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      How to setup and configure pre-meeting email notifications

      This article will outline how to turn on and configure pre-meeting notifications for yourself, or others in the firm.

      In this article:

      Background
      Example of a pre-meeting notification
      What information is provided
      Practical benefits
      Who should you setup first
      How to setup and configure the pre-meeting notifications
      How a lawyer / accountant can make their own changes
      FAQs and Troubleshooting

      Background

      Pre-meeting notifications (sometimes referred to as a pre-meeting digest, pre-meeting summary or a taxi report), are a summary that your lawyers / accountants can receive ahead of their external meetings, outlining information about who they are meeting with and their other connections at the firm.   

      These notifications can be set to automatically arrive at a pre-determined amount of time before any external meetings.

      Notifications are received as an internal email. Most lawyers or accountants will already have firm email on their smart phone, so this not only ensures that the information included in the digest remains within your firm's IT security environment, but it also removes the need for your lawyers or accountants to download, install and log into a dedicated App to benefit from these notifications. 

      Example of a pre-meeting notification

      Below is a static representation of what your lawyers or accountants would receive ahead of an external meeting, once you have enabled pre-meeting notifications for them:

      Client Sense - Pre-meeting notification - Client Meeting Example from Outlook - Page 1Client Sense - Pre-meeting notification - Client Meeting Example from Outlook - Page 2

      You can see an interactive version of this example here.


      What information is provided

      The information included in the pre-meeting notifications includes:

      Meeting Information

      • Meeting Subject (as it appears in the Outlook calendar appointment)
      • Meeting location (which may be a physical location or an online meeting location)
      • A list of the other attendees (this includes all external attendees plus any other attendees from your firm that are included in the Outlook invite)

      Company Information

      • Company Name (this lists each of the Companies that will have attendees in the upcoming meeting)
      • Company Website (this provides a hyperlink to the website for each of the companies with attendees included)

      Attendee information

      • First and Last Name (which is automatically collected and updated through Client Sense)
      • Title (the job title as collected and updated by Client Sense through the scanning of email signature blocks). More information on email signature privacy and security here.
      • Email Address (the email address of the attendee as used for the meeting invite). 

      Clicking an email address within the notification will start an email to the attendee, which can be useful if running late or needing to make contact ahead of the meeting.

      • Telephone number(s) (where captured through email signature analysis or manually entered in the Client Sense system)

      On most smart phones, these telephone numbers should become hyperlinks that can be clicked to initiate a call directly from the pre-meeting notification.

      • LinkedIn profile (where captured through email signature analysis or manually entered in the Client Sense system.

      This link will either open the LinkedIn App (if installed on the lawyer's / accountant's smart phone) or it will launch the LinkedIn website.   

      The lawyer / accountant will be directed to the attendee's LinkedIn profile where it has been captured through email signature analysis, otherwise if not, the link will launch a LinkedIn search for the attendee.
      • Notes from your last meeting with ... (if meeting notes had been entered for the last meeting where the specific lawyer / accountant receiving the pre-meeting notification last met with the attendee, those notes will be shown here.) 

      Notes from meetings that others in the firm had with this attendee which did not include the lawyer / accountant receiving the pre-meeting notification, will not be shown. This is by design and to reduce the risk of exposing any sensitivities that other meeting notes may include.

      • Firm contact since your last meeting with ... (lists the people from the firm that have had email communication or in-person meetings with attendee in the time since the lawyer / accountant receiving the notification had a scheduled meeting with the attendee.)

      TIP: These firm employees are sorted from top to bottom based on the greatest amount of contact in that time and is limited to the first 5 people according to the most amount of communication. 

      Practical benefits of the pre-meeting notifications

      It goes without saying that "who knows who" is certainly not always apparent. Arming your lawyers / accountant with up-to-date and relevant information right as they need it, can often result in some of the following benefits:  

      • A lawyer / accountant will not always be aware the existing relationships a client or prospect has with the firm

      It does happen:

      Lawyer / Accountant: "We would like to work with you. We as a firm could provide you with a range of services, establishing a true partnership that aligns with your business needs."

      Client: "I am not sure if you talk to each other at your firm, but we already work with a range of other partners and groups at your firm."

      OR

      Lawyer / Accountant: "We are willing to do what it takes to get your business. We see you as a strategic and key client."

      Prospect: "We have had others from your firm in last week pitching the same thing. You should talk to each other."   

      • Knowing who already knows the people you want to work with can provide you with valuable insights

      Lawyer / Accountant: "John, I am meeting with Michael and Lisa from company X tomorrow and the system says you know them?"

