Category: Technology

Remote Witnessing – Where there’s a Will, there’s a way

Remote Witnessing – Where there’s a Will, there’s a way

Beth Middleton, Solicitor at Brabners has shared her views on the issue of remote witnessing of wills. Unsurprisingly, the demand for new wills during the course of the Covid-19 pandemic has been unprecedented. Whilst this is a positive step by testators to protect their assets, the physical restrictions imposed by the lockdown has created practical […]

Several leading legal services firms get behind new online probate platform, Exizent

New legal technology firm Exizent has confirmed that Countrywide Tax and Trust Corporation, Thursfields Solicitors and Thorntons are excited to digitise probate with Exizent’s platform in its first three months since launch. In September, the Glasgow-based start-up raised £3.6 million in funding to transform the way the legal and financial services industry deals with bereavement […]

Exizent ranked number 3 in TechRound’s prestigious Fintech50

Exizent ranked number 3 in TechRound's prestigious Fintech50

Exizent has been ranked number three in the top 50 Fintech businesses and start-ups in the UK.  TechRound’s Fintech50 ranks fintech businesses and start-ups in the UK for their innovation and contribution to the UK’s fast-growing start-up scene, highlighting the diversity and success in the sector. Glasgow based Exizent – the first ever platform that connects data, services and […]

Technology and Charitable Legacies

Technology and Charitable Legacies

Sue Pedley, Head of Donor Research, Legacy Foresight has shared her views on the impact technology has had on charitable legacies. Many of the charitable legacies received today were first written into wills 10, 15 or 20 years ago. However, as we move further into the 21st- century, the will-making landscape will be very different, […]

Legal firms among the best performers in call waiting time survey

Legal companies are among the best performing businesses for customer care and low call waiting times, according to new research. The survey of 1000 people by leading outsourced comms company Moneypenny revealed that just 6% of survey respondents feel legal firms have poor call handling times – compared with utility companies (33%) doctors (27%), banks (25%) and phone companies (21%).  The best performing businesses of all were estate and letting agents at 5%. The findings also revealed that 85% of people believe UK businesses are blaming long call and live chat wait times on Covid, despite being almost a year into the pandemic. The average wait time for calls and live chat requests was also revealed  - 18% of said they have to wait 1-5 minutes and 23% have to wait 5-10 minutes, while 6% have to wait 45-60 minutes and 19% typically give up waiting altogether. While the survey shows that 55% of people believe some phone delays are acceptable due to Covid  there were some notable sector, age and regional differences. 73% of 16-24 year olds said phone answering delays are acceptable, compared with 45% of over 55 year olds. 61% of those in Greater London said phone answering delays are acceptable, compared with 42% in the North East and 48% in the South East. Welsh customers are most likely to give up waiting for their call to be answered (22%), compared with those least likely to in Yorkshire (12%) and the South East (14%). Bernadette Bennett is the Head of Legal Sector for Moneypenny, which handles calls and live chats for more than 1,000 law firms in the UK. She said: “Since the start of the pandemic we’ve seen a marked increase in the number of legal firms calling on outsourcing call handling and live chat support because they recognise the importance of accessibility for their clients, particularly during such worrying and uncertain times. Improving customer care has been a real priority for legal firms over the last decade so it’s great to see it recognised in these findings.” Group CEO of Moneypenny, Joanna Swash said: “Businesses that say unprecedented demand due to Covid is the reason for long wait times are essentially telling customers they are not important – and our data shows that customers recognise this.  Meeting demand is imperative to business survival, now more than ever. “It’s interesting that legal and property companies were least likely to be mentioned for poor answering times and we know from our clients in these sectors that they prioritise good customer service. However, the survey shows that the pandemic is being used as a scapegoat for poor customer care.” She added: “Even with reduced staff through redundancies and furloughing, there are so many cost effective solutions available to ensure customer calls and live chat can continue, it’s not good enough for companies to reduce service levels an expect customers to be happy.  As businesses open up there is a real danger that customers will vote with their feet and move to a competitor if poor service levels continue.” Moneypenny handles more than 2 million legal calls and live chats each year for more than 1,000 legal firms in the UK, including 60 of the Top 200, thanks to its dedicated team of 60 legal PAs. Established in 2000, Moneypenny is the world's market leader for telephone answering, live chat, outsourced switchboard and customer contact solutions. In total, more than 13,000 businesses across the UK benefit from Moneypenny’s mix of extraordinary people and ground-breaking technology. For more information about Moneypenny’s work with the legal sector, visit: https://www.moneypenny.com/uk/legal-answering-services/ This article was submitted to be published by Moneypenny as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Conveyancer. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Conveyancer.

