Manny Griffiths:
Consumers expect a lot of communication today because they have been treated so well from Fortune 500 companies with good tech.
Chris Dreyer:
Your clients track packages, flights and food. Their personal injury case should be the same.
Manny Griffiths:
One of the terrible things about client experience in this space is...
Chris Dreyer:
Welcome to Personal Injury Mastermind, powered by Rankings.io. I'm Chris Dreyer. If you want happier clients, stronger demands and fewer operational fires, you're in the right place.
Manny Griffiths:
Automate the redundant to empower the personal.
Chris Dreyer:
Today, I'm talking with Manny Griffiths, co-founder and CEO of Hona. His team built the closest thing to the Domino's-style tracker for personal injury cases, and firms using it are seeing fewer client interruptions and stronger non-economic damages. Let's get into it.
The hidden cost of inconsistent client communication and why it weakens trust, damages, and case outcomes
Manny Griffiths:
I'm Manny Griffiths. I'm co-founder and CEO of Hona. I've been in the legal tech space for nine years, but I was thinking about going to law school. And so, my friend was working for a case management software company out of Utah, and he was like, "Well, if you want to get into legal, you should come work in tech for a little bit and learn the industry"."Oh, I actually really love the tech side, I also love legal, but I think I'm going to stick around here”.
Chris Dreyer:
Let's bring it up to date. What was the reasoning for the founding of Hona? Did you see this dearth, this poor communication that was just driving you nuts? Tell me the story of how it came about.
Manny Griffiths:
I actually had customers ask me for better communication, they asked for a Domino's pizza tracker for their cases, and so I had that in the back of my head, like, why do clients want this? And then my wife, she was my fiancee at the time, she got in a car accident, and so we hired a personal injury firm, and pretty soon, I was on the phone asking for status updates and it clicked, okay, this is why law firms are asking for that tool.
Consumers expect a lot of communication today because they have been treated so well from Fortune 500 companies with good tech. So you pull up your Uber app and you see exactly where the car is, it's texting you back and forth. You know what vehicle it is, you know the license plate. You have a code when you get in, so you get in the car and they're like, "What's the code?" So people are used to this kind of tech, and so they'll go have a service, like a personal injury case, their expectations have been raised. And so, what happens is someone will get into a case, or they'll sign up with a law firm, and then they're like, "Why don't I know everything about the case? Why don't I know who I'm working with, what the next steps are, how it works, how long this is going to take?" A thing from the past 10 years is sending them a welcome letter that explains this, but it's just not enough today.
And so, what happens is these clients will call in and they'll ask all these questions, because they're scraping and they're reaching to get that information. So the people that feel the most pain at the firm is not the attorneys usually, it's usually the case manager, because they're getting all these calls, and it's 20 minutes here, 15 minutes there, and they're struggling to get their work done. And it's not that they don't want to talk to the client, because that's super important, but it's that there's this burden that people want more.
Chris Dreyer:
Every time a client wonders what has happened with their case, your team pays for it. When updates are irregular, clients assume the case has stalled, and the team is forced into constant catch-up. That cycle burns bandwidth and kills momentum. The bigger problem is what you miss. Treatment is where the story of pain, impact and disruption is actually happening. If no one is collecting that information in a structured way, you lose the details that drive non-economic damages. Those details are the difference between a basic offer and a strong settlement. When you don't track the client's experience as it unfolds, you leave money on the table.
How weekly pain journals help clients document treatment impact and strengthen settlement value
Manny Griffiths:
During the treatment phase, there's a lot of information that attorneys never collect, because a lot of times, they're just like, "I'll let them get treatment, I'll follow up every few weeks to make sure they're getting treatment." But there's this huge component of non-economic damages that really boost settlement values and can increase immediately what you're demanding for your case that they just never hear about.
So something in our tool that is popular is they're calling it pain journaling. It's essentially a questionnaire that you send and you can set it up recurring. Most of our firms do it once a week, they'll send it on a Sunday night, so all their clients in treatment will get this form and it's like, "Hey, how's your pain been this week? What have you missed? Is there something that you haven't been able to do because of your injury? Do you play piano and you haven't been able to because your wrist hurts, or did you miss a family function?" And so, they're collecting all this information week-after-week, call it 20 weeks or however long it is, 50 weeks where they're doing treatment, and now your firm has 50 pain journals with all this stuff that they've missed. And you can put that directly in your demand letter and just really boost the non-economic demand.
