Liz Granville-Sharpe, the Marketing and Business development coordinator at Bonallack and Bishop Solicitors. Liz explains why Bonallack and Bishop chose to use DigitalMeeting, how they implemented the service and what the outcome has been.

In the Beginning

It was through the persistence of Richard Butler attending our non virtual seminars, meeting and calling us with follow ups that we finally came to use DigitalMeeting.
We were convinced by the ease of use, the simple layout and the possibilities to use, the service, not only with online seminars but with our clients to go through documents online and make amendments in real-time to reduce costs and speed up delivery. This was particularly helpful for clients abroad.

The DigitalMeeting Webinars

It is an excellent tool for us to connect with our business clients on a regular basis without anyone having to leave the office. Hiring a venue, paying for refreshments, paying staff and the figure spent on travel accumulates to a considerable amount. You can also feel you are bearing all the cost ultimately for other businesses to network with each other. By using DigitalMeeting you have a captive audience who you can sell directly or indirectly to depending on your style.
Our initial trials of DigitalMeeting were using it for online seminars (webinars). One of the solicitors had to present for 15-20 minutes with a slide presentation on a particular topic of law, which was ‘internet and distant selling regulations’. This presentation went on for about 45 minutes although advertised as a short presentation not taking up much time. The 2nd presentation lasted 30mins, slightly better. Breaking a very complex subject down into something bite size was proving difficult. Our third was shorter and had 2 speakers. This worked very well and made the presentation sound less like a lecture. Our most recent webinar on ‘Avoid Sickness Absence’ was so successful that the Solicitor delivering this wants to do a regular monthly spot.

The Support from the DigitalMeeting Team

We were given a lot of support from Richard Butler and Neil Johnstone for all three webinars which was invaluable as it was quite nerve racking for the speakers to not only speak but to work the controls. When we have called with any query we have always had a fast response and the issues resolved promptly. We were delighted with the improvements made to editing the recordings and viewing our account online. We would happily and have recommended Technilink to many of our business colleagues.

Internal Meetings

With anything new there is always resistance but we have slowly rolled out DigitalMeeting across our Wills and Probate team who are spread across 3 offices. They normally meet once a month but had wanted a way of meeting in between times for a brief session to discuss any particular issues they may be having. DigitalMeeting is an ideal way for them to do that. One of the Solicitors was so impressed that he asked if we could reduce the monthly meetings and instead have a DigitalMeeting with an occasional face to face get together. This is something we would like to encourage as lunch, involving several people travelling, the travel time and the cost of lunch itself is not cost effective.

Our next step is to extend this form of meeting to the Family and Civil Litigation departments.

Liz Granville-Sharpe
Marketing and Business development coordinator
Bonallack and Bishop Solicitors