Legal companies are among the best performing businesses for customer care and low call waiting times, according to new research. The survey of 1000 people by leading outsourced comms company Moneypenny revealed that just 6% of survey respondents feel legal firms have poor call handling times – compared with utility companies (33%) doctors (27%), banks […]

Technology in the Wills & Probate Sector

Technology in the Wills & Probate Sector

The Probate sector has historically leant more towards traditional processes and practices as its preferred method of operation. However, 2020 certainly shook things up and, I think it is fair to say, we all now know that technology is the key to thriving in the future. This article looks at some of the tech your […]

Using technology to retain your competitive edge

Using technology to retain your competitive edge

Charlotte Ponder TEP, Legal Director for Countrywide Tax & Trust Corporation, has shared her view on technology with the Today’s Wills and Probate readers. In the legal sector, competition and client expectations have risen dramatically. Clients expect more, and have an increasing number of options as to where to take their business. In order to […]

Key considerations for the implementation of new technology

Key considerations for the implementation of new technology

This article has been written by Pippa Shepherd who is the Head of Customer Engagement at Arken.legal (UK) Ltd and a board member of the UKLTA. Pippa joined Arken in 2018 to lead the sales, marketing and customer success functions. The implementation of any technology can be daunting. However, as we have seen with COVID-19 […]

Using technology to plan effectively

Using technology to plan effectively

It can be seen that technology is no doubt becoming of more importance within the wills and probate sector. Many people use will writing software which not only assists with the creation of the will but also offers fail safes to will writers ensuring that information is obtained and that issues are not missed. It […]

Technology in the Wills & Probate Sector

Technology in the Wills & Probate Sector

Jade Gani, Solicitor & Head of Private Client as Aston Bond Law Ltd, has shared her insight with Today’s Wills and Probate about technology in the sector. The Probate sector has historically leant more towards traditional processes and practices as its preferred method of operation. However, 2020 certainly shook things up and, I think it […]

10,000 credit pack now available at Alpha Legal

Price drop at Alpha Legal

We’ve listened to our larger Alpha Legal will writing clients and made a new 10,000 credit pack available in the online shop. This brings the price of each credit down to only 4p! What does this mean for Alpha Legal users sending forms to their clients? a basic ID request (with one form of photo […]

Moneypenny launches outbound calling service for law firms

Moneypenny launches outbound calling service for law firms

Leading outsourced communications provider Moneypenny has launched an Outbound Calling service for the legal sector – to help firms save time and capture more leads.  The new service can be used to qualify conveyancing enquiries, handle inbound leads for personal injury and other claims, and contact wills and probate and lasting powers of attorney clients […]

Responding to a Cyber Security Breach

Responding to a Cyber Security Breach

Continuing with our compliance theme, Matthew Locker, a Cyber Security Consultant at Apstorm has shared his ideas on how law firms can remain compliant in the modern world. The legal sector is rich in sensitive data and financial transactions, unfortunately, this makes it an attractive target for many cyber actors including, criminals, activists and possibly […]

Alpha Legal – Major Update – Live!

Alpha Legal - Major Update – Live!

The Alpha Legal team at Start Software have published their first major update and all Alpha Legal subscribers now have access to the new features. Building on the success of the ID, bank account details and COVID questionnaire forms in the first release, the new update brings two new features which have been requested by […]

Passwords, Phishing and the Dark Web

Passwords, Phishing and the Dark Web

Matthew Locker, a Cyber Security Consultant at Apstorm has shared his ideas on how practitioners can remain compliant in the modern world. In today’s digital society, passwords have become a necessary evil and are the guardians of some of our most important information, e.g. online retail, banking, email accounts, customer contact databases, social media platforms, […]

Clients need out of hours access, but don’t expect firms to respond

The latest industry roundtables from Today’s Wills & Probate and Today’s Conveyancer have focused on the way in which technology has helped law firms to cope with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. In many ways, the pandemic has forced a rethink of the way in which the customer interacts with businesses and those who […]

Customer experience is the next competitive battle ground

Customer experience is the next competitive battle ground. It’s where business is going to be won or lost! We all understand how important good customer service is.  Customers who experience poor customer service find it easier than ever to share their experience with social media and the Internet to let the whole world know. However […]

Communication is KEY

Good communication is key to having a successful business and so how we choose to communicate with our clients is vital. Recently, at Countrywide Tax & Trust Corporation Ltd we wanted to build a new, safe, compliant and efficient method for a 2- way communication system between ourselves and our clients. We needed to partner with […]

Fraser and Fraser: creating a successful webinar programme in strange times

Fraser and Fraser: creating a successful webinar programme in strange times

The pandemic and the ensuing lockdown were challenging for all sorts of organisations, for all sorts of reasons. For probate research firm Fraser and Fraser one of the issues was how we could stay in touch with our solicitor and paralegal clients and contacts when face-to-face interactions were out of the question. One way we […]