That is huge for firms, and it's something that they're just not collecting. So it's cool for two reasons. One, it's engaging your client, they feel like they're involved with the case. And two, they're collecting invaluable information so that they can demand more for their case. So that is really revolutionizing what's happening with personal injury cases.
Chris Dreyer:
So let's talk about Hona. Why not just use Clio Grow, Elite Docket, Salesforce, whatever? Where are the deficiencies and why don't the CRMs just add more client relationship components to their CRMs?
Why most case management systems fail at client-facing communication and what PI firms can do instead
Manny Griffiths:
So the way that we view it is the case management software is where you and your team are collaborating on the case, it's the internal structure. Hona is the communication layer that's external-facing. So we're really tight-knit with the case management software.
Chris Dreyer:
The other thing that you mentioned that I think is a cool feature is the automated drip campaign perspective. So you come in and you could set it up however you want, I guess, I guess you have some defaults, but the welcome letter and those things that are repeatable that you mentioned. It makes me think of when you go to the barber and you get a few good haircuts, and then you get a bad one, you may not go to that barber again. So some attorneys may be following the checklist manifesto and doing this, but then some remember and they just don't do it, I think the automation creates that consistency of an experience that's nice too.
Manny Griffiths:
People get anxious when they haven't heard something, and a lot of times, as a firm, you almost get defensive when someone calls you, because you're like, "Well, nothing's happened. Why would I talk to you?" But people want to know that something hasn't happened, which is so funny. But that's how good technology and services are in this day and age, that you know when there isn't anything. So we call it, that's something that our tool does, is the non-update update. You could set up like, hey, if nothing's happened in 10 business days, let's shoot them this text that says, "Hey, still working on things. We haven't heard back from this person, but we'll be in touch soon." And when a customer gets that text message or a push notification on their phone, it just eases their anxiety. They're like, "Oh, okay," and then they're willing to wait another 10 or 14 days. So that helps keep people appeased, I guess, as they're going through their case.
Chris Dreyer:
Nowadays, you've got WhatsApp and Telegram and Slack and text and phone and email, what are the mediums that you communicate on with Hona?
Manny Griffiths:
Yeah. So our core product, which is this robust portal that communicates through the case, is actually built on text message-based. And our theory behind that is that people have become so accustomed to text messages, when a trigger happens, like a task is complete or you change the phase from two to three or whatever it is, they'll get a text message with a link, and they click the link and it goes into just a web browser, so it's so easy. We also have an app in the iOS and Android store that someone could get if they want. But we find that people are just so used to texting, and so that's a really easy way. They save the firm contact, "Hey, you're working with X law firm," and they click it and they're back in the portal learning about the case, watching videos, et cetera, on what's happening. So that's the mode that it comes through.
Chris Dreyer:
Clients track everything they buy. They expect the same experience when they reach out to a firm. Intake is where you win or lose the first impression. This is why tools like these matter. They make the process engaging, predictable and transparent from the very first click.
How firms use Hona to unify client phone numbers, simplify intake, and reduce unnecessary inbound calls
Manny Griffiths:
We release tools that into this intake sphere. One of them is a really cool website intake bot that's really engaging, it pulls people in, it uses video and logic forms to pull people in and make sure that they're converting. So with Rankings.io, you're all about getting people more leads to their website, and that's a great business, super needed. We want to convert those leads at the highest clip possible. It's essentially a form fill that makes it seem like a chat. If someone fills out the form on the chat, it will text you with a phone number.
Now, if you sign up with that firm, then they'll start using Hona during the case process, it's going to be from the same phone number. One of the terrible things about client experience in this space is that a client will receive several phone numbers throughout the whole customer journey, so they'll get one at intake, they'll get one at case, then they'll get another text message from a different software tool they use. So we're trying to consolidate and bring those into one phone number, so it's consistency throughout the whole process.
Chris Dreyer:
Got it, got it, that's interesting. Yeah, because you've got all the call rails and the different trackers and swaps and dynamic phone numbers. I think from a client perspective though, it would be better if they had the one that, like you said, plugged into their phone.
Manny Griffiths:
Absolutely. That's what we're going for is consistency throughout the whole journey.
Chris Dreyer:
Clients expect visibility. They expect real-time updates and a clear look at what's happening in their case, and you deserve the same care for your marketing agency. That's where Rankings.io comes in. We're with you every step of the way to the top. I'm Chris Dreyer, CEO of Rankings.io. Hit subscribe so PIM delivers straight to your phone. I'll see you Thursday.