      John: Yes, I have known Lisa for many years, more recently Michael. Lisa is the decision maker, and she is really focused on...  

      OR

      Lawyer / Accountant: "John, I am meeting with Michael and Lisa from company X tomorrow and the system says you know them?"

      John: Yes, although for whatever reason we got off on the wrong foot, so it wouldn't help to mention me. I know them to be price sensitive and they do tend to try shop around, so try to avoid giving too much away without some commitment from them.

      Lawyer / Accountant "That's good to know, glad I asked."

      • A lateral partner starts with the firm, they need to prove their worth and generate new business, but can't possibly be expected to know what existing relationships the firm holds
      • The firm can provide much more consolidated and united approach with clients, referrers and prospects. 

      Who should you setup first

      Initially we would recommend you turn the notifications on for yourself, so that you can see how they work and what they look like.

      This not only helps you to explain to others how the pre-meeting notifications work and appear, but it will also help you to make a better and more informed decision on who else in the firm may benefit from this feature.

      Please be aware that as simple and powerful as these pre-meeting notifications may appear to you, you should not assume that all client-facing lawyers or accountants will use or be interested in receiving them. True!

      The lawyers / accountants we would recommend starting with are:

      • Those you know are actively meeting with prospective businesses
      • Those that are actively meeting with existing clients and interested in client development
      • Those you know who need to develop new business and relationships but seem to be nervous / unsure about making a mistake / "putting their foot in it"
      • Lateral partners or those new to the firm

      How to enable pre-meeting notifications

      You can setup pre-meeting notifications for yourself or others. The process will be the same in either instance. 

      These notifications are not on by default, they need to be turned on for each person that wishes to receive them. Each recipient will need to be assigned a Relationship Manager license.


      1. Click on Relationship Management

      2. Click on Settings

      3. Click on Relationship Managers

      4. Click on + Add Relationship Manager

      You can skip this step and progress to Step 7 if the person is already in this list of Relationship Managers

       

      5. Select the person you would like to add

      If the person does not appear in the list, you will need to check with your IT Department to confirm they are targeted in the correct Active Directory group 'Client Sense Relationship Managers'

       

      6. Click Save

       

      7. Click either the red Off button (or the green On button) for the person you want to setup

      8. Switch the Email Notifications option to On if not already on

      9. Click on Pre Meeting

      10. Under Day of - minutes before meeting, choose the amount of time that the pre-meeting notification should be sent ahead of each external meeting.

      11. Optionally, you can also set the Day before - time for any external meetings that are scheduled for the next day. 

      Leaving this as Don't send email will mean no pre-meeting notification will be sent on the day of each meeting.

      For clarity, the Day before - time sets the time of day that you would like to have pre-meeting notification arrive with information about the meeting(s) set for the following day.

      Setting this to 5pm would mean that if a meeting is scheduled for Tuesday at 10am, a pre-meeting notification will be sent on Monday at 5pm. This option can be set independently to the Day-of notifications, meaning you could choose to receive a notification at 5pm on the Monday and then again at 9am (1 hour before) a 10am meeting on a Tuesday. 

      Each notification is generated with the most current information available at the time it is sent. This implies that the notification sent at 9am on Tuesday may contain more recent information than the 5pm notification on Monday, reflecting any updates or changes in contact details or other relevant data that occurred in the interim.

       

      12. Click Save

      How a lawyer or accountant can make their own changes

      If a lawyer or accountant is already a Relationship Manager, they will have access to their own Relationship Management section of Client Sense and can change their own pre-meeting settings.

      To do this they will need to:

      1. Access their Relationship Management page

      2. Click on the Notification Settings

      3. Click on the Pre Meeting option


      4. Make their changes in the same way (steps 10 and 11) and then select Save

      Note: You will both see the same settings. Any changes made will automatically reflect in the settings for both of you.

       

      FAQs and Troubleshooting

      • Email notifications (by design) will only be delivered for meetings which have at least one external recipient. A pre-meeting notification will not be sent for an internal meeting where only people from the firm are invited.
      • If you are in doubt that pre-meeting notifications are working, you can send yourself (or the particular lawyer / accountant) an Invite email as a test. You can do this by clicking on the email icon next to their name under Relationship Management. This list of Relationship Managers is under Relationship Management, Settings and Relationship Managers. If a Client Sense invite notification is not received, please confirm with your IT team that Client Sense email notifications are enabled, or the emails are not being blocked.