Evaluating Your Firm’s Digital Efficiency: 3 Metrics to Look At

Your firm invested in tech to reduce administrative work, speed up communication, and improve visibility into case progress. But without tracking results, it’s hard to know whether those tools are making a difference.

Measuring digital efficiency helps you get more out of your investment. It also improves client service and billing accuracy and creates a less stressful work environment that supports staff retention.

Explore three simple metrics that give you a clearer picture of your firm’s performance and how backdocket’s law firm practice management software makes it easier to see what’s working and where to improve.

Metric #1: Client Response Time

Client response time measures how quickly your team replies to questions or requests via email, phone, or through a client portal. It reflects how responsive and accessible your firm feels to clients.

• Why It’s Important: Delayed replies frustrate clients and lead to more follow-ups. Quick communication builds trust and keeps cases moving.
  
• How to Calculate It: Look at a sample of recent messages. Note the date when each was received and when your team replied. Add the response times together and divide by the number of messages. (Example: You collect three response times at 2 hours, 4 hours, and 3.5 hours. The average is 3.2 hours.)

A standard benchmark is four business hours. If your team routinely takes longer, it’s time to investigate where delays occur.

Metric #2: Billable Hour Capture Rate

This metric shows how much of your time is invoiced. It helps you understand whether daily tasks like calls, emails, and drafting are logged and billed.

• Why It’s Important: Time that isn’t recorded, like checking case updates or preparing for a meeting, adds up over the week. When that work goes unbilled, your firm misses out on revenue for tasks completed.

• How to Calculate It: Divide the number of hours billed by the total number of hours worked. (Example: You work 40 hours and bill 30. The capture rate is 75%.)

A healthy capture rate is between 60% and 80%. If it’s consistently lower, your team could benefit from an automated system to help monitor and record work in real-time.

Metric #3: Case Progression Velocity

Case progression velocity measures how efficiently a case moves through your workflow, from intake to final resolution. It highlights bottlenecks and shows whether cases are staying active.

• Why It’s Important: Slow-moving cases tie up resources and delay billing. Identifying delays helps improve workflows and set better expectations.
  
• How to Calculate It: Choose a few recent cases. Record how long each took from start to finish, then calculate the average. (Example: Three cases closed in 5, 6, and 7 months. Your average is 6 months.)

Benchmarks vary by practice area. For instance, a car accident claim might resolve faster than a medical malpractice lawsuit, but the goal is consistent forward motion. If cases sit too long at any stage, it’s time to reassess your process.

Tips for Putting These Metrics Into Practice

Once you’ve chosen the metrics you want to track, the next step is making them part of your routine. Try these tips to get started:

• Start With One Metric: Choose the area causing the most stress or confusion, whether it’s delayed responses, unclear billing, or backed-up cases. Focus on that first area before adding others.
  
• Use Short Timeframes: Review a week or two of data. Smaller samples are easier to manage and still reveal patterns worth addressing.
  
• Assign Someone to Monitor Them: Whether it’s a practice manager or team lead, make sure someone owns the task of checking and reporting on the numbers regularly.
  
• Create a Feedback Loop: Share what you learn with your team. If response times improve or case timelines shorten, discuss why and keep the momentum going.
  

When gathering data becomes part of your everyday workflow, you’ll be able to notice problems early and make targeted improvements.

How Practice Management Tools Help

Backdocket makes it easier to measure digital efficiency without adding extra work. It gathers valid data in the background and turns it into actionable insights.

Turn features into results:

With backdocket, you don’t have to guess what’s working or what needs attention. You know exactly where to take action.

Simplify Digital Performance With Backdocket

It’s hard to make decisions when you don’t have a reliable view of your firm’s operations. Backdocket connects daily activity to measurable results without creating more work for your team.

Monitor how quickly your team responds to clients, capture more billable time, and oversee case progress from intake through resolution. Instead of piecing together information from different systems, you have one place to review progress and identify what needs attention.

Schedule a demo today to see how backdocket helps you measure digital performance and make data-driven improvements across your firm.