In this month’s Client Spotlight we spoke with Arya Roe from Wilkins Solicitors. Learn about their work while seeing the success of our collaboration in building their website.
Tell Us About Your Organisation and What It Strives For?
Wilkins solicitors is a very longstanding law firm based in the vales of Aylesbury. The firm itself has been running for around 135 years and had been pioneered by some very experienced solicitors. I have been at Wilkins solicitors for 8 years, however many of my colleagues have been with the firm for many more years than myself!
We offer legal services in Aylesbury and the surrounding areas, and we do all types of legal services including wills and probate, conveyancing, which includes buying and selling properties, family law matters as well as personal injury and civil litigation matters. Overall, we offer our legal services in a traditional manner.
What Is Your Role at Your Organisation and What do You Enjoy Most About It?
My role at Wilkins, first and foremost has always been as a family solicitor, which I have been doing for over 20 years in total. My role involves helping families regarding their family matters which includes meeting with clients, representing them and assisting them at court. As well as this I also have another side to my role, which includes doing tasks to enhance the firm. This is because I am currently the managing partner of the firm, so I care to all types of matters involving the firm’s compliance, whether that’s through complaints or legal matters. I also deal with the firm’s financial regulatory matters and obligations too.
The one thing I have always enjoyed the most is the family law work. I’ve always been a passionate, enthusiastic person but at the same time, thoughtful and conscientious to a person’s situation. In family law, you can deal with some very upsetting matters, which can cause a high level of anxiety. I can always count on myself to be quite an understanding and reassuring person, which helps when it comes to clients being apprehensive. Family law is a stressful topic, so by having someone who is knowledgeable but also thoughtful at the same time, this can be an important skill that can help client’s during a difficult time. Overall, what I enjoy the most is helping clients get an outcome they are satisfied with.
What Challenge Did You Face and Want Framework Digital to Help You With?
While we offer legal services, and we would obviously say that we are experienced and can help the public with this area of work. However, one area that we cannot achieve or implement ourselves, was to get our website to be more modern.
Our previous website was perhaps too traditional, and we wanted to show a more modern look to the world. Our landing page menu bar was also quite cluttered with too many options, which I feel made it hard to get around the website for the public to find what they need.
This meant we needed to find someone who specialised in web design, and we had a professional recommendation from another local law firm who put Framework Digitals name forward. When we had an initial meeting, we were extremely impressed by the ideas as to how we can redesign and revamp our entire website. Framework basically took our old website and completely changed it in regard to the presentation including its style, fonts, information, presentation and the layout of the pages.
A lot of thought has gone into our revamped website, and you can tell by comparing the old website to the new website. The content may be similar, but the actual appearance, theme and presentation is far more modern and certainly eye-catching. The website has become more accessible, and it is now easier for clients to use in terms of functionality and finding information.
Can You Tell us Something That Happened During The Project You Weren’t Expecting?
A nice surprise was being introduced to a different way of managing our website with using the Elementor software. This meant we could have the ability to control our news pages and blog posts a lot easier. We are able to drag and drop photos and articles which provides flexibility and promotes unlimited creativity.
Of course, we are not experts in WordPress but having Elementor alongside this has made it easy. None of us here were aware that this software would significantly improve the management of our new website, however we are now able to use it to update and manage our news and blog posts to put new information and content on our website in a much easier manner.
With the training, most of us who got involved in the website project don’t have a great amount of knowledge in technology and web design however we have been able to pick up how to use Elementor within an hour or two. So, now there are a number of us who can change pages and make content on the website, which is great!
If You Were to Recommend Framework Digital to Someone, What Would You Say?
I would say we have had an amazing and personal experience with Framework from start to finish. The project was very structured and easy to follow, meaning we were able to understand what was going on at every stage of the process.
The visions we had for the website have been followed through and even when we weren’t entirely sure on something, such as how to present information and how to present “our team” page, we had expert feedback and guidance.
For people who are not used to web design or accustomed to what makes a modern website, all the guidance we received was extremely helpful.
The project was carried out seamlessly. We started on a certain date and the project was finished as expected, with lots of meetings and updates along the way, whether that was face-to-face or emails. Of course, Tomas has been great throughout the process. We’re very pleased to have worked with Tomas in particular, he’s been great to get our new website up and running!
Thank you to Arya for participating in our Client Spotlight! If you would like to get involved in our Client Spotlight next month, email amy@frameworkdigital.com
