive, tech enabled firms. See our partners page here for more information on how Road to Status can enable your law firm to become more successful.
If you’re ready now for a personal demo of the Road to Status software to see exactly how it can help grow your practice, complete the form below & we’ll be in touch shortly to schedule your product demo:
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