It has been roughly seven months since Zhang & Associates, P.C. (Z&A), an immigration and business law firm with offices in Houston, New York, and Chicago, began using Oracle's Siebel Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Since it implemented Siebel CRM, Z&A has noticed great improvements in the service it provides to its clients, the satisfaction of the clients, the results of the firm’s cases, and the overall operation of the firm. In the end, Siebel CRM has been critical in helping the firm to carryout its client-centric philosophy and practices.
Customer Relationship Management is relatively recent business concept that aims at improving profitability and customer satisfaction. Siebel is the largest client-centric software provider in the United States and a leader in CRM software. Ninety percent of the largest corporations in the nation are Oracle Siebel customers and importantly, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) uses it to organize and process its cases, to manage and control the high volume of employment-based and non-immigration applications. Because of this, Z&A has become the first immigration law firm to operate using the same client-relations system and process cases using a procedure similar to the USCIS. The new system enables Z&A to prepare and organize clients’ legal documents more efficiently and meet USCIS’s requirements. It has streamlined the communication between Z&A and USCIS. Moreover, whenever USCIS issues a request or inquiry on a case, the same Siebel system enables Z&A to respond to USCIS’s request promptly and figure any problem in the shortest time.
A substantial portion of clients of Z&A are professionals with advanced degrees in all kinds of fields. Attorneys in Z&A have helped thousands of clients get green card through categories of National interest waiver (NIW), EB1 or PERM. These clients prefer email communications and electronic documents in the process of case preparation. Immigration process may take a couple of years, even more for some clients. Well-structured and –organized communication becomes very important for both the clients and attorneys. Another beneficial aspect of Siebel CRM is that it allows the attorneys to keep track of their clients' accounts through logs of interactions between the client and the attorney, documenting of the progress of cases, records of any relevant developments regarding the cases, and reminders of what steps to take next. For example, the Siebel system can automatically import emails for a client, and remind the attorney when a task comes up with a case. This further betters the service we provide to our clients, as we have logs of all the telephone and e-mail conversations saved in Siebel, making it easy to look up those conversations.
During the initial two months, the firm spent most of its time uploading over two thousand cases, fifteen hundred clients, and ten thousand potential clients to update our Siebel system. This made it difficult to see the full potential of Siebel and its effects. Over the last five months, Z&A has been able to truly realize the positive effects of the system. A major benefit of the system is the quick and accurate service we have been able to provide to our clients. Before using Siebel, all of the case, contact and client information are contained in a physical file, making it necessary to find the physical file to look for specific information. With Siebel CRM, instead of having to shuffle through papers and looking through storage for a client’s file, with just a few keystrokes, the client’s whole record comes up on Siebel. Furthermore, with the Siebel system, all of our attorneys and supporting staff can access the contact information, the case information and even documents relating to the case from any location around the world. This is especially helpful when an attorney is out of town, but he/she needs to access a client’s profile to give the client a quick response.
By accessing the case information in a matter of seconds, our attorneys are able to communicate that information to the clients in a few minutes and can answer the client’s questions and concerns immediately. This efficiency has increased the satisfaction of our clients, as they are able to receive the information they want immediately and do not have to take a great deal of time out of the day on their case.
One of the most important aspects of Siebel is the ability to set tasks and its calendar feature. Attorneys have the ability to create tasks relating to each client’s case and assign a due date for the task. This enables our attorneys to clearly outline what needs to be done and when for the client and ensures that it will be done on time. In the end, this provides our client’s with the best service and helps us receive a positive outcome for their cases.
Siebel CRM also allows the firm to implement safeguards which help our clients. At Z&A we have a supervising attorney reviewing and double-checking each case before it is sent out to the USCIS. This is important because even the smallest error can be detrimental to the petition process. With Siebel, the supervising attorney is able to access case information as easily as the attorney working on the case, enhancing our ability to double check the case. This gives the firm and its clients peace of mind as well as increases positive outcomes.
Being spread across three cities makes it difficult to communicate and possess all the information regarding cases or clients. However, with Siebel the thirty-two member Z&A team connects all team members, hence increasing the quality of service that our firm can provides to the clients. With Siebel CRM's central database, the firm has provided an avenue for the attorneys and supporting staff to work together seamlessly as a single team united for the benefit of our clients, making it seem like all of our members are in the same location.
Z&A will continue to use Siebel CRM as well as other cutting edge technologies, as they are in the best interest of the clients. Working together, we always deliver the best!
(10/24/2006)
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