When a potential client contacts your law firm – whether by phone, email or by filling out the contact form on your website – what happens next? Is there an intake specialist in your firm that answers their questions? Is there any follow-up with them?
If you have an assistant who responds to messages, is the contact converting leads into clients? If not, these efforts are ineffective, and you are unlikely to hear from the lead again.
Failing to take the opportunity to engage with somebody who has made an effort to reach out to your law firm is a significant loss. Creating a system and training an intake specialist that focuses on how to nurture leads and make them feel important to you is critical to growing your business.
Between Contact and Becoming a Client
Your attorneys work hard to prove themselves knowledgeable, skilled, and trustworthy. When somebody shows interest in retaining your law firm, it means you have somehow gained their attention. But that isn’t enough. Your firm must meet the potential client at least halfway and show your interest in them after they contact you.
Why is follow up so important? The legal field is highly competitive. If you fail to follow up with a lead, they will likely retain your competitor or decide they don’t need a lawyer. Dealing with a lawsuit can be scary and overwhelming for many people, so your support is crucial in helping them take the next step and file a lawsuit.
Nurturing your leads not only creates a good impression by showing you provide quality client service, but it also keeps you on top of their minds.
Hiring a Legal Intake Specialist
Many attorneys wonder if it is necessary to hire an intake specialist. If you consider how busy your paralegals and assistants are with their current tasks, adding intake to their workload would be overwhelming. Additionally, if you are serious about intake, it should be the top priority of the person handling it for your firm.
Hiring an intake specialist is a critical step in closing more leads and growing your business. The intake specialist should answer the firm telephone and respond to all online inquiries. They must follow up with leads and also assist people in completing the intake process.
Follow-up Strategies
Robocalls have become such a nuisance that people have stopped answering their phones. Leaving a voice mail for your leads is a reasonable strategy, but it is not enough. Thus, it is essential to implement a system for following up with leads by different methods.
Your intake specialist should always request the lead’s cell phone number and contact them with a text providing their name and requesting a good time for a telephone call. This text provides the lead with the telephone number to expect when the call is placed, making it more likely they will answer.
Even if the lead does not respond to the text, your intake specialist should also follow up with a call. Hopefully, the text message will assist the lead’s cell phone in identifying your firm as the caller with a “may be law firm name” message. If this call is not answered, your lead specialist should leave a voicemail requesting a convenient time to talk.
Lastly, your intake specialist should send an email to the lead if no phone conversation occurs. The email can be simple and merely request a time to schedule a talk.
Depending on how the lead responds to any of the above attempts to be contacted, your intake specialist should continue to follow up using all available methods until contact has been made. Once contact is made, your intake specialist should assist them with the intake process and with formally retaining your firm.
How The Rainmaker Institute Can Help
Your digital presence is crucial in generating and converting leads. You have worked hard to get where you are, so learn to use technology to your advantage so you can enjoy the fruits of your labor more often while also generating new clients!
The Rainmaker Institute manages your legal marketing so you can focus on lawyering. We can set-up live chat services and improve your website. We will provide content that contains top legal focus keywords, proper page titles, appropriate meta descriptions, target length of content, and images that will boost your attractiveness to Google.
If you are ready to take your law firm to the next level and see your lead conversions improve, we can help. Whether you choose to attend one of our live events or you want a free, confidential consultation, we are here to help